Traffic Lights

I am in no way disputing their need. I'm well aware of the mass chaos that would ensue if the world were suddenly void of their presence. However, I must say that they annoy me, and I have a feeling that I'm not alone when I look across to the car next to me and the driver of said vehicle is pounding the steering wheel in frustration for missing yet another green light.

I have a total of three traffic lights on my way to work: Ridge and Central, Ridge and Maple, and Ridge and Taft, pretty good you say, not as bad as some people, especially for Wichita. Let's do the math, shall we:

Let's generously assign an average of 1 minute spent at each traffic light per trip. Sometimes you fly right through, and sometimes you miss the amber and are stuck for the full cycle.

1 min x 4 trips/day (to and from work, and to and from lunch) x 3 traffic lights=12 min/day

Not that bad, right? Let's proceed:

12 min/day x 5 days/week=60 min/week (I wonder to whom I should bill that time)

1 hour/week x 52 weeks/year=52 hours/year

52 hours per year. That's 2.166 days on average per year just to and from work that I sit idling at a traffic light. I realize some people absolutely put me to shame, but I thought I'd shed some light on the situation. I'm not advocating a coup d'etat against the use of traffic lights. They are a wonderful mass organizational tool that save lives, I just wish I could hit all greens. Damn the electric fence.