Opinion Columnists
Email
Print
Stop That!
Reading books at red lights? Hey, it's time to put on the brakes
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 13, 2008
A local news story in the Journal recently gave us pause. It was the one by Jim Sparks about how the city of Winston-Salem is planning to overhaul the software in its computerized traffic signals so that the lights will be better synchronized. Apparently, the lights along various city streets are supposed to be coordinated so that if a driver hits one green and proceeds along the street at about the posted speed limit, he or she will find that all the other lights nicely turn green just in time. That way, progress is not impeded, traffic flows smoothly and everybody is happy, or so the theory goes.
According to Sparks' account, the system has some age on it, and traffic engineers have been finding that the computer chips in individual signals aren't always communicating properly with the software that runs the whole system. As a result, individual signals may get out of synch in a rather random way, causing us drivers to have to actually stop at red lights every now and then.
Not to worry; the story said that the upgrade is to take place this summer, and soon, perhaps as early as this fall, we'll all be able to clip right along on the streets of Winston-Salem without all that annoying stop-and-go caused by unpredictable stoplights.
Our problem here in the editorial offices was not so much with the upgrade -- if you're going to have a system, you ought to keep it working -- as with the original idea that synchronizing the city's stoplights is desirable goal.
Sometimes, a driver just needs a break. Sometimes, that little pause for the red light is just what you need.
Think about all the things you do when stopped for stoplights.
Finding my way on a map is one of my prime stoplight-sitting activities. That's especially true when I'm driving in unfamiliar places. But just last week, for example, I had a chore to take care of at a place of business along the dreaded Hanes Mall Boulevard, and a related chore near the intersection of Peace Haven and Robinhood roads. I know how to get to both those locations easily from downtown, but I wasn't sure I knew the least painless way to get from one to the other. So there I was, at one red light after another, orienting myself to my city map and plotting my course. Without some red lights, I would have had to find a place to do the unthinkable -- pull off the road to read the map.
Stoplights give me the opportunity to unbuckle and take off a coat if I've gotten too warm.
Stoplights also provide me with the opportunity to fish out whatever I have dropped while driving. Many a morning, that involves the granola bar that I intended to eat during my morning commute. I don't know why those little bars are so prone to slide out of the passenger seat and into the depths of the car, but they are. Hungry, worried that I won't have the strength for my pre-work exercise at the YW, I grope on the floor and under the seat while I drive. Usually, though, it takes a stoplight for me to be able to search thoroughly enough to find my breakfast.
If it's not my breakfast bar, it's likely to be my cell phone that I lose in the car. Again, I go through the drive-and-grope routine, but rarely do I find the missing phone until I gain a few moments' hiatus at a red light.
Speaking of cell phones, stoplights are extremely useful for placing phone calls and sending text messages. Sometimes when heading out of downtown in the evenings, I compose part of some essential text message at each subsequent red light. Sometimes, I find myself hoping that I won't see green and have to keep going at the next intersection.
Stoplights are also handy when you need to apply makeup, as it's really not very safe to keep your eyes on your face in the rear-view mirror for too long a time when hurtling forward in traffic.
As we discussed this weighty subject in the editorial offices, one colleague, whom I won't name for fear that I'd set him up as a target for local traffic cops, admitted that he reads at red lights. Though I often use red lights as an opportunity to take care of business, I'd not thought of them as an occasion for pleasure or relaxation. "You read books at stoplights?" I asked, not sure I'd heard correctly.
"Well, yeah, books are better than newspapers or magazines for red-light reading, because they're easier to handle," he said.
This concept struck me as so odd that I Googled "reading at stop lights" and actually found some other people admitting to that practice. Now I know why some people are so slow to move when the light turns green.
OK, before everybody writes in to tell me that unsynchronized stoplights cause traffic tie-ups, waste precious gas and contribute to global warming, let me just say that I know all that and applaud the city's efforts. In fact, we printed an editorial Friday that presents our serious view of this subject ("Synchronize Those Lights"). I also admit to feeling a victory of sorts on the mornings when I catch every light green while heading west on Fifth Street through downtown -- that is, if I'm not searching for my breakfast or my phone.
But I have to think that when people start snatching a few seconds at a stoplight to read a book or communicate with family and friends, we're all in need of a little time out.
Linda Brinson is the Journal's editorial-page editor. She can be reached at lbrinson@wsjournal.com.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
Advertisement
