My city's traffic planners designed the traffic light phases with safety (and possibly throughput) as their primary concern.
Apologies for the caps, but I have very strong feelings about this:
THERE'S NOT A SINGLE INTERSECTION THAT I CAN WALK THROUGH IN ONE PHASE
People being people just go on red. Drivers run through intersections way past late amber - especially on left turns. Someone assumed spherical humans in a vacuum and is probably happy with the results.
* We would be living in tiny cubicles and sharing amenities with N people (N is a function of whatever factors the authorities deem important.)
* Strapped to vertical planks for flights.
* Have perfectly circular(/spherical?) cities with poorer people commuting from farther rings.
* Work in tiny cubicles (This has already happened, thanks beancounters!).
* Children carted away to boarding schools to not disrupt routines of productive people and ensure optimal education (sounds familiar?).
* Industrial workers deployed to worksites for N months (N is a function beyond your control..)