Living in northern New Jersey, USA certainly has it's high points and low points, and one of the lowest points is the traffic that surrounds me. I know that the people that commute to Los Angeles have it worse than I do, but at least that is in an urban area! Suburbs shouldn't be like what I have!
I consider myself very fortunate actually. I only live 7.1 miles (11.43 km) away from work, but it takes me over 20 minutes just to drive that distance. However, to get to college, which is roughly 40 miles away takes me about 40 minutes, the way it should be.... roughly 1 mile per minute. One time traffic was so bad that coming home from WORK, it took me over 50 minutes. The time it takes me drive to school (40 minutes) is less than the time it takes me to drive home from work (7.1 miles)! That's sooooo ridiculous.
I read somewhere (without conclusive evidence, more like a mention of) that construction of an extra lane doesn't help lighten traffic. If you ask me, this doesn't make any sense. For example, if you had a water bottle, and you wanted to empty it by means of a tube and gravity, which one would you use? The traditional garden hose, or a drinking straw (assuming they have the same length)? The garden hose would be a much efficient choice since it is able to hold more water at any given time since it's circumference is much larger than the straw's. Now, put that analogy into perspective. The water is the traffic, and the garden hose would be a 4-lane highway, and the straw a measly local road. If anyone can enlighten me on how an extra lane doesn't help lighten traffic, please e-mail me and explain why. I would be extremely interested. I for one can think of several roads that could use an extra lane or two.
I tend to have this uncanny luck when it comes to traffic lights. Rarely do I SLOW DOWN for a traffic light let alone actually stopping (outside of rush hours). But to some degree, it is probably one of the best things on the road. I mean, it's something on the road that one actually HAS to notice (other than the road itself). I mean, who really pays attention to ALL the signs out there? There are just too many signs for one thing, and many don't have too much importance. Think about it, whenever one hits a "T" in the road, how often do they see the "stop" sign and then stop? Most people know that they should stop in that situation anyways. I suppose that the traffic lights are illuminated which grab attention as well...
Before having the luxury of a car, I used to walk from school to home (my mother gave me a ride to school in the morning before going to work), and there was always a crossing guard whom I talked to quite frequently. One thing she taught me about her job that annoyed her is that when she gave the hand signal to "go," most people take a long time to respond. Which makes me kinda wonder about the difference between any traffic control officer and a traffic light. When a traffic control officer is present, his/her presence overrides any other for of traffic controls (often traffic lights). But then why are people much less responsive to them? The only logical reasons I can think of are that these officers are living beings in the middle of the road so drivers might be scared of hurting them. Two, that these officers have a brain and could ticket one that isn't obeying local traffic laws. Or that the drivers' eyes need are poor and cannot see the officers' direction, but in that case they shouldn't be driving then.
In my area, it seems like you are either driving very fast, or very slow, always the extremes. I very, very rarely ever do drive at speed limit, usually above or below, but rarely close, even +/- 5 mph (8 kmph). The "rarely" is during situations where I'm following someone going at that speed, it's a known traffic lookout area to tag speed offenders, there is something wrong with the car or weather conditions.