Temporary
traffic lights (are they ever temporary?) can be a challenge. On a
particularly narrow stretch of road we had the “lets dig a big hole and bugger
off for four weeks type workmen” although to be fair they did leave temporary
traffic lights with all three bulbs fully working. A few dozen cones separated
the traffic from the hole and at each end a large red sign “WHEN RED LIGHT
SHOWS WAIT HERE”
As I
approached the lights they change to red, so I stop. Yep you’ve guessed it the
car behind my bus overtakes me followed by a paper chain of vehicles. The lead
vehicle now halfway along the single carriage way has to stop because it is
now nose to nose with the oncoming traffic that had a green light. Now nothing
moves, the two lead car drivers both get out and begin to scream at each
other. I can’t hear what’s being said as the symphony of horns drowns out the
shouting. But the original offender looks and points to my bus. What did I do?
Oh that’s right I obeyed the sign and stopped at the RED light. After about
five minutes and several changes of lights, the oncoming traffic surprisingly
start reversing knocking cones into the hole as they go. The offending lead
car and its followers now begin to trickle through. At this point my traffic
light is green; I get ready to pull off as the last knob head files past me,
just as I start to move the lights change amber to red. Knob head decides to
stop and pulls in front of me and of course I stop too after moving a distance
of around 7 inches. Now the excitement of seeing my bus move forward a bit has
woken up the stationary traffic behind, but because now I’ve stopped again and
am totally obscuring the traffic light thanks to knob head, the car behind
with its followers overtake me and the whole scenario repeats itself again. It
was 16 minutes before I eventually got through the lights, any longer and the
workmen would have returned to fill the hole.
