Little green man

Would you wait for the little green man to show before you cross the road? Or would you cross the road regardless of whether the green man is there to take you across?

I witnessed an incident when I was heading back today. 3 girls were crossing the road. 1 of them was already on the other side, and she was frantically screaming her head off asking the other 2 to cross. There were no cars, but the 2 just refused to cross until the green man appeared. There was another round of sounding when they eventually got to the other side. She must be really frustrated. (click here for more)

The 2 that refused to cross sound like sensible people. It is your upbringing that provides you with the patience to actually wait for the green man to appear. I applaud the patience that they have because I would have crossed the road already if I were in their position. I won't be screaming my head off at others who hasn't crossed though. I'm not one of those (or so I hope!) that cars hate because they're crossing at the wrong moment and waited too late. However, how much do you rely on the little green man to cross the road?

If you are one of those who wait for the green man to appear before you cross the road, do you look left and right after the green man appears? Or do you just cross as the green man appears? Not looking both ways before you cross is definitely a dangerous thing to do, even if the light is green. So, why not just judge yourself whether it is safe or not to cross rather than relying on the green man?

The traffic light system exists to protect both drivers and pedestrians, on top of providing a more manageable flow of traffic. The system must work since it is used throughout the world. So why do we still use judgement when crossing the road? Do we not trust the system? Or do we trust ourselves more?

I like to believe that we (some of us anyway) still exercise common sense when crossing the road. The traffic light system is there to guide, but ultimately we are the one walking across. To plagiarise the Matrix, it can only show you the path, you have to walk through it.

Categories:

• think
• society
• traffic