I think we’re mostly in agreement about a lot of this stuff. A lot of drivers here don’t drive defensively, and that is a problem. Clearly it’s a problem everywhere and it’s much more reasonable for drivers to expect red light runs especially on fresh reds than to expect every driver to never run a red light ever, especially at high speeds when checking to see if someone is going to run the very much non-fresh red on the conflicting direction.
My main point is that “red light running” is purely a distinction based on the state of the LEDs. It’s dishonest to make a meaningful distinction between someone entering an intersection on a yellow vs a very fresh red. Especially compared to someone on their phone who blows into a full intersection of cars on a non-fresh red which is what’s actually dangerous (because of the people there with right of way).
I live in Phoenix which is apparently the red light running Capitol of the country. It’s gotten a lot better now that Phoenix and other cities have extended their yellow light timings and red only periods. As it turns out not all red light runs are equal.
If you slam on the brakes at high speeds on a modern car, you will stop in much less than 2 seconds. In practice you need some time to react as well, but the time to react to an anticipated event is short and should be about a quarter of a second.
The “state of the LEDs” that you keep referring to is the signal that tells other drivers they may proceed. Stop minimising it.
So time to react is a quarter second, meaning the driver isnt allowed to look at anything but the traffic light when approaching one? Sounds dangerous.
Do you have glaucoma? You should easily be able to see the light change when not looking directly at it. And once you’re past your decision point, you don’t even need it in your field of vision.
In the U.S. speed limits are high enough where stopping within 2 seconds (including reaction time) would require slamming on the breaks.
Also yellow lights should not be a static time. See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFLRXSxgPw
I think we’re mostly in agreement about a lot of this stuff. A lot of drivers here don’t drive defensively, and that is a problem. Clearly it’s a problem everywhere and it’s much more reasonable for drivers to expect red light runs especially on fresh reds than to expect every driver to never run a red light ever, especially at high speeds when checking to see if someone is going to run the very much non-fresh red on the conflicting direction.
My main point is that “red light running” is purely a distinction based on the state of the LEDs. It’s dishonest to make a meaningful distinction between someone entering an intersection on a yellow vs a very fresh red. Especially compared to someone on their phone who blows into a full intersection of cars on a non-fresh red which is what’s actually dangerous (because of the people there with right of way).
I live in Phoenix which is apparently the red light running Capitol of the country. It’s gotten a lot better now that Phoenix and other cities have extended their yellow light timings and red only periods. As it turns out not all red light runs are equal.
If you slam on the brakes at high speeds on a modern car, you will stop in much less than 2 seconds. In practice you need some time to react as well, but the time to react to an anticipated event is short and should be about a quarter of a second.
The “state of the LEDs” that you keep referring to is the signal that tells other drivers they may proceed. Stop minimising it.
I agree that red light running leads to deadly collisions. However that’s not the whole picture. You have to have nuance.
So time to react is a quarter second, meaning the driver isnt allowed to look at anything but the traffic light when approaching one? Sounds dangerous.
Do you have glaucoma? You should easily be able to see the light change when not looking directly at it. And once you’re past your decision point, you don’t even need it in your field of vision.