Points People Work Better

Who had the crazy idea to use traffic lights rather than points people in the first place? If you have a look, one ant [my pet name for a points person regulating the flow of human ants] can regulate the flows of traffic much better than a programmed three light box. Especially during Peak Traffic when you have variable traffic flows, and you sometimes need an open conduit that can be regulated to optimal efficiency.

Driving through Illovo there was a nice smooth run into Rosebank, as opposed to the gruelling shuiffle up Glenhove, where there are no points people in place.

In South Africa there are plenty of people who don't have jobs. My suggestion is we train a small force of points people, and permanently shut down our traffic lights at biggish intersections. That way more people are working, and more people can get home and to work faster than they otherwise would. Just an idea.

The Unintended Behaviour Manifestations caused by Load Shedding

If you're like me you've also approached a traffic intersection and when the car in front of you pulls away, so do you. You're in this automated mindset of being 'pushed-around', a sheep being shepherded by converging fences and walls, bosses and barriers.

Then you realise - hang on, I'm in a really long traffic jam because all these intersections are four way stops. STOPPPP!! Hooting, angry sputterings, a 'sorry' wave. So now you've stopped and let a few cars pass. It's difficult to keep count, especially when there are double lanes involved, with some cars pulling up just before or after you.

Then you realise that it is actually part of the program. Under normal driving circumstances you don't think. It's the program called 'crawling home'. The rules are: 'follow the car's bumper in front of you, but don't get too close'. And so here you were trying to hitch onto the back of the car in front as per normal. But duh! - this isn't normal.

Driving in Jo-burg is all about grabbing the gap, taking chances, pushing your weight (I'm not conding it, or supporting it, just reporting it ;-)

So this morning I headed to the ABSA bank at Rosebank, and then hesitated to graciously allow two people, a couple, to go ahead of me into the glass security cubicle. The next thing they are staring back at me, and I realise they are blocked on their end, because I've caught the door (grabbed the gap after giving it) and was about to follow them in.
Ooops. I stepped back and waited my turn.

Hmm. Interesting. That pause allowed me to collect the thought that was building up in a small cartoony cocoon above my head.

Load shedding does that. It turns us into robots, but then also asks us to wake up out of the automaton mode. When the lights are off we are to some extent programmed to follow power on/power off personal processes. Some of it is automatic and machine like, such as what we experience at work and in traffic. But some of it, the crucial part, asks us to be creative. Do have you candles in your bathroom, the braai set up ready for when you can't kick the micro or stove into dinner making mode. This requires an 'Oops' response. They can be positive - going to gym when the TV returns a blank stare - or they can be negative - waiting for it to come back on, going hungry until we can get what we want, how we want it, even if when is being delayed.

In the middle of difficulty - someone wise once said - lies opportunity. Let's seize it, and enjoy it. Share your ideas here.