On the road, no-one can hear you scream!

Why stop at a red light? Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. But seriously, why stop when you can see the junction is deserted and it’s safe to go?

I saw the light about traffic lights in Cambridge in 2000. A junction normally choked with queueing traffic, that took three entire signal changes to cross, was deserted. Is there a bank holiday no-one has told me about, I wondered as I breezed through. Then I realised the lights were out of action, and it hit me – traffic lights are an unnecessary evil! We’re better off left to our own devices! Eureka!

In an early video I made on the subject, when lights were out at Charlotte St/Goodge Street, I asked a cab driver what he made of it. “You’ve just got to be a bit more careful on the junction,” he said, “that’s all”. That is all. How ironic that when lights are out, we are urged to exercise caution, implying that as soon as they are “working” again, we may revert to norms of neglect.

“Traffic light removal only works in low traffic volumes,” said government road safety adviser, Robert Gifford, in my 2008 Newsnight report. But I’ve witnessed the same thing during power cuts across London. Never was it more agreeable to cycle down Shaftesbury Avenue and round Piccadilly. Taxi-drivers smiled and waved you on. Free from artificial barriers to natural flow, the familiar congestion vanished into thin air. I emailed TfL Vice Chair, Dave Wetzel. His officers said they had told the Police to erect barriers to stop traffic from entering the affected areas. I emailed a Chief Inspector contact at the Met. He replied, “No such action was taken”. 

Traffic officers like us to think we need their interventions to keep traffic moving and keep us safe. Nothing could be further from the truth. Westminster City Council’s safety audit reveals that 44% – nearly half – of all personal injury “accidents” occur at traffic lights. I put accidents in inverted commas because most accidents are not accidents. Nor, as the authorities would have us believe, are they mostly due to human error. They are events contrived by the dysfunctional rules of the road.

The flaw at the heart of the system is the traffic engineering concept of priority – priority for main roads, or traffic from the right. It abandons common law principles of equal rights and responsibilities, and imposes anti-social rights-of-way. It tells main road traffic to plough on, regardless who was there first. It produces conflicting speeds and puts side road traffic and pedestrians at a dangerous disadvantage. It promotes aggression. “Get out of my way!” yells priority, as it denies infinite filtering opportunities and expressions of fellow feeling. And it produces a “need” for regulation and signage that cost the earth, in both senses. How many of the other 56% of “accidents” in the WCC audit are due to priority? Compiled in the context of priority, the stats don’t tell us. Why do we “need” traffic lights, those weapons of mass distraction, danger and delay? To break the priority streams of traffic so others can enter or cross. Traffic lights make us stop to avoid the inconvenience of slowing down. Genius!

From a video shot 20 years ago, I’m still haunted by the image of a mother and toddler waiting to cross the Euston Road. Eventually the lights changed. They set off, only to be caught in the “pen” (yes – traffic engineers treat us like sheep) in the middle of the six-lane highway, where they had to wait again for the other lot of lights to change. Meanwhile, the toddler in his buggy is at the ideal level to inhale the toxic fumes that damage health and development. These abuses are repeated daily throughout the land, promoted by the law of the land in the guise of the rules of the road. In the domestic sphere, coercive control is illegal. On the roads, it’s rampant.

The simple solution to our road safety and road rage problems, and many of our congestion and air quality problems, is to replace priority with equality. Then, whoever arrives first, on foot or on wheels, goes first, more or less, as in other walks of life. My interest in avoiding collision with you mirrors your interest in avoiding collision with me. Instinctively we approach carefully and merge at low speeds. It’s the peaceful anarchy that breaks out whenever traffic lights break down: anarchy in the original sense of self-government.

In the absence of a bridge or flyover, all junctions, rural and urban, could be all-way give-ways. As a river absorbs tributaries, main road traffic can easily accommodate minor road traffic. All drivers have to do is take their foot off the accelerator.

Freedom to filter not only transforms road safety and civility, it reduces air and noise pollution. In a 2007 article, I showed it cuts emissions by up to four times. A study by the engineering department of Surrey University has since found that traffic lights multiply emissions by up to 29 times! Most victims who suffer unnecessarily on the altar of the malign traffic system are anonymous, though one name stands for many: Ella Kissi-Debrah. The DfT is aware, but rejects reform. Should traffic authorities be facing corporate manslaughter charges?

So, with exceptions such as multi-lane intersections at peak times, traffic lights are unnecessary per se. Of course system reform needs combining with driver re-education and a new driving test. The new rulebook or advice guide could be written on one page. 1. All road-users are equal. 2. The vulnerable are more equal than others. 3. Drive on the left. 4. Give way to others who were there first. 5. You’re a driver and a pedestrian too. 6. Use the inside lane except when overtaking. 7. Take it easy and have a nice day.

Martin Cassini

For more information about these ideas, visit Equality Streets.