There is an eight mile stretch on my daily commute that has over 25 traffic lights.  In the afternoon you WILL be stopped by at least 2/3 of the lights. You can usually tell pretty much as soon as your light turns green if you’ll have to stop at the next, but you need to always watch for the quick, unexpected red light.  The traffic is pretty heavy, though there is little chance it will become gridlock – usually when the light turns green all cars will make it through before it turns red again, even if somebody in the line is very slow. It’s also impossible to get ahead.  If you run a light you’ll be stopped at the next and the people around you will catch up.

Every day I see a lot of people jam on the accelerator as hard as they can even though they can plainly see the stopped cars in front of them.  Then they stomp on their breaks and come to shaky halt an inch from the car in front of them as if taken by complete surprise.  They burn more petrol costing them, put wear and tear on the engine and breaks which it will eventually make it more expensive to maintain the car, and they greatly increased the likelihood of being in an accidental.  They get angry and make those around them angry. By cutting people off, they often cause others harm. And for all of this what did they gain? Absolutely zero.  Not a nanosecond. Continue reading →