Nothing saying you have to go at red lights?

[path1]

Stopped at red light at inter section. Across the street is a white car that is also stopped at red light. Light turns green. The white car across the street starts to go. I still have some habits learned on the job over many years. I quickly glance left and right before I start. I see a nut job on my left that is going way to fast to stop in my opinion. That car T-bones the white car big time in middle of intersection. White car slides sideways into me, but very lightly. If I would of started the split-second the light turned color, it would have been me that was t-boned. Don’t know how bad passenger in white car is, but hauled away in meat wagon.

Drove truck many years. Now retired. If I remember right most crashes at intersections happen within the first 3 seconds of light color change. Good thing I’m still in the habit of taking a quick glance before entering intersections.


And amazing how plastic parts fly's into the air on newer cars.

[Mr_Mark1]

The year was 1989, I was stopped at the light at the corner of North Parkway and East Parkway in the curb lane of a divided street. I was in my new 1989 Nissan Maxima.

There was a large vehicle to my left so I couldn't see anything in that direction. The light turns green. I noticed that the large vehicle didn't move, so I didn't move. (Thank goodness!).

An older car flies through the intersection running the red light. I would have certainly been T-boned on my driver's side and maybe not be alive. Cars of the era didn't have airbags then, maybe front but certainly not side. I don't think I had a front airbag in that car.

Anyway, I always look both ways and it has certainly been a good idea doing so.

Safe travels,
MM.

[Bumpyroad]

sorta reminds me of once I was driving in the right lane and came up upon an entrance ramp in my large/tall Class A. a toy rice burner came down the ramp and glanced over to see about merging. he looked down where a car would be then in sort of a panic glanced up to see 10 ft of steel/fiberglass/aluminum, etc. in his way. he pulled in behind me. 🙂
bumpy

[rhagfo]

Bumpyroad wrote:

Sillybugs2 wrote:
honking because someone does not move on a green lit is technically illegal in my state. Only honk if immediate danger.

if the stupid SOBs don't move, I will eventually honk but i will give them a moment to engage their brain.
bumpy

Well where I live if you don't give some of the self absorbed yahoos a horn tap they will sit through an entire green light!!

Too busy texting or talking in their cell phone, scares the holly sh** out of me!!

I have replaced the OEM weak a** horn in my 2001 Ram with a twin trumpet air horn. Now being a 2001, I can just get a beep out of it, just enough to make the self absorbed dude wake up and actually drive.
If the action is repeated at the next light the beep is just a bit longer, but I don't lay on it.

[SparkDr]

We have recently begun to travel to Florida twice a year. I have no actual proof, but I swear the yellow lights between the green and reds are almost twice as long in FL as they are here in NY. One of these days I will remember to time it out in each locale for comparison, but for now I'll just have to continue to have my suspicions along with the unending question of why are they this way if my theory were to eventually be proven true.

[SuperiorBound]

Seems to me red light means go faster to beat cross traffic now that they have a green light. People are just to impatient me first these days.
Up here in good Ole minnesota in the winter time this can create a lot of problems

[Bumpyroad]

Sillybugs2 wrote:
honking because someone does not move on a green lit is technically illegal in my state. Only honk if immediate danger.

if the stupid SOBs don't move, I will eventually honk but i will give them a moment to engage their brain.
bumpy

[Sillybugs2]

honking because someone does not move on a green lit is technically illegal in my state. Only honk if immediate danger.

[wbwood]

I was hit at an intersection. I was in the middle of the intersection going through a green light when a car hit me and totaled my car. They ran a red light. They were found at fault, not only by the local PD, but by their insurance company. Thank God for witnesses as she tried to lie and said she had a green light.

[ctilsie242]

In Texas driver's ed I took way back in the 1980s, the handbook stated to look both ways when the signal changed to green. This advice has saved me many wrecks by people hoping to make it through a yellow or fresh red. As for horns, people honk at anything in Austin, (think NYC, 1970s where if you are fifth in line, light goes green, slam the horn,) so I ignore anything.

