26 Comments on Who needs traffic lights??

1. When I visited China years ago it seemed that the rule was one of size: largest object has the right of way. Our bus (fortunately!) would often go into oncoming traffic. And since it was larger than the cars they would move onto the shoulder. But if a big truck came then it had the right of way.

2. Needs more BLM protesters.

3. About 25 years ago I watched traffic in downtown Jakarta do something I still don’t understand. This happened all the time.

   Picture a normal right angle intersection of two four-lane streets, each with two lanes marked for either direction. The traffic light would change and fairly soon traffic would stop for the red. But they wouldn’t stop in their two lanes. The width of two lanes would accommodate three cars abreast. Plus traffic behind them would move over to the wrong side and there would be another three lanes of cars abreast of the first three. That’s the entire width of the street with six cars next to each other all facing in the same direction. Got that? Now picture the exact same thing on the other side of the intersection with six cars facing the first six. Head on.

   The light would change, cross traffic would eventually stop, and the six lanes of head-on traffic would start into the intersection and somehow sort things out immediately and there would then be four lanes of traffic flowing normally past each other.

   To this day I have no idea how that worked. But it always worked.

4. In this country, people can’t even handle a 4-way stop!

5. ANARCHY SETS YOU FREE, MAN.

6. Looks like they need a “Round About”. Which will insure a collision. I hate those things.

7. Thanks, Uncle Al, you just solved the puzzle of where all the recent highway insanity came from; Indonesian immigrants!

8. I need to set up a web cam at the nearby Circle of Terror. Two normal four-lane roads meeting at right angles, but no traffic lights. Instead, there’s a traffic circle, known hereabouts for some reason as a “roundabout.” It’s simple enough, traffic approaching the circle simply need to yield to traffic already going around the circle. But NOOOO! This is the Gulf Coast of Florida where the median age of drivers seems to be about 104. About ¼ of the drivers stop when they have the right of way and don’t need to stop, another ¼ don’t stop when the should, and the other ½ justifiably very wary of the first ½ swivel their head on arthritic necks to the best of their ability, which ain’t so much.

   I live close enough to hear the sirens. Fortunately, overall speed is low enough all the crunches are simply fender benders but that can put a geezer into cardiac arrest. When I drive through there, I drive as fast as possible to shorten my period of vulnerability. The caution sign says 15 MPH; I take it at about 45 unless my wife is in the car.

9. It reminds me of liberals handing off talking points and pure bullshit to each other in order to deflect reality from the non-liberlas.

10. Manila and Cebu have areas like that. You just strap into a
    cab and hope to Christ that you make it to your destination.

11. I’ve been in traffic in S. Korea, Japan and China and China seems to have a rule like the Jakarta, three abreast into oncoming traffic, rules. Generally, the Chinese drive anywhere there are no other cars. S. Korea was slightly less harrowing until you got into the hills. Japan was the most civilized of all. All three are a study in chaos theory; self-organizing.

12. Designed by affirmative action architect.

13. Amazing. I could watch all night. And the pedestrians!!!…worthy of replays.

14. This is what happens when you give automobiles to Africans.

    You should see Nairobi at rush hour.

15. It’s a Giant Scale Ant Farm , Where Descesions Are Made Head To Head !!!

16. In Istanbul, there is a road with six lanes going each way from the airport to Taksim Square. There are no painted lines to mark the lanes. The lanes don’t exist and they are whatever the drivers decide they are. Just drive wherever you want and try not to hit other cars. Scary!

17. Put that same intersection situation in the US and it’d become a bloodbath in 10 seconds. And we all know why.

18. What you just witnessed is the ONE SINGLE HOUR in the history of that intersection where nobody was killed.

19. I’ve been to China and ridden in cabs in major cities and rural areas. It is simple – they follow bicycle rules while driving.
    If you ever ride in a cab in China and your cab is involved in an accident slip the driver five bucks and run away as fast as you can. You DO NOT want to get drug into their “legal” system as a foreigner.

20. I wouldn’t look so dangerously chaotic if it were shown in real speed.

21. I can’t believe those pedestrians!

22. Makes the back roads of Britain, which are about a lane and a quarter wide, seem tame. And rhe Brits don’t drive slowly.

23. Driving in the Third World is an experience. It is organized chaos. Stops signs and Red lights are strictly optional (and usually ignored). Night time etiquette is to slow down and flash yer lights. Then you get back to the States and wonder “Why am I sitting at this traffic light? at 2AM and nobody’s around?”
    Traffic circles – There seems to be a trend to replace normal intersections with traffic circles that take up more real estate than a traffic light, or a stop sign, and confuse people and it seems like every one of them has black tire tracks going directly to the center of them!
    So inquiring minds want to know:
    Is the guy who designs them referred to as a circle jerk?

24. Ethiopia is like a lot of places: it would be great there if there weren’t so damned many Ethiopians.

25. Just wondering – Why don’t Ethiopians put large jars of supplies on the roofs of their cars?

26. Mesmerizing