Let me interject a couple of points here.

First, is that I was hit years ago by a distraught DRUNK girl who blew a stop sign crossing a major street. Her drunken boyfriend passenger was ready to fight me....until he realized who I was.

Second, I've noticed that it is much more of a concerted effort to to get stuck in an inbetween stop or go situation on the west coast than it is on the east coast because I've found that city streets move faster and the yellow lights longer, that it is easier to get into and through the intersection before a red light. On the east coast, if you went through the red light, it was far more likely to be deliberate and keep in mind that my observation is that city streets in SoCal have a higher speed limit than in the Northeast which helps in that regard.

 

I would have to agree with this, having driven in most major cities in the US. East coast in general, new england more-so, seem to have shorter yellows and smaller intersections, central and west seem to have much wider intersections and longer yellow. Nothing studied, just impression.

Probably gets back to grid designed cities from the ground up vs horse and buggy east coast cities.

 

Hmmm...so who are you?

Ken

 

A billionaire playboy CEO of a large multinational corporation who had a former R&D engineer dig up some old engineering designs for an offroad vehicle try and blackmail me for $10mil a year for life.

 

Ok as a police officer I should give my lights here.
And what I will say is what counts in Cyprus traffic system.

So...
1st light green--->you can go straight or turn left
red ---->you cannot go straight or turn left

2nd light green----> you can turn right
red -----> you cannot turn right

Is the second light red there?
If so you are not allowed to be in the area I highlighted If you are on the right lane, willing to turn right. When red turns on automatically sensor tricks the lense of camera and photo is taken therefore violation is done.

PS1. Cyprus has RHD cars so we drive in left side of roads.
PS2. Don't go against law

Hope I helped.
Drive safely.

 

I think the general idea is nobody is going to argue that running a red light is a criminal action and doing so on purpose should involve serious punishment. Even doing so by accident is just as bad as it shows inattention.

However, the presence of red-light cameras has shown to simply shift the group of accidents to a different source. In this case, less intersection accidents and more rear-ending accidents. All while the city gets rich off tickets which do nothing to stop a person from running the light. Finally, if/when the amount of tickets drop cause people behave themselves, cities are finding ways to keep revenue up by shortening yellow lights and endangering the public.

There have been quite a few studies to show that extending the yellow light even one second will cause a huge drop in accidents and overall incidents of running the red.

Someone mentioned there being a lot of deaths from people crossing the road as well. Honestly I've found that even in major cities people cannot negiotiate intersections. Too often whether it's in Chicago or here in Phoenix people simply think they can walk whenever they want without obeying traffic signals.

Sorry but whether you think you have "right of way" or not, my car is bigger than you.

I see people J-walk all the time and take their time crossing major streets not caring if you have to stop for them or not. Then when these people get hit people insist it was negligence on part of the driver.

Point is, at an intersection everyone has responsibility to follow the rules. Not doing so means risking harm and if you get hit crossing on a "don't walk" or running a red you deserve whatever happens to you.