This explains it reasonably well.

One thing I find annoying about traffic lights is that people don't seem to know how to use them. For example, there is a crossroads near my house that is traffic light controlled. Often there is a fair amount of traffic stacked up on it, especially around kicking-out time at the local school, comprised mainly of mothers picking up their little darlings and shunting them the half-mile to home, rather than letting them walk like we did when I were a lad. And drastically increasing the risk of injury, as they're far more likely to be hit by a car/involved in an accident due to the traffic than getting into trouble on a short walk home minus said traffic, but that's by the by...

Anyway, these mothers (and by this I mean they are actual mothers, of course ) stack up on the lights, and as far as I can tell watch the car in front, not the pretty coloured lights. So, the first car in the queue waits for the lights to change, processed the information that the light is now green, releases the handbrake, puts the car in gear, little throttle, ease in the clutch, and look! - We're moving. Fine.

The next person is staring intently at the back of the car in front. When it starts to move, handbrake off, shift gear, throttle, clutch, etc. You get the idea. Anyway, this propagates down the line until the lights finally go red again, having allowed four or five cars to pass through.

Now, how hard is it to do what I do, and most of the people I know who drive a lot? Watch the lights, NOT the car in front. Keep an eye on it, sure, in case they suddenly do something surreal, but use the lights correctly as a signal for brake, gears, throttle, clutch, then balance it on the clutch and begin rolling as soon as the car in front does. Then everyone starts moving more or less at the same time, and a dozen cars or more go through before the lights change. How hard is that? Eh? Eh?

OK, fair enough, sometimes you find the light is around the corner, obstructed by a truck, being covered by a rogue rhino, something like that, and you can't see it from further back in the queue. But even there you can usually watch cars that are more forward in the traffic than the one immediately in front and be ready when it moves.

It's as bad as people not knowing how to use roundabouts. And don't get me started on traffic lights on roundabouts...

Argh!

Anyway, I've just come back via that junction and I needed to vent, as it took me fifteen minutes to go three hundred meters in a not very crowded town.

pca