A meditation on traffic lights in the wake of today's Omaha storms

The fierce microstorms which ripped through North Central Omaha today (see social media pictures posted by KETV below) left thousands of homes, businesses and many traffic lights without power.
     AKSARBENT, which had to do some errands in the aftermath, was astonished at how much faster its provisions foray became when traffic lights became defacto four-way stop signs.
     Granted, only a fool would suggest that lights be vanquished from busy intersections of double and triple-laned streets where, even if every driver were attentive (a improbable assumption), it would be difficult to for any sane person to sort out a first-in-first-out order, leading to confusion, road-rage incidents and inevitable fender-benders.
     Nevertheless, our trip dramatized how much better and more efficient human beings still can be when compared to comparatively crude, once-sequence-fits-all automation.
     Safety first, of course, but there's no free lunch: those soulless red light commissars exact their price: throughput and the background frustration you sublimate so deeply that your unexpected relief at its departure comes as a happy surprise.