“you could have stopped but didn’t” vs “you should have already been stopped but weren’t”
Basically, when you come to a yellow light, there are two ways you can look at the situation: “can I safely stop before reaching the intersection?” or “can I make it through the intersection before the light turns red?” The idea behind “yellow running” regulations is that drivers should be asking themselves the first question, not the second.
How the fuck does a court much less a cop make that determination? As long as they’re going at or under the speed limit I see no problem with “running” yellows.
My understanding is that, at least where applicable in the US, it’s pretty rare to get a ticket for running a yellow. So it might be one of those things that never actually comes up, or only when part of another charge.
Ok now how do we factor in reaction times? Should drivers be expected to keep their eye on the LED instead of checking if anyone on an opposing direction is going to run the red light instead?
A standard generous reaction time is part of your standard stopping distance. Did you not learn this as part of learning to drive?
Yes, you should be watching for traffic lights changing as you drive.
I see I shouldn’t be asking if you learnt this, because you obviously never venture out from underneath your bridge except to eat passersby and be a pillock on the internet.
My point is that blindly teaching drivers about traffic rules makes them extremely unprepared for the reality of driving. I’ve run red lights accidentally many times. It happens. I’ve precented collisions by LOOKING AT THE ROAD and knowing when a driver is going to run a yellow or red when I’m turning left/stealing the intersection. You’re treating every red light run the same. It’s like saying speeding on the freeway by 15mph is just as dangerous as speeding by 15mph on surface streets. The latter is MUCH more dangerous by like, at least two factors of 10.
If you accidentally ran reds many times, you need to stop driving right now before you cause a serious injury or death. I’m not exaggerating. You’ve admitted you’re unfit to drive.
If you can’t monitor the road ahead and spot when a light changes your eyes or attention are not sufficient to the task. Maybe you can be retrained, but it’s important you do that rather than continue as you are until forced to stop due to a catastrophe.
I’m not saying this as a rebuke. I just think no-one should be driving if they can’t reliably stop for red lights.
I reliably stop at red lights. I’ve either run lights within the first second of it turning red or intentionally after checking that it’s safe. Maybe 5 times total.
No amount of drivers ed and giving people tickets will stop people from running fresh reds, even accidentally. The only things that help with the consequences is making people understand this, raising intersections, and longer all red periods.
No-one runs a red accidentally except through inattention. Whichever it is, it’s an attitude incompatible with driving. Those people need to be removed from behind the wheel.
With red, the context doesn’t matter. You run a red light, you get fined. With yellow, the context does matter: you only get fined if you clearly could’ve come to a stop safely, but didn’t.
The severity of the fine also differs (talking about Germany here). If you run a red light you get at least one “point”, which is a semi-permanent mark on your record that will lead to more severe punishment if you rack up too many of them. If you endangered someone, caused an accident, or the light was red for more than a second, you also get your driver’s license taken away for a month. You don’t get any of that with a yellow light, and the monetary fine is also much lower.
Holy shit, then what’s the difference in those places between a red light and a yellow light?
“you could have stopped but didn’t” vs “you should have already been stopped but weren’t”
Basically, when you come to a yellow light, there are two ways you can look at the situation: “can I safely stop before reaching the intersection?” or “can I make it through the intersection before the light turns red?” The idea behind “yellow running” regulations is that drivers should be asking themselves the first question, not the second.
How the fuck does a court much less a cop make that determination? As long as they’re going at or under the speed limit I see no problem with “running” yellows.
My understanding is that, at least where applicable in the US, it’s pretty rare to get a ticket for running a yellow. So it might be one of those things that never actually comes up, or only when part of another charge.
My only guess would be something like “speeding in order to pass through a traffic signal”
If you were significantly more than your stopping distance in front of the light when it changed, you should stop - if you didn’t, you’re liable.
Ok now how do we factor in reaction times? Should drivers be expected to keep their eye on the LED instead of checking if anyone on an opposing direction is going to run the red light instead?
A standard generous reaction time is part of your standard stopping distance. Did you not learn this as part of learning to drive?
Yes, you should be watching for traffic lights changing as you drive.
I see I shouldn’t be asking if you learnt this, because you obviously never venture out from underneath your bridge except to eat passersby and be a pillock on the internet.
My point is that blindly teaching drivers about traffic rules makes them extremely unprepared for the reality of driving. I’ve run red lights accidentally many times. It happens. I’ve precented collisions by LOOKING AT THE ROAD and knowing when a driver is going to run a yellow or red when I’m turning left/stealing the intersection. You’re treating every red light run the same. It’s like saying speeding on the freeway by 15mph is just as dangerous as speeding by 15mph on surface streets. The latter is MUCH more dangerous by like, at least two factors of 10.
If you accidentally ran reds many times, you need to stop driving right now before you cause a serious injury or death. I’m not exaggerating. You’ve admitted you’re unfit to drive.
If you can’t monitor the road ahead and spot when a light changes your eyes or attention are not sufficient to the task. Maybe you can be retrained, but it’s important you do that rather than continue as you are until forced to stop due to a catastrophe.
I’m not saying this as a rebuke. I just think no-one should be driving if they can’t reliably stop for red lights.
I reliably stop at red lights. I’ve either run lights within the first second of it turning red or intentionally after checking that it’s safe. Maybe 5 times total.
No amount of drivers ed and giving people tickets will stop people from running fresh reds, even accidentally. The only things that help with the consequences is making people understand this, raising intersections, and longer all red periods.
No-one runs a red accidentally except through inattention. Whichever it is, it’s an attitude incompatible with driving. Those people need to be removed from behind the wheel.
You really haven’t seen some light timings. Lots of cities make yellow lights really short.
People say “stopping distance” with many different definitions all the time. Also it’s different per state.
That is not any kind of problem.
I don’t understand
With red, the context doesn’t matter. You run a red light, you get fined. With yellow, the context does matter: you only get fined if you clearly could’ve come to a stop safely, but didn’t.
The severity of the fine also differs (talking about Germany here). If you run a red light you get at least one “point”, which is a semi-permanent mark on your record that will lead to more severe punishment if you rack up too many of them. If you endangered someone, caused an accident, or the light was red for more than a second, you also get your driver’s license taken away for a month. You don’t get any of that with a yellow light, and the monetary fine is also much lower.