Crosstown Traffic

The speaker describes a relationship as an obstacle to getting where he wants to go. He sounds impatient and frustrated: the other person seems difficult to understand and keeps slowing him down. The mood grows more tense through images of speeding and a possible collision, though the repeated warnings also give the song a playful, exaggerated quality.

The traffic language works as a metaphor for romantic conflict. “Hard to get through to you” suggests that communication is blocked, like a crowded road. Green and red signals imply changing feelings or a warning to stop, while a “traffic jam” pictures the relationship as stuck. The references to driving fast and not wanting to “run over” someone make the speaker’s impatience sound dangerous, even if the language is not necessarily meant literally.

The lyrics leave some uncertainty about the relationship. The speaker presents the other person as the cause of the delay, but the mention of “hit and run” and tyre tracks hints that both may be caught up in a messy situation. His claims that he has “better things” to do could express a real desire to leave, or simply exaggerate his annoyance. Overall, the song turns a strained romance into a comic, high-speed traffic problem.