As for a drive cam, they are worth getting. Front one and back, if possible.

[RPreeb]

On a related situation, don't assume that because you are crossing a one way street that all traffic will be coming from the right direction. My dad got t-boned from the wrong way because he only looked where the traffic was supposed to be coming from.

Last summer I sat at a stop light on a one way street and watched a pickup with about a 25 foot camper come from the wrong way, then she freaked out seeing 3 lanes coming toward her and tried to turn off where there there wasn't room to get her rig around the corner. It took her almost 5 minutes before the cars on the road where she turned gave her enough room to swing wide enough, and she still ran the TT up over the curb and almost sideswiped a power pole.

I followed her a block west to the one way going the way she wanted. She turned into the center lane, drove a block, then tried to turn left from the center lane and took out the vehicle that was on her left. When I drove past that mess, all I could think was that she was having a really bad day.

[discovery4us]

One of the older vehicle operation safety classes taught when you see the light turn green in your head spell G-R-E-E-N (somewhere between 3-5 seconds) look both ways and then proceed.

You will get tired of all the helpful horns blowing and it will give you a better view of the cars running the red lights:)

[captnjack]

muskrat49 wrote:

captnjack wrote:
So what happens when you approach an intersection at speed and the light is already green? By your way of thinking one would have to slow down to ensure it is safe to enter the intersection.

The first thing you learn in defensive driving courses is to always assume the other driver is going to do the worst thing possible. (In my case, the defensive driving course was a private lesson from my truck driver dad.)

When you are coming up to a green light, you always anticipate:

1. The light is going to turn red after a, maybe, 2 second yellow. (I'm convinced some cities do this deliberately when they install red light cameras.)

2. The cars on the side streets that are moving aren't going to stop.

3. A car is going to turn right on red without looking at you.

Any questionable situation will find me laying on my brakes to slow down and be ready to avoid an accident. If you hit me from behind, it's your fault for tailgating.

I'm fully on board with defensive driving and situational awareness. But that is not what we are talking about here. I am refuting the notion that someone with a green light is at fault for getting hit by someone who runs a red light. And I am refuting the notion that a green light does not grant you the right to enter the intersection.

[muskrat49]

captnjack wrote:
So what happens when you approach an intersection at speed and the light is already green? By your way of thinking one would have to slow down to ensure it is safe to enter the intersection.

The first thing you learn in defensive driving courses is to always assume the other driver is going to do the worst thing possible. (In my case, the defensive driving course was a private lesson from my truck driver dad.)

When you are coming up to a green light, you always anticipate:

1. The light is going to turn red after a, maybe, 2 second yellow. (I'm convinced some cities do this deliberately when they install red light cameras.)

2. The cars on the side streets that are moving aren't going to stop.

3. A car is going to turn right on red without looking at you.

Any questionable situation will find me laying on my brakes to slow down and be ready to avoid an accident. If you hit me from behind, it's your fault for tailgating.

[captnjack]

fitznj wrote:
From what I remember from driver ed. a green light is NOT as carte blanche to enter/cross the intersection. A green light means " enter the intersection only if it's safe to do so"; So in your scenario, the white car is equally at fault as it entered the intersection despite the fact that it was not safe.

You on the other hand did not enter the intersection as you deemed it unsafe. Looking both way when the light turns green is prudent.

So what happens when you approach an intersection at speed and the light is already green? By your way of thinking one would have to slow down to ensure it is safe to enter the intersection.

Let's not overthink this. A green light is indeed carte blanche to enter the intersection. A car entering an intersection with a green light is not at fault at all when struck by a vehicle running a red light. The only legal requirement is that you do have an obligation to avoid an accident if it is possible to do so. Knowing someone was running a red light and proceeding anyway because you have the green light would be an example.