Running red lights. Am I just getting old, or was it always like this?

I have really, and I mean really started watching people drive.  I have been teaching both of my kids to drive, and my son has fallen in love with our miata. So I am hyper vigilant about other cars. What is it with people running red lights. I am certainly no angel, I try to squeeze through a yellow light.  I have been better since teaching my kids to drive.  Street survival school had a great line about the kids learning from the back seat.  That line brought me up short.  So I tried to tighten up my driving.

With all of that said, I have been watching people just run the flipping lights.  Not even just get caught with a yellow. It's red and you just go through.  We could stop paying taxes if they fined these people.

So, is it just here in Maine, or are red lights just now optional??

It seems like it's worse. Drivers that text and drive really scare me. I've thought about getting a 1 ton service type truck with a piece of oil field pipe filled with concrete as a front bumper. Text over into my lane and you're out of the gene pool.

I have lived in OKC for almost 18 months now. We are one of the largest cities (by sq mileage) in the country, and the city in general is really poorly laid out in regards to highways and such. 

I have never seen so many people run red lights as I have here. Like RED 1.......2........ and people will still blaze through. I have driven all over the country from Dallas, Houston, San Diego, New York, Nashville, etc. It's so prevalent here that you notice people don't just hammer the gas when the light turns green, you can watch everyone look both ways and slowly proceed to into the intersection and THEN hammer the gas. 

It does seem to be getting worse- people running lights, running stop signs, pulling into traffic without looking, and especially driving over the double yellow line around blind corners or crests have all been noticeably more prevalent in my area lately.  When you're on a motorcycle, the people driving up the middle of the road don't even move back over for you 

It is bad in Atlanta. I never hammer it leaving a green light, now I give a 1-2-3 count while rolling into the intersection while looking both ways. I pretty much expect someone to run it every time.

Maybe it is getting worse.  I noticed a huge uptick when I moved from Nova to Winston Salem.  Like you said, people blatantly running the lights, not getting caught in a yellow.  I thought it was just this town.

There's people that don't notice that it's red, and the ones that blow the light intentionally.

Cell phone use has unquestionably increased the numbers of the former category. It sounds to me like you are also seeing more of the latter.

I remember my first trip to New York City back in the 70s. I was fascinated to watch the New Yorkers continue through the lights after it turned red by staying close enough to the car in front of them that the cross traffic (which now had the green) could not advance into the intersection.

They would just keep going until there was a gap that allowed the drivers coming from the other direction to start into the intersection.

Here in the Chicago suburbs, the general word on the street is that the red lights were shortened so that the red light cameras could make more profit, but I don't know if that explains it at intersections that don't have the cameras. I think people are just getting more selfish, and there are more cars than ever before.

At the same time, I am very annoyed by people who stop 10 feet back from the white line at lights. That's pretty much an extra car that's not going to get through the intersection.

So I have been wondering lately why I am more often then not the first in line at the red light. I attribute it to two things, if possible to stop safely for a yellow I do so, and second I see many cars going through yellow and reds with plenty of time to stop.

I believe it is getting worse. NH seacoast reporting in.

Additional note, I had one of those safe driving monitors for 3 months last year in my 12 CRV commuter appliance. In that time I had 1 emergency stop, but it bagged me for 30 or so rapid decelerations. What where these, stopping for yellows when it was safe to do so at a controlled rate.  

slowride said:

At the same time, I am very annoyed by people who stop 10 feet back from the white line at lights. That's pretty much an extra car that's not going to get through the intersection.

The thing about those people is they often aren't close enough to trip the sensor in the pavement, so in some cases you can sit there forever without the light turning green.

As for running red lights, I see it a lot in Minneapolis as well.  A year or two ago I was nearly hit by a school bus full of kids running a red light. 

Here in NYC, they started installing delays for the walk/don't walk signals on the traffic lights.  Good idea, allows the 3 or 4 nitwits time to run the reds.  More traffic signals, more people, more vehicles.  Increases the odds.

I don't know if it's getting worse, but it is certianly very bad.  I don't drive that far on a daily basis, but I virtually always see red lights or stop signs run.  Also, people blocking intersections, blowing through crosswalks without looking, etc.  I saw someone hit a bicycle on the sidewalk yesterday.  Nobody EVER seems to check the sidewalk before driving accross it.  As a frequent pedestrian, it is amazing how little respect drivers have for stop signs and crosswalks.

It appears everyone is in a big berkeleying hurry and everyone else better get the berkeley out of their way.  

Funny you mention this, some jackass taxi driver in an AE101 wagon would've T-boned me after I moved off for a green light this morning, if I hadn't checked for red light runners. There's a decent delay between the red and green, so he had to run a good solid red to be in front of me at that time.

I think that intersection has a red light camera so hopefully he'll get his ass fined off.

Yeah, it's bad here.  Mixture of inattentive drivers who cluelessly blow through the intersection, and those who will drive through a red light because they've been waiting in a long line of traffic and don't want to sit for another cycle.

thedoc said:

I have really, and I mean really started watching people drive.  I have been teaching both of my kids to drive, and my son has fallen in love with our miata. So I am hyper vigilant about other cars. What is it with people running red lights. I am certainly no angel, I try to squeeze through a yellow light.  I have been better since teaching my kids to drive.  Street survival school had a great line about the kids learning from the back seat.  That line brought me up short.  So I tried to tighten up my driving.

With all of that said, I have been watching people just run the flipping lights.  Not even just get caught with a yellow. It's red and you just go through.  We could stop paying taxes if they fined these people.

