Nothing more dangerous than a clever sheep

[muckefuck]

Didn't get to sleep as early as I would've liked to last night, but so far I seem to be holding up. (The real test, of course, always comes with the post-prandial calorie rush.) As a consequence, it was after eleven when I made my way through the park back to my place. At the corner of Foster and Marine, I confronted a curious spectacle.

At first, I couldn't tell what the hell was going on. I heard raucous honking and then saw two cars speed through a red light as if they were racing. Then I saw someone else run the light just ahead of a articulated bus making the turn from Marine and wondered what the driver could possibly be thinking.

After a bit, it dawned on me that the red light on Foster was really overstaying its welcome. I heard some honking from people queued up behind it, and finally those in the first rank ran it. Coming closer, I saw that that hinged stop signs had been place over the green lights for Marine, but the backlighting made it difficult to read them. (Certainly, the CTA driver hadn't taken notice of them when he roared through the intersection, honking at the car in front of him.)

So I set my bag atop an honesty box and stood to watch the show.

After a while, I noticed a general pattern emerge from the chaos: There would be a gap in traffic, and cars arriving at the intersection would come to a full stop in front of the red lights. Generally, it was around the time that the vehicles were five or six deep that it began to sink in there was something amiss. Before this point, drivers who immediately ran the light (either because they correctly read the situation or had been through the dysfunctional intersection earlier) were regarded as dangerous freaks.

I did see one or two people in the back ranks pull out into the oncoming lane and drive around the stalled cars in the front row. More common was honking and occasional shouts. With or without such encouragement, a front-row driver would edge tentatively into intersection and, seeing that lightning did not strike them down, accelerate to a normal driving speed. Then the penny would drop for the others, and they would start moving forward, some coming to a full stop directly in front of the light and some not.

As long as the traffic was more or less steady, approaching drivers would pick up on the behaviour of others and drive through. But if they only saw a single car advance, they seemed to assume it was running a light which had only just changed and stop. Then the whole process of accumulation, cautious advancement, gradual awareness, and eventual accommodation would repeat itself.

I could've watched it for hours.

Comments

[ladytiamat.livejournal.com]

What is this "middle of the night" thing you mention? 8^) There are probably some deserted intersections in the Valley after 3 AM, once everybody gets home from last call. But after last call in most parts of L.A. the early morning shift is getting on the road. And that's not counting the movie folk who have to be on location/in make-up before the sun comes up.