The human element of directing traffic. Sucks.

I have nothing against police officers. In fact, I applaud them for their service to the community. But when they are given a detail to direct traffic for the increased volume of pedestrians, on an afternoon when the Lowell Spinners is playing at the Edward A. LeLacheur Park, they really need to use a little more of their intelligence.

The reason traffic in big cities doesn't come to a griding halt is because traffic and crosswalk lights control the flow of pedestrians and vehicles. Now imagine what would happen if all the crosswalk lights stopped traffic to let pedestrians cross, as long as there were pedestrians waiting to cross. In other words, pedestrians always had the right of way. It would be impossible to commute with a vehicle!

There I sat, in traffic, watching two police officers direct traffic. Wait, they weren't directing traffic. They were directing pedestrians. The same people walking on foot who I passed 1/2 a mile back were walking by me and allowed to cross the intersection in front of me. There was a 1/4 mile of traffic backed up in either direction. It wasn't like there was a constant flow of people crossing the road either. The police officers would see people about 30 seconds away and let them get to the intersection and cross. Then they would see more pedestrians and the pattern would continue.

Please. Traffic needs to move too. That 300lb person 200ft away from the intersection can wait 30 seconds to let 50 cars go by! 😡

All I can say is thank god humans don't direct traffic in all intersections.