So, is it just here in Maine, or are red lights just now optional??

A city in California stationed police officers at several busy red lights writing tickets.  Expensive tickets. Never paid for the cost of policing and made only a minor impact in accidents. 

stuart in mn said:

slowride said:

At the same time, I am very annoyed by people who stop 10 feet back from the white line at lights. That's pretty much an extra car that's not going to get through the intersection.

The thing about those people is they often aren't close enough to trip the sensor in the pavement, so in some cases you can sit there forever without the light turning green.

As for running red lights, I see it a lot in Minneapolis as well.  A year or two ago I was nearly hit by a school bus full of kids running a red light. 

I agree about cars failing to trip the green because they don’t  understand about sensors. As for buses, more and more of them have on board GPS systems that alert the district if we run lights. Depending on districts a driver may or may not get a warning before termination. 

However that only puts added pressure on drivers.  There is a real shortage and 25% a year turn over.   Start as early as 5:30 am end the day as late as 6:30 pm  for  20 hours a week pay at less than $20 an hour. Summer vacation no pay, winter and spring no pay, teacher conference etc no pay.   No benefits, we’re part time employees. 

.  Try driving a bus with 75 kids to keep an eye on Some of which are determined to distract the driver or put themselves in jeopardy  and a 40 foot long 8 &1/2 foot wide   Bus On residential streets that require using the whole road from curb to curb or even over the curbs to get around corners. All while following federal,  state, local, district,school, and company regulations and policies.  

Oh and schedules!!! 5 minutes late and the report goes in.  Getting the kids home some parents have the district on speed dial because If the driver is late, they are late for work..

Oh and the driver is personally responsible if any of the rules regulations or policies are violated and an accident occurs. 

WilD said:

It appears everyone is in a big berkeleying hurry and everyone else better get the berkeley out of their way.  

Current levels of self-absorption make the '80s look like the berking Summer Of Love.  And I don't mean just millenials, I mean berking everybody.

It was bad when I lived in Tulsa 20 years ago.  There were PSAs played on the radio where the governor was asking people to stop at red lights.

Just in the last five years or so, I think it has gotten as bad in Cincinnati as it was in Tulsa back then, if not a little worse.

I hate speed cameras but love red light cameras. They recently turned all the red light cameras in Ohio off and it makes me sad.

Duke said:

WilD said:

It appears everyone is in a big berkeleying hurry and everyone else better get the berkeley out of their way.  

Current levels of self-absorption make the '80s look like the berking Summer Of Love.  And I don't mean just millenials, I mean berking everybody.

This is what I came here to say. Rampant narcissism leads to poor social behavior.

It is getting worse. And while distracted driving is a big part of it, the red light cameras aren't helping. Giving out of state corporations control over light times to generate ticket revenue that goes mostly to the corporations is turning out how anyone with half a brain would expect it to; faster yellows, with more people trying to get through them to avoid longer reds means more people running lights. 

Of course that's not a blanket statement, there have always been some demented redlight timings around here, pushing 8 minute long reds with 3 minutes of green/yellow has been a standard at the intersection of routes 30 and 981, even without any opposing traffic since before I started driving. And I'm sure that particular intersection isn't alone it's just the first one locally that springs to mind. 

Actually yes, I can think of another one. Regardless of the number of vehicles inline, there are a few turning lanes that have a 30 second go window with 5 minutes of waiting for the next cycle. No camera, no weight sensors either just "berkeley you if you're turning" light timing. 

I remember when I drove a motorcycle and being worried about people running red lights.  That was 30 years ago.  Now I am worried driving a miata.  I watched kids driving out of a high school lot and could not believe that the kids didn't hit other cars, let alone kill someone.  These are kids whose parents thought I was nuts to send mine to street survival school.

Is it just the entitlement attitude of today?  We were doing an autocross one summer when someone started to drive through the course.  He drove past the gate keeper with a clip board, drove through some cones and the lot was taped off with yellow tape.  We red flagged the course.  When he was stopped and asked what he was doing, his response? "This is where I park!"

Maybe this is how people think nowadays.  "If only the light weren't so fast I would have made it"?  Blame someone else? I don't know, but I'm really starting to  be amazed by it.

I live in MA. It has been this way for years. I use to run more yellows but with time wisdom creeps in and I very rarely do that anymore. 

dean1484 wrote:

I live in MA. It has been this way for years. I use to run more yellows but with time wisdom creeps in and I very rarely do that anymore. 

With the way people drive around here (MI), it's probably safer to run the yellows.  I have only been in a handful of traffic collisions during my driving lifetime, and all of them have been hits from the rear when I was either stopped or slowing for lights/traffic. 

So here's a higher question- why are people in such a hurry that they feel the need to run a red light?

The basic drives are: 1) going to work, 2) going back home, 3) going on some kind of errand (short to and the back home- shopping, school, etc), 4) going to an appointment.

I can see the want to get back home asap, but that would cover people doing dumb things between 3-6pm.  

I don't know ANYONE who is super happy at work that they want to be there early.  Unless you have a clock to make, what's the point of being at work 60 seconds faster?

The rest- what is so important that you can't be 60 seconds later than you already are?

Seems like people think lights last for 10-20 mins, based on how they are so impatient.  But most are less than 1 min.  

It's kind of like the people who do 80mph, dangerously, to work.  You may save 2-3 min, cost you a bunch more fuel, and then create back ups due to your driving that costs others time.  If we all just do this together, we will waste less time commuting.