Red lights are apparently optional.
I should start documenting the crazy driving things I see more often because I'm really curious if some of these are a thing elsewhere in the country. And what I've noticed around here is that red lights are apparently optional.
Now there are always the cases of people who are just trying to beat the red light as it's changing and fail -- especially left turn signals. Around here it's not uncommon for two or three cars to just go through after the signal has changed.
What gets my attention is this happening when the light has been solidly red. Every now and then a driver just seems to decide "I've waited long enough." Other times it seems like drivers don't notice or don't care. The most glaring case was at a pedestrian crosswalk near my house. It's a busy street so there's an actual traffic light there. I was crossing, and the light had been red long enough that I was half-way across the street when an SUV coming down the road didn't even slow down, and blew right through the light.
Today as I was out running errands I saw a new take on it, though. There's an intersection where if you're going southbound on the road, there's a left turn arrow. But if you're going northbound on the same road, there's no turn arrow in that direction. So what happens is the southbound direction goes first, and for a while has a protected left turn. Then the arrow goes away and both directions go. There's never a protected left turn for the northbound direction.
As I'm traveling southbound (the direction with the left turn arrow) right after the light changes, I notice the front car waiting in the opposite direction (which currently has a red light) starting to inch forward. And after I pass and there are no cars behind me, this car then makes a left turn. No arrow or anything; just ran the red light to make a left turn. I even look in my rear view mirror and can see the light for this car is still red.
The mind boggles.
Now there are always the cases of people who are just trying to beat the red light as it's changing and fail -- especially left turn signals. Around here it's not uncommon for two or three cars to just go through after the signal has changed.
What gets my attention is this happening when the light has been solidly red. Every now and then a driver just seems to decide "I've waited long enough." Other times it seems like drivers don't notice or don't care. The most glaring case was at a pedestrian crosswalk near my house. It's a busy street so there's an actual traffic light there. I was crossing, and the light had been red long enough that I was half-way across the street when an SUV coming down the road didn't even slow down, and blew right through the light.
Today as I was out running errands I saw a new take on it, though. There's an intersection where if you're going southbound on the road, there's a left turn arrow. But if you're going northbound on the same road, there's no turn arrow in that direction. So what happens is the southbound direction goes first, and for a while has a protected left turn. Then the arrow goes away and both directions go. There's never a protected left turn for the northbound direction.
As I'm traveling southbound (the direction with the left turn arrow) right after the light changes, I notice the front car waiting in the opposite direction (which currently has a red light) starting to inch forward. And after I pass and there are no cars behind me, this car then makes a left turn. No arrow or anything; just ran the red light to make a left turn. I even look in my rear view mirror and can see the light for this car is still red.
The mind boggles.