crossroads

Yes, so what happens when two or more city streets intersect?

When two or more streets intersect, my mental system quickly activates itself. It's a reminder to check if that’s the right direction or if I should keep going or make a turn. Firstly, because they give you choices, 4 or 6 directions to go, compared with the streets. Secondly, there are street signs which most of the time, only located at the intersections, as an efficient way to annotate the urban street network. Thirdly, it's a place people get an excuse or chance to stop and think, and make a decision. Then after making the decision, my mental system started relaxing and deactivating itself, leaving my body moving, coz here comes the street, on direction.

There can not always be crossroads in our life course, and also can't be without crossroads, need a balance. Sometimes you can foresee and expect in confidence that's the right direction, e.g. walking on Manhattan is predictable, with the numbers naming the streets and the tall symbolic buildings to remind me the direction; sometimes, you cannot, have to make a guess.

Crossroads are magic in that it's the only chance people walking on two streets could encounter. After the encounter, maybe depart again, but at least, there's an encounter. Imagine, without the crossroads, that would be sad. People are heading to the same direction, but will not meet, or even know the existing of the parallel partner at all.

Crossroads are shared by different flows, with different and some time, conflicting interests. Simply setting a rule of the game: say, red traffic light means stop, when people and vehicles are following the rule, the crossroads turn to a gate.

Walking on the streets in Manhattan, the simplest strategy to play with the intersections game rule is to make a turn, and cross the street with the "little walking guy" sign first, instead of standing and waiting for the switch of the traffic light, or to be more precise, the traffic itself (we tend to ignore traffic lights), even though, ironically, sometimes, that may not be more efficient since it may turn out no need to cross the street, it just gives an illusion that our time hasn't been stolen by the traffic light.