There’s a shiny new set of traffic lights at Clarendon x Panorama, opposite Clarendon Elementary School’s playground.
(Literally shiny! They’re so new the post hasn’t yet oxidised to the usual dull gray.) They appeared suddenly, like magic. I drive by there several times a day, usually, and didn’t see them go up. One day they were just there, like great steel and glass mushrooms that had sprung up overnight.
“A good thing,” I thought. It’s opposite the Clarendon Elementary School, and it should make our kids safer. It’s the suspenders in addition to the belt of the conscientious crossing guards who patrol the place when school gives out.
“I hate those new lights,” commented someone last evening as he waited at the lights, red against the Clarendon traffic. There wasn’t another car in sight. No one crossed the road, not even a raccoon. “It’s needed like maybe twice a day, on weekdays. What about the rest of the time?”
“He has a point,” said a passenger in the car. “There isn’t much cross traffic here. They should just switch off the lights at 6 p.m.”
“Or convert them to flashing beacons,” said another.
“And,” the first speaker added, “It doesn’t bother anyone below Panorama. It essentially just affects our neighborhood.” [Which is true if you assume that most traffic on Clarendon goes south toward Laguna Honda Boulevard.]
So what does everyone else think? (If you leave a comment, don’t worry if it doesn’t show up until the next day; all comments are moderated as an anti-spam measure.)
FOREST KNOLLS NEIGHBORHOOD 