life is a set of temporary traffic lights...

Driving to work today along the winding roads of South West London my journey was annoyingly interrupted by a series of temporary traffic lights.

They appear un-announced and un-wanted along our highways & byways. Sometimes they stretch round a corner or junction deceiving us drivers from their full extent. Other times they are just set-up to usher traffic past the generator that powers them that has been carelessly left in the carriageway by the work-men. The lights themselves becoming the obstruction for which they must now control the traffic.

Ah yes the workmen. No one sees them set-up or remove these temples of gridlock. They get plonked haphazardly on the road with no discernible thought, except for that one traffic cone that is carefully placed on its side to create a mini chicane. Workmen stand just yards away refusing to righten this essentially British piece of highway furniture.

Regardless of which direction you approach them they are set to the position of red.

NO GO HERE! THIS IS A TEMPOPARY TRAFFIC LIGHT...YOU SHALL NOT PASS! SIT THERE AND WATCH THE OTHER ROAD USERS GET PRIORITY OVER YOU! GUESS IF THERE IS ANYONE COMING THE OTHER WAY...MAYBE WE'RE BROKEN...MAYBE WE'RE RED AT BOTH ENDS OR THERE'S A SNEAKY THIRD SET OFF A SIDE-ROAD THAT WE'VE NOT TOLD YOU ABOUT.

Was it a dream or an urban myth but I'm sure as you approach the TTL's if you flash your headlights at them the sensor on top will be confused into thinking there's a large queue of traffic forming and change to GREEN. I'm sure I've made this happen on occasion but it doesn't always work. Perhaps it's just timing. Like when you cross the road at a pedestrian crossing, just before the Red-man leaves and the happy Green-man appears, because you know the phasing of the lights. You get that little head-start over the other pedestrians that makes you feel smug and for a second. You hope they've noticed and think to themselves "maybe he can control them". Of course that operation is all down to timing and concentration. You take your eye off the lights facing the other way and you'll step out onto the road just as the cars start to pull away. You'll have to beat a quick retreat or a brisk mini run to the other side. Either way you'll look a twat.

So to life and this tenuous link. I have often appeared like the Temporary Traffic Light, no one seeing my actual arrival but then coming across me all of a sudden armed with a furrowed brow. Stages in my life feel like Temporary Traffic Lights appearing and remaining for what seems like an endless time. Then once removed the road seems untouched. No residue of the work that has gone on. The Temporary Traffic Lights move to somewhere else and continue their invisible work, like me.

HDM