We have traffic lights for three reasons: to allow pedestrians to cross a road safely, to prevent vehicle collisions, and to allow travel to merge in an equitable way that limits congestion.
“Pedestrian lights” are well-known, and extremely useful. They are better than a zebra crossing in places where there are a lot of pedestrians (the road would otherwise grind to a halt) and in places where traffic moves too quickly for people to be willing to step out without the security of “the little green man”. These sorts of lights are important and are not the focus of my proposal today.
Some traffic lights exist to prevent collisions, where one car would not be able to see another in time to stop. Britain has many “blind bends”. These sorts of lights are also not my focus.
Most traffic lights exist to facilitate traffic flow, by ensuring that traffic from each direction “gets a turn”. A classic example, familiar to anyone, are the traffic lights on large roundabouts. I live near the A3-A240 junction at Tolworth – the roundabout has traffic lights for exactly that reason, and it would be chaos without them.
It is not just roundabout traffic lights that serve this purpose. Most right-hand filter lane lights are there to ensure that those who want to turn right will get a chance to do so, without traffic backing up too far, or people accelerating aggressively to try to get across in any gap, however small. Many other traffic lights serve this purpose as well – to make sure we all get a turn.
These sorts of lights make perfect sense when the roads are busy – and no sense otherwise. We have all sat at the lights, able to see that no-one is coming, just wasting our lives.
Not only do we waste our lives, but we also waste petrol. Slowing down to a standstill and speeding back up again also increases tyre and brake wear. Both of these create microscopic PM2.5s which exacerbate asthma and cause dementia. Unnecessary traffic lights not only waste our time and cost us money; they also increase global warming and kill us.