Traffic lights, also known as traffic signals, traffic lamps, traffic semaphore, signal lights, stop lights, robots (in South Africa), and traffic control signals (in technical parlance), are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations to control flows of traffic.
I do not drive a car. I used to drive a shared car while living in Amsterdam but since coming to live in Dublin I have retired, I did join and still am a member of GoCar.ie but have never yet used it despite being a member over a year and paying the monthly fee.
Traffic Amsterdam Style
One reason I hate driving is traffic lights. Life is very short and spending an average of 60 to 180 seconds of my life at each set just puts me off totally so now I either stay at home all day, walk or cycle my bike and break every traffic light I can.
In Amsterdam, they avoid lights as much as possible and after around 8 pm they turn many of the lights to orange, so no need to stop, just take care and it works perfectly well. Amsterdam is such a well organised and well run city and many of the silly laws are just too silly and are forgotten about.
I recently had a run in with a cop in Dublin for cycling on the tram tracks he decided to break the law himself by coming after me along the tracks to catch me. When finally getting me to stop he decides to give me a load of crap not knowing I have a truck full of my own and did not need any of his.
I ignored him as he ranted on at me about breaking this law and that law, I just muttered something at him and headed off up a side street he did not follow. I was lucky to escape a fine.
If there is one thing I hate more than traffic lights it's cops. Peace officers my ass nothing but a load of Highway men.