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.