Are the lights broken or not?

One of my (many) frustrations is waiting at lights when there is no traffic going the other way. Well, maybe I should call the council and tell them the lights are busted? But are they? We hear that lights often get controlled by super-computers (which apparently don't work very well!) so we could assume that if we wait at lights for no reason then there must be a fault. We also know however that some are just bog-standard lights which aren't optimised in any way and therefore like most people, I simply assume that the lights are probably working 'normally' but are simply crap. Also, of course in the UK, our councils are famous for indifference, lack of motivation, lack of funding, basically it is everyone else's fault except theirs so most people would rather cut off their own arm than attempt to get anything like service from the council. For this reason, we simply suffer, grind our teeth, swear, get violent and wonder why it can't all be better. In Japan, they have a different outlook on things. Whatever you do, you do it to the best of your ability (I think they used to do that here once). That means if a traffic light is not working pretty much as close to its optimum then it is fixed, no questions need to be asked. Turning traffic lights off at night? no problem, re-phasing them at certain times? easy, removing sets that have outlived their use? Certainly. Not sure what it will take for us to get back that way, perhaps a large town or county being so well run that it inspires its residents to all give to society and see the positive outcome. I, for one, will not be holding my breath :)