The Traffic Junction

On 12 May, a Ferrari beat a red light at the junction of Victoria Street and Rochor Road and crashed into a taxi, killing three people. 2 weeks later, a Lexus beat the red light again at the same spot and crashed into another taxi.

Under pressure from the Singapore public, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is now going to synchronize the green light timing for the traffic lights at the junction of Bugis Junction/Bugis Village and Victoria Street/Rochor Road. They will then bring forward plans to install overhead traffic lights at the junction of Victoria Street/Rochor Road as well.

Now, usually I applaud when government agencies listen to the general public and take action due to public feedback. Unfortunately, I don’t in this case.

The problem is that I agree with the LTA initial assessment that there’s nothing wrong with the traffic lights timing at the junction. I had seen the video on Youtube of both crashes and in both cases the traffic lights were working just fine. The lights turned green for over 3 seconds in both cases but the drivers of the Ferrari and the Lexus went crashing through the red lights anyway.

Now the LTA may call building the overhead traffic lights a “precautionary measure”, but frankly I fail to see how it would help road safety at that junction. Frankly, I don’t see how changing the timing of the lights or building an overhead traffic pole would have prevented the crashes. If someone wants to beat a red light (especially if he is drunk), it doesn’t matter if the traffic light pole is overhead or by the side; he would still do it.

There is nothing wrong with the traffic light timing or poles at the junction. The problem and the reasons for the crashes are not the timing of the traffic lights. It is the behavior of the drivers.