Friday Furies - 10/9 - Five Way Intersections

Here there are many five way intersections and it's really starting to annoy me. They make it very difficult to navigate the streets. The first time i hit one today was on my way down to the main road. To get to the other side of the street, i had to cross two roads. Do you know how complicated these things are? It doesn't like much. i mean there are four way intersections everywhere. You'd think adding another little road wouldn't do much, right? Wrong. Let's look at the situation. A four way intersection: cars travel in a straight line or turn at an angle of 90 degrees. The dynamics are simple. Step one:  The cars on the horizontal street wanting to travel straight through the lights, east or west, go. The little green man tells the pedestrians wanting to walk west or east to proceed their crossing the road safely. Step two: The cars wanting to turn the corner to travel north or south than do their driving. Step three: Their lights turn red. Step four: Repeat aforementioned steps, replacing east and west with north and south. Step five: Repeat. Done. You know when the little green man will tell you to walk and you know it won't take long. Now, let's look at scenario two: the five way intersection. i can tell you right now that the situation is far more complicated. So complicated, in fact, that i can't explain it here, because i have not a clue how it works. There are cars wanting to go straight, turn left, turn the other left, turn right, turn wherever. And it's not like you can even tell: a car will have its left indicator on but it could be turning either way - the first left, or the other left. So it makes it harder to jaywalk. Pedestrians want to cross everywhere. The car traffic lights follow no logical order, so how are you supposed to tell when the green man will tell you to go? So you're standing there waiting and it just never turns green. There are cars going everywhere and when you think it must be your turn by now, more cars come at you. So most people here resort to the obvious: fuck waiting for the green man, cross as you please. But again, this is very difficult to time. You have to check in five places for a start, and at least one of those places is harder to see more than a few meters away for oncoming traffic. Then there's the whole indication issue - which left is he wanting to turn to? And of course, in these busy streets, you know you're going to have to run, just in case the lights decide to change without warning or someone decides to turn suddenly and before you know it, there's chaos as people brake and hit their horns. Then there's always the awkwardness of realising you could have crossed, easily, but you're standing there like an idiot waiting for the green man because you're scared of these manic cars. Meanwhile people walk by you, look quickly for cars, and casually walk across. And whenever you try to do that you take two steps onto the road, and behold, your fears come true as you hear brakes and shouting. At this point, you have to retreat quickly back to the sidewalk with people all around seeing you in your shame as you wait, still, for the green man giving you the all clear. And even then , you find yourself rushing to get across because the people in their cars are impatient to turn and start doing so, edging closer toward you, threatening to knock you over if you take your time. i am yet to figure out how to conquer these mad intersections, but maybe one day i will find the solution.