5 Sod's Law Annoyances That Have Scientific Explanations

There's no better feeling than the one you get as you sail through a string of green lights (especially if they turn red just as you clear them). Unfortunately, this usually happens when you have all the time in the world to reach your destination. 

It's at 8:55am, when you've got your shirt on inside out and you left the house half an hour late because the cat threw up on your kid's bed, that you find yourself sat at one red light after another with your blood pressure reaching boiling point. No, this isn't just because you forgot to make a sacrifice to the god of traffic lights, it's probably at least partly to do with the fact that you're late in the first place.

Traffic management is a very subtle art, some might even say witchcraft, and sequencing traffic lights is a real balancing act. On a section of road with a big long string of traffic lights, they will probably all be set on a similar repeating cycle, let's say two minutes. This is cycle is designed to keep traffic flow moving steadily through. However, they calculate this based on the naive assumption that everybody is going to be sticking to the speed limit and driving in a nice, calm fashion - so when you go speeding through because you're late and stressed, you throw those careful calculations right out the window. 

If a light is timed to turn green as you approach it at 40mph, but you race up to at at 60, then it's still going to be red by the time you reach it. So really, the best thing to do when you're late is sit back, relax and take the time to come up with a good excuse for why you're 40 minutes late.