Improving the Traffic Light

There's a saying: "tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are."

In motoring the question could be altered a bit: "tell me what cars you prefer and I will tell you if you are the type to beat the traffic light."

Of course, I can't be too sure. But what I do know is that some people really have a tendency to beat the red light. To determine if you are one of them, ask yourself this question:

When the yellow light flashes and you are relatively near the intersection, will you slow down or speed up?

The answer will obviously vary depending on the person since everyone has different driving habits. Others are more relaxed and reserved while others, myself included, have a continuing sense of urgency.

Chances are, I am the type who would try to beat a red light if I feel that I could make it. I don't think about beating the light. If I was already at the edge of the intersection, by instinct, I would speed up once the yellow light flashes.

I guess I value time a lot. If I could save some time, I would: and beating the red light would certainly save a few minutes if you do beat it.

If you don't, you lose more time explaining your actions to the cop that pulled you over. But despite that risk, I still find myself trying to beat the light if I felt that I could make it.

I admit that there is some danger involved with such an impulsive action. But it is precisely the fact that the action is based on impulse that I would, time and tie again, catch myself trying to beat the light. As mentioned, it's the instinct of someone who always feels in a hurry.

But then again, It's not just me. Many others share the same sense of urgency. I don't know but maybe that ADHD thing could be true.

People don't think about it. It just happens when the situation presents itself: the situation where you feel confident that you could make it through.

I am not trying to justify the action. What I am simply saying is that it will always happen anytime anywhere.

However, I do feel that this tendency of trying to beat the light could be managed better than the red light camera ticketing system.

I think that the best way to manage beating the light is to have traffic lights that counted down. Instead of a solid green light, the traffic signal could display a green number counting down to zero. So if the green light was around 20 seconds, the light would start from twenty and count down all the way to one. And then the yellow light would count down from 5 seconds down to one etc.

In that case, drivers would know exactly what time they have left.

Some may say that it will encourage speeding up when the yellow lights flash. But then again, the driver trying to beat the light would be more certain that he could make it before the red light because that driver would be able to judge the time left more accurately.

In addition, the 'counting down' traffic light would also convince the other drivers to simply just slow down and stop if they see that there really is no chance of making it. Numbers, as they say, are very hard to refute.

I really think that counting down traffic lights could be good.