Thinking Traffic Lights?

I think traffic lights here really have a mind of their own or am I going bonkers?

Just this morning I was riding my faithful rusting motorbike to meet my wife who had just sent our youngest son off to a camping trip, to have breakfast at the Admiralty MRT station coffee shop.

It was supposed to be just a lazy morning ride but hey no, not again, not another “THINKING” traffic light? Well you see, I have been riding a bike for more than 20 years and have encountered almost every possible scenarios that a biker can ever have, at least I think.  

Well today, as I turn off from the main road along the Admiralty MRT station to a side road just opposite the wet market to make a U-turn back to the wet market carpark, the right turn arrow indicator came on and the taxi infront of me was already filtering right at the road intersection as mandated by the right turn arrow. I was following behind to make a U-turn but somehow, sensing sometime was amiss, I found two cars driving at a rather faster speed just behind my bike. The black coloured car was already honking at me as if I had intrude into his lane while on his right was another white and blue van also travelling at a similar speed. My first instinct was that I could had just possibly missed the right green turning arrow and immediately raised my left hand to signal to the already slowing black car to indicated an “apologetic” signal. He appeared to slow for a moment or two and then also turned into the wet market carpark with me following behind. He got off and disappeared rather quickly. I also got off my bike and went to the coffee shop to meet my wife. But something kept nagging my mind.

Was both car and van trying to beat the traffic light given the morning rush-to-work syndrome? That was my first thought but then again the taxi infront of me only turned right when the right green turn arrow came up. So both cars would have stopped or even slowed down. Perhaps both accelerated to beat the traffic light that have already had its right green turning arrow on. But then again, there would have to be a second or two time lapse between the red light and the right turning green light. Unless, unless, the the timing between both red light and right turn green light had been diminished resulting from maybe some technical error or perhaps even affected by recent lightning effect from thunderstorms.

Why lightning? Well, just last week, after sending my wife to work in the morning, and on my way back home, I came to a major intersection at the Causeway Point/Woodland Bus Terminal bus exit junction, all traffic lights were not working. It was drizzling slightly but there were quite a number of lightning flashes nearby. I was thinking, why is it that each time, there are lightning, traffic lights would go bonkers or fail. Failing is ok since there would be no lights and all vehicles would proceed with caution. But bonkers? No! I have often come across intersections with both directions showing green lights simultaneously. This is really dangerous given the current need-for-speed generation. Having both red lights on in all directions (during failure) would be a better option as all vehicles would proceed with utmost caution. Maybe there should be some thought here for engineers maintaining and in particular those designing traffic lights at major intersections to consider all possible scenarios if one light is down, its reverberating consequences to other light signalling to effect safe and smoother traffic conditions.

Since we are already paying so much for road taxes, perhaps, we should have more robust traffic lights that could withstand the plentiful lightnings in our tropical environment. This should be put in place first before going for more sophisticated traffic lights to catch people speeding during amber lights etc.

SAFETY COMES FIRST!

Cheers

Mikey