Creating a Demi-God.

Firstly, I have to explain, for the benefit of my American friends, that we have no jay walking laws in Britain. Pedestrians have right-of-way on all roads except motorways, so we’re free to cross them whatever the traffic signals say as long as it’s safe to do so.

Some roads are busy, of course, and therefore difficult to cross safely, so somebody came up with the light-controlled pedestrian crossing. These things are very useful. If the road’s busy, all you have to do is push the button and after a short while the light turns red to stop the traffic long enough for you to walk across in comfort. At least, that’s the way they’re supposed to work. What actually happens is this.

A person walks up to the crossing. They don’t bother to check whether the road is clear, they just press the button and then look at the road. Then one of two things happens. Some will stand there obediently waiting for the lights to change, even if the road is empty. Others will realise that they don’t have to wait and cross the road immediately. After about ten seconds the time clock runs down, the lights turn red, and traffic on the road has to stop even though there’s nobody waiting to cross. This annoys the hell out of drivers.

Now, I’m sure this form of pedestrian crossing is not unique to Britain, so what I want to know is this:

It seems that we invent something useful, and then allow ourselves to be ruled by it. The need to have our actions controlled by some higher power leads us to make a demi-god of a traffic signal. Is this exclusively a British thing, or a universal symptom of the human condition?