The great Bromley Boys traffic light controversy.

There is an incident in The Bromley Boys where I am being chased by skinheads, on my way home from watching Bromley. I am on my bike, they are on foot. I reach the traffic lights at Shortlands Station, which have just turned red. Luckily, they soon turn green and I make my escape.
Not so, according to an email I received this week. My correspondent tells me that this was simply not credible as "that particular sets of lights took an extraordinary long time to change." He even offered evidence to support his argument, saying that they remained red for "precisely the duration of 'That'll be the day' by Buddy Holly, 1min 40secs."
As a final assault on the veracity of my memory, he concludes: "So I fancy the lights were already red when you first set eyes upon them."
Pedantic? I'd like to say so, but as the writer became my best friend a few years after the book was set, I suspect his recollection is better than mine.