I recently saw a commercial about using a supercomputer to analyse traffic flow and direct the traffic lights to reduce gridlock, but I know for a fact that traffic lights want gridlock. Every day when I drive home, I get stopped by nearly every light on the route. The light turns green and shortly after the one just down the road turns red; just in time to bring everyone that just made it through the last light to a halt. This is not an accident. It’s designed to slow people down. Slower drivers means fewer accidents. Which is a good thing, overall.

Of course, it has an unintended side-effect, one which likely increases the danger of accidents. Humans are resilient by nature, we tend not to give up easily. So when we come out of the gate looking to get something done, see the path closing ahead of us, however temporarily, we think “if only I got there a little bit faster.” And so we hit the gas a little harder, we push the pedal down a little farther, and we’re tens of a second away from rationalizing making it through the light. So we push a little harder, and finally we make it through. Human progress.

But as your speed increases, your likelihood of pushing through on a risky yellow also increases and your likelihood of getting in an accident (and a higher speed one at that) increases in kind. These gridlock inducing measures are designed with speed reduction in mind, but it inevitably leads to speed increases, and brakes getting hit a little harder each day, getting worn that much faster, leading to even more accidents. It’s a lose-lose scenario. I wish the people that programmed these lights understood that. Maybe the supercomputer will help with that.