To Stop or not to Stop - 12:16PM, 2002/02/20
So across the street from where I work is a fire station. And, naturally, where the fire station’s driveway connects to the street, there is one of those blinking yellow lights — one which the firemen can change to a red stoplight should they need to come tearing out with sirens flashing and all that.
In front of the light there is a line, and a sign which says “Stop here on red”. About 50 yards further up the road, the road ends, and running perpendicular to it is a minor highway. There’s another light at this intersection. The light is one of those pressure sensitive ones; in other words, it doesn’t change unless there’s a car there.
Why all the preamble? Well, today as I came into work, there was a man parked at the line in front of the firehouse light, waiting patiently for the light up at the end of the street (again, a solid 50 yards away, if not more) to turn green. Which of course it never did. A very long line of cars was building up behind him.