Who is really running the red lights...

" The cameras catch everyone, including government workers driving on
taxpayer time. City vans. Prosecutors' sedans. And nearly 90 police
vehicles, all caught on camera going through red lights.

But it is the Chicago Transit Authority with the largest number of
tickets... by far. You might expect that since the CTA has 2,500 vehicles
on the road. But documents from the city's Revenue Department obtained
under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the CTA hasn't paid its red
light tickets in at least a year-and-a-half.

Last year, the CTA racked up 248 red light citations. As of February,
when ABC7 first started looking into this, only 16 of those tickets were
paid. The CTA accumulated $20,880 worth of violations. Since no one paid,
in theory, the fines would have doubled to $41,760. "

The cameras don't catch everyone. I have never been nailed for this.
Obey the law.

Do as I say, not as I do, right dumbass?

nate

If you really want to get riled up about double standards look at
millions of dollars in tickets that federal politicians, diplomats,
U.N. people, etc., get to walk away from every year. Hell the
diplomats are not even subject to our criminal laws.

And of course running yellow lights, though sometimes unavoidable or at
least reasonably justified, can be the first step down the proverbial
slippery slope. For one thing, it's to your benefit (albeit at the
expense of others) as long as you don't get hit or ticketed, so it's a
behavior pattern that tends to get worse, not better, once you're in
the habit. And since the light is soon gone from your regard, it's
easy to think that running the yellow is all you're doing, and kid
yourself about how much of the red you're catching -- especially in a
long vehicle, such as a bus.

Surely the drivers aren't instructed to do this. However, it must be a
tempting way to try and catch up with the timetable, especially if
traffic has been bad or an unusual number of people have been jumping
on and off and thus you're running a bit late.

It works too. But as with the same practice in smaller vehicles, it's
merely unlawful and a bit rude right up until it 's much more -- the
time you've got a car lodged under the bumper, or a pedestrian or
bicyclist Wiley Coyote'd across your windshield, and then there's no
do-overs.

--Joe

London, England is angry at American diplomats for not
paying the fee to drive in the city.

--
John Carr (j...@mit.edu)

There you go, you've admitted you run red lights.

There is no such thing as running a yellow light. As far as entering an
intersection goes, a yellow light and a green light have the same meaning.

Expense of others? Explain that.

If the light is yellow, neither of those should happen.

What gets worse? Entering an intersection when the light is not red is
what you are supposed to do.

Length has nothing to do with it. The light just tells you if you can
enter an intersection, nothing more. Red means you should not enter,
the other colors mean you can enter.

It's not unlawful. If you think it is, please point out the law that is
being broken.

Again, explain that.

If the light is yellow when you enter and the intesection is clear when
you enter, none of that should happen.
--------------
Alex

>Only dumbasses put bus stops BEFORE the intersection. Not only does it
>cause the problem you mention, it also needlessly blocks traffic from
>making right turns.

In NYC you will see that fairly often.
-------------
Alex

SEPTA does it the other way; the buses often go through the
intersection late in the red cycle. Since almost everyone else in
Philadelphia runs the lights early in the red cycle, probably the only
thing preventing collisions is the fact that buses are very large and
noticable. Possibly the drivers that still don't notice them have been
winnowed out already.

Doesn't legally matter in many states; entering on yellow is legal
even if your ass-end remains in the intersection when the light turns
red.
--
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but certain accounting practices can
result in a fully-depreciated one.

They should ask the UK government work out an agreement, then. But
the issue of unpaid parking tickets by British diplomats in NYC and
Washington D.C. might come up then.

Pondering of my original posting and of the "slippery slope" metaphor
might explain this.

Some fraction, perhaps a substantial fraction, of people who think they
are going through under the yellow are basically running a red light
and kidding themselves about it.

But suppose you aren't doing so, and aren't going to realize one day
that you *haven't* by slow invisible degrees started doing so. Is it
okay?

This may vary from state to state, though the trend in recent years has
been toward harmonization (plus or minus) on a uniform traffic code.

California's drivers handbook says this:
"Solid Yellow- A yellow signal light means "CAUTION." The red
signal is about to appear. When you see the yellow light, stop if you
can do so safely. If you can't stop safely, enter the intersection
cautiously."

If I may paraphrase: running the yellow is a special case of the
general principle that not everything that's legal is a good idea, and
though sometimes the right thing and/or the only thing to do, it should
be done with your head up and your speed down and your reflexes at the
ready.

Why? Because intersections are a prominent example of where things
happen, and signal transitions are when they happen. Going through on
the yellow -- especially with an extra burst of speed as you see so
often -- means you're entering a situation that you may usually presume
to be a lot more dangerous than the one you were facing fifty feet or
five seconds ago. Opposing traffic making a last-chance left turn,
cross traffic getting a head start on the green, an indecisive
pedestrian making a dash for it... all are things that can happen there
and then (all at once if you're really lucky).

And that's without a city bus punching the light to get back on
schedule!

There's even a school of thought that says traffic signals should
briefly turn red in all directions at transitions, but I'm not sure how
widely it has caught on, and *am* sure people would figure out how to
game that system (or when to flatly ignore it) for their short-term
individual benefit, just as they do all others...

Cheers,
--Joe

You're not obeying the law when you're driving 60mph in a 55mph speed
zone, hypocrite.