Traffic lights. A rant.

Some side roads are given as little as 5 seconds by some sets of lights and let about 4 cars through. You might have to wait for 4 light cycle changes to get through one set of lights. In that situation it's hardly surprising a couple more don't chance their arm.

There was a time when the lights went green that the first car in the queue would drive away in good time. Now they're planted in their phone or doing make up or gawking at themselves in the mirror. I was out on Saturday afternoon and I don't think anyone actually wanted to go anywhere. 3 to 5 seconds delay after a green light before anyone moved off.

Drivers are incredibly distracted, they just can't put the phone down for 10 mins or stop playing with the cars infotainment and digital instrument cluster. It's beyond a joke at this stage, and no, I don't believe adding more automated tech to allow drivers spend more time on their phones is a solution making drivers even dumber. It's just baffling that lawmakers never stopped the insanity of touch screens and menus in cars and menu driven TFT instrument clusters.

Look at many car reviewers, particularly Bjorn Nyland who isn't alone here but he's a prime example of someone who is completely and utterly engrossed in the infotainment aspect of cars , menu driven touch screens and instrument clusters and even his mobile phones all while behind the wheel of a car, there is many millions like him out there who probably spend 50% of their driving time looking at some screen and playing with either the car or the phone, it's quite shocking to see all on youtube.

Cars were never meant to be toys and Bike manufacturers are doing exactly the same thing which I think on a bike is just mental altogether. I'm not an Old technophobe either but a car is one place I like to detach from the toxicity of digital over load, especially on the bike, the peace I get from just riding is so joyful.

Cameras on the lights would pay for themselves in a week at this rate.

They can't take off at the green lights, and they ignore the red lights.

It's shocking but the really short light sequences are definitely causing more and more people to do it. Anywhere else in the world that I've driven gives a good bit of time to turn when the light goes green. There's lights on very busy main roads here that barely let 2 cars through before going amber. The idiots trying to annoy drivers have definitely made this worse.

Add in phones, people being generally less patient and it's a bad combo. But hey, we'll all be cycling in the millions of euros worth of empty cycling lanes everywhere soon!