One of the few good and bad things about my current commute is that I don’t have to touch the highway at all, which is a rarity when it comes to working in the Metro Atlanta area, unless you happen to live within the actual city limits. Good, because I can’t remember the last time I found myself hating life while sitting in traffic on I-85, I-75, or the 75/85 Connector, that has no reason behind the fact that the world is overpopulated, Atlanta is overpopulated and has no transit.
However, it’s occasionally bad, because of the series of local surface streets I use to get around and about are kind of rural, mostly one lane in each direction, subject to actually being affected by averse weather conditions, and the simple fact that most people driving are vastly probably not legally competent to have a driver’s license in the first place. But mostly a combination of the one lane directions and stupid drivers are why I’m brogging about this in the first place.
Quick, explain what you’re supposed to do when you approach a blinking red light, and a blinking yellow light.
This is technically required knowledge in order to pass a driver’s exam, and anyone who remotely cares about driver safety, it’s pretty common knowledge. I knew the answer to this long before I was even 15 years old and vying for my learner’s permit so I could be one-step closer to getting my freedom-providing driver’s license when I turned 16.
However, it never ceases to amaze me at how many people are completely dumbfounded by the concept of blinking lights, and how because of this sheer idiocy, slows down and makes everything more aggravating than it should be in the first place.
Because my route to work is rural, and occasionally susceptible to the weather, there have been instances in which some of the lights malfunction, resulting in blinking reds and yellows, instead of working like usual. And whenever this occurs, regardless of the color of blinking lights, traffic comes a grinding halt as people simply don’t know what to do, mostly because they’re dumb and shouldn’t have licenses in the first place.
If you really did not know the answers to the questions of blinking lights, first, shame on you, and you probably shouldn’t have a license, but here’s the answers:
Blinking Red: Treat it like a 4-way stop. Stop, and proceed when the coast is clear, minding right of way.
Blinking Yellow: slow down, proceed with caution, BUT DO NOT STOP YOU DUMB FUCKS
Unfortunately, due to the dumbass-ery of those who either don’t know the rules, or simply are dicks that ignore them, everyone typically errs on the side of caution, and stops anyway at blinking yellows, because they don’t want to get plowed into by the morons who assume a blinking red means go anyway on account of a busted light. So, regardless of the color of light, people way too often stop at yellows, and traffic stalls for all directions of an intersection.
SO, I propose a theoretical update to traffic lights, so that they behave in this particular manner, in the event of malfunctioning. Sure, it would be expensive and difficult to program into them to switch over to a blinking text message from solid lights, especially in the case of, malfunctioning, but at least nobody can say “I didn’t know” if they ever get caught by the police for disobeying the rules, or get into an accident as a result of their negligence.
Not to mention that such messages would actually require drivers to read them, which taking another step back, requires motorists to actually think while they’re driving.
But at least the novelty and newness of such abrasive lights might actually get attention of people for a brief honeymoon period, before they eventually begin to go back to taking lights for granted, but hey, even if it’s for just a few months, that people actually know what to do in the event of malfunctioned blinking lights, it can’t really be a terrible idea.
