Intersectional Retina Response Units And Beyond

Traffic signals and blinking lights at the beginning of time

Intersectional Retina Response Units And Beyond

There is a simple lesson to be learned with the invention of the intersectional retina response units, commonly called traffic signals. When you are at an intersection or crosswalk where there is active vehicular traffic you should stop and look at the traffic lights. Red light means stop. Green means go. Yellow means that you should either get ready to stop or get ready to go.

In general this is a good operational principle for public safety. There is always the chance of being run over by a bus with or without this system in place. Human error, other unforeseen situations and other conditions in life will always prevail to challenge this simple system for traffic control. No methodology is perfect.

Blinking lights are another story. Yellow blinking lights mean that you should exercise caution as you proceed.

Here in Florida we have a very strange and very dangerous traffic rule. After a major hurricane hits us the traffic lights are all damaged or they are blinking. One simple rule is called the “file method.” At an intersection, all cars come to a stop. The car that enters the intersection first gets to go first. The other cars cross one after the other. One car goes from north to south or south to north. The next car goes east to west or west to east, etc. Most Americans do not know or understand this rule. Cars on the “main road” refuse to stop for cars on side streets. Collisions abound.

The people from NY and NJ have some conceptual idea about the traffic file system, especially during rush hour. One car enters traffic from the feeder lane and then one car on the main highway proceeds. They file. It is simple. It is common sense. It is courteous and polite driving.

Most people here in south Florida do not have a drivers license, car insurance or registration to the car. They do not know or speak our language so they do not know our laws. There is no file system interpreter for the road so bad things happen.  There is aggressive driving. We do not have fender benders. We have the total destruction of cars. Flipped over cars are the norm. Totaled means totaled. There is nothing left to the car that resembles a car. I exaggerate. I’m a writer. That’s what I do.

And now I am going to take you on a trip across the universe through prehistoric time and space.

Trillions of eons before the Big Bang there were sub quarks, sub viruses, sub lights, glitches in the cosmic disorder, energy fluctuations, exotic particles emerging, blinking lights that came into and out of existence from the primordial darkness. These precursors to life had no tangible or definable characteristics. They made up existence at that time. They had an excuse to not obey the rules of nature or traffic laws in Florida. We have no such excuses. People should stop when the light is red. They should go when the light is green. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ When the lights are yellow or blinking you are on your own. The universe is funny like that don’t you think? Intersectional retina response units sometimes blink. Something to think about.