hit the light

[CarloSsS]

Could anybody please tell me what "hit the light" in the following context means?

And, by the way,
if you just take this road,
you can get to the market way
faster than hitting the light.

The only thing that I can think of is that it's an ellipsis from "hit the light speed", but that's only a soft of wild guess.

[Grumpy]

It may refer to the fact that there are traffic lights on the other road. However, I'm no expert on modern phraseology.

[CarloSsS]

Yes, it could. But if that were the case, wouldn't there have to be plural--that is "lights" instead of light, which would be an ellipsis from the compound "traffic lights"? At least that's how I always hear natives to refer to stoplights, always plural.

[emsr2d2]

At a push, if it was referring specifically to hitting a red light (which would be the only way a set of traffic lights could cause a delay), then singular might be used.

Is there any more context in the piece that might give us a clue?

[CarloSsS]

There is more context all right, but it didn't help me much. Here goes:

What was that sort of
unusual flavor in it?
Pumpkin spice.
Pumpkin spice in the chili?
Yeah. It’s a trick
my sister, Lauren, taught me.
She’s more like my mom
than my real mom ever was.
She took off
when I was 12, so…


And, by the way,
if you just take this road,
you can get to the market way
faster than hitting the light.


You are so sweet
to show me around.
It’s no problem. I don’t get
out much with four kids.
Well, if you ever need me to
watch them, I’m right next door.
Oh, thanks.
How are the boys doing?
(…)

It's taken from here http://tosubtitles.com/drew-peterson...-english/42636

[emsr2d2]

There is more context all right, but it didn't help me much. Here goes:

What was that sort of
unusual flavor in it?
Pumpkin spice.
Pumpkin spice in the chili?
Yeah. It’s a trick
my sister, Lauren, taught me.
She’s more like my mom
than my real mom ever was.
She took off
when I was 12, so…


And, by the way,
if you just take this road,
you can get to the market way
faster than hitting the light.


You are so sweet
to show me around.
It’s no problem. I don’t get
out much with four kids.
Well, if you ever need me to
watch them, I’m right next door.
Oh, thanks.
How are the boys doing?
(…)

It's taken from here Drew Peterson: Untouchable 2012 English English | Subtitles|Subtítulos|

You're right, it doesn't help much! I clicked on the link but that page is so long I got fed up with scrolling down it and still not finding the relevant part. I can only assume that earlier in the conversation, they were talking about going to the market. The fact that that part starts with "By the way, ..." makes it sound as if the speaker has suddenly thought of some useful information referring back to a conversation they were having earlier. I think only that conversation would give us any hope of working out what they meant.

[CarloSsS]

You're right, it doesn't help much! I clicked on the link but that page is so long I got fed up with scrolling down it and still not finding the relevant part. I can only assume that earlier in the conversation, they were talking about going to the market. The fact that that part starts with "By the way, ..." makes it sound as if the speaker has suddenly thought of some useful information referring back to a conversation they were having earlier. I think only that conversation would give us any hope of working out what they meant.

Next time, you don't need to scroll through the whole page, just press CTRL+F and write "market", it'll find the only occurrence of the world "market" and that's the relevant part.

[SoothingDave]

It must be referring to an alternate route that avoids a red light.