The Desultory Defecation

So North American society is going traffic light happy as if that will improve traffic and congestion. It is even more evident when it hits close to home, specifically two 'T' intersections in my neighbourhood, both of which do not have nearly enough traffic to warrant a street light to regulate traffic. In fact in my over half a decade of driving I have never had to wait longer than the equivalent of waiting for a red light turning green to merge with the traffic.

Now with that said, I will concede that traffic lights do have their uses at certain intersections and mall/plaza entrances and exits during the day especially the busy rush hour times. However, during what I will now dub the "off-peak" hours on the road, these traffic lights are completely and utterly pointless. They cause cars to stop for no reason, idle for a couple minutes at a time, and slowing down the flow of traffic for absolutely no reason at all.

The solution? Why not have traffic lights on timers that work as regular traffic lights during the day and at night when the traffic thins out until the slow trickle that becomes morning rush hour, we can turn off these traffic lights, the major road gets the right of way and the tributary roads and driveways will yield and merge with traffic when safe to do so. Now I don't believe these traffic lights use a lot of energy to begin with, but if they're off for hours on end multiplied by the hundreds of traffic lights applied in every city times the 365 days a year compounded with the fuel saved and the time saved not idling it seems like a no brainer to me that this idea could be effectively implemented with a couple tweaks in the details and everyone could benefit. But alas, I suppose the government isn't interested in stuff like efficiency...