It’s time to ban ‘right-on-red’
It’s time to ban ‘right-on-red’
I'm from Italy and the first time we had a family vacation in the US we were honked a lot because we would stop at red lights. Only after 3 days we discovered that there's the "turn-on-red" rule and we were confused: if it's red, why can you turn?
In Italy (but I guess in all Europe works like this) we have a different approach on these situations: if the driver is at a traffic light and can make a turn, but it could be unsafe, the light turns into a blinking yellow light, so that the driver know that it must check well before going on.
Other things they need to ban in driving:
Shitheads who refuse to use turn signals. Not shoulder checking. Not Leaving a gap. leaving your high beams on. Not Getting to the side for emergency vehicles. Doing multiple lane changes all at once.
These are already not legal but too many drivers do this shit. No one is reinforcing it.
Looking for excuses to Turn off your brain just cuz your foot is on the gas pedal should be when you have your licence taken away.
I bike whenever possible so I drive too, so I've seen both sides of this coin.
- Too many rubbish motorists get impatient while driving. Apparently waiting ten seconds is too big an ask for them. I've stopped at intersections waiting to turn right and idiots behind me honk because they didn't see the "NO TURN ON RED" sign.
- There is an intersection where there are two roads crossing at right angles—an ordinary intersection, but one of the roads leading into it has a steep slope, so when I go down that slope on a bike to catch a green light, I end up going pretty fast. The problem is that motor traffic turning right often fails to give way to me (or others) in the bike lane going straight forward. This leads to an unusually high number of collisions and near-collisions, luckily none leading to serious injury—yet. This is in a college campus so motor traffic is slow.
Pedestrian scramble is probably more appropriate than banning right on red, and is proven to greatly reduce accidents. No need to have cars sitting idling longer than needed and adding to congestion. Ive also worked in a downtown area where pedestrian traffic could get so heavy cars couldn't turn right on green.
Meh, shits actually quite rare. https://one.nhtsa.gov/people/outreach/traftech/1995/tt086.htm
When folks are talking to you in percentages and avoid absolutes you can assume they are massaging the message to be more palatable to the intended audience.
What's the fatality rate for right-on-green? That scenario always seems more dangerous to me than right-on-red unless you have a light where pedestrians get a cycle to themselves. You have the same danger with not seeing a pedestrian, but now you aren't even supposed to stop first, just make the check and decision while moving.
Man, this one is tough. I enjoy not having to wait, but I've experienced this cognitive overload both as a driver getting surprised then aborting my turn abruptly and as a pedestrian when the driver is too busy watching traffic to look at me, making me nervous about stepping into the crosswalk.
I'm not surprised to read this rule causes accidents.
Considering my sister just got hit because of a right on red while she was crossing an intersection... yeah its just a mess.
She's okay ish. Very bruised. Lucky nothing else happened.
Dude hit and ran.
Very frustrating.
"The driver inches into the crosswalk, watching the oncoming traffic to his left and waiting for a gap to appear. He finally spots one and accelerates into the turn"
Um, what? There are cars zooming across the crosswalk, which definitely wouldn't have a crossing signal. In this imaginary scenario, a pedestrian is trying to sprint across an intersection against a crossing signal.
There are enough horrific traffic situations created by cars and urban congestion, do we really need to make up a stupid and unlikely one where the pedestrian is the idiot? If anything, this article should be against right on green. Good luck with that.
The problem is that it's too easy to get a driver's licence and retain it without updating or testing in any way. Make it more difficult for terrible drivers who are inattentive or unable, to get a licence in the first place. In the 90's and 00's I worked as a Paramedic in a number of major cities and it was terrible then. Now it's even worse. There are so many distractions and everything moves even faster. Some people just can't manage it and should not drive.
It was banned in Montreal and it should be banned everywhere, yes.
I see people get close calls every week in my small 20k "friendly" town. Makes me miss my city dearly.
The stop lights are so dumb, it's just rubbing off on drivers.
I'm also hoping people will stay behind the crosswalk instead of slowly inching forward until, I kid you not, they are literally in the intersection with their back tire over the second line.
Nah, thanks though.