The Jerk and Other Driving Peeves

Nothing seems to make motorists and pedestrians angrier than the driver who runs red lights. This driver is called “irresponsible,” “selfish,” and many other choice epithets not printable.

But most of all, this driver is considered a real danger to the public. And rightly so. However, at the risk of bucking conventional thinking, let me pose another reason for this type of driving behavior. Traffic lights.

There are just too many of them, and they are badly out of sync. On a recent drive from my home in Inglewood to a business stop in Hollywood, a distance of eight miles, I counted 41 traffic lights on the street I was traveling.

That’s over five lights per mile. They were located on streets that could hardly be considered major thoroughfare crossings. What’s worse, 20 of the lights were out of sync with the preceding light.

Motorists, in effect, are traveling only from stoplight to stoplight. Their frustration and impatience increases and thus they run the lights.

Traffic lights that are out of sync create other problems. Drivers who must constantly stop and start, waste fuel, increase exhaust pollution, and add to the wear and tear on their cars.

A good model for coordinated traffic flow is Sacramento. I was able to drive from one end of downtown to the other without stopping once for a light. They were all in sync. Is it too much to ask of our Southland traffic departments to follow this example? It may save lives.

EARL HUTCHINSON

Inglewood