Another post has reminded me that I wanted to bring this up. Apologies if its been done to death.

I’m back in a job where I’m motoring around the place a lot more, and my! where did all the red-light ignorers come from?

Seems to be a habit thats sweeping the nation.

Whats going on?

Are these the same as red light jumpers? Let them get on with it, survival of the fittest etc..

where did all the red-light ignorers come from

It starts with a mummy red light ignorer and a daddy red light ignorer who love each other very much…

Barstewards, and they’re usually the slowest cyclists on the route and you end up having to re-pass them four seconds after the lights go green.

Sorry, meant: car drivers ignoring red lights. Its like there’s no lights there!

Ah right, can’t say I’ve noticed, but after 10 yrs in Madrid and now being in rural Shropshire I doubt I will.

Ah, see.

Drivers round here have worked out that red lights don’t apply so long as you drive through them really slowly, like kids playing musical statues.

If the car in front goes threw a red light, and theres a car next to you, a 2 lane road, sound the horn for a long blast and look at the driver next to you, with a shocked face, the driver who went through the light will think its him or her and not you if he looks in his rear view mirror.

Or on a dark night, just flash your lights once, the driver will think he has been flashed by a traffic light camera.

I have noticed this too – people now seem to think that ‘just turned to red’ means ‘just one more car can get through’. Or two.

PJM1974 – Member

Barstewards, and they’re usually the slowest cyclists on the route and you end up having to re-pass them four seconds after the lights go green.
Not just me that happens to then!

I do it and love every second of car free road.

almost got taken out the other day by a car not so much sneaking through, more ignoring the lights totally.

But yes i am seeing a fair few drivers treating red lights as optional, it is worse at ped. crossings.

If the car in front goes threw a red light, and theres a car next to you, a 2 lane road, sound the horn for a long blast and look at the driver next to you, with a shocked face, the driver who went through the light will think its him or her and not you if he looks in his rear view mirror.

Or on a dark night, just flash your lights once, the driver will think he has been flashed by a traffic light camera.
AWESOME work there project.
The guide books for Madrid used to advise British tourists to NOT STOP as the lights change to red because the two/three cars behind WILL expect to be able to go through. Therefore if YOU stop on the red YOU would be seen as the cause of the accident.
That said the trick when waiting for light to change to green was to watch the lights of the other traffic flow, when they changed to red then irrespective of your light still being red, you could be confident that green was coming and therefore launch yourself…

It has tightened up a bit recently.

Cougar – Member

Ah, see.

Drivers round here have worked out that red lights don’t apply so long as you drive through them really slowly, like kids playing musical statues.

here in sheffield, it’s ok* to drive through a red light if you drive really quickly, like a scalded cat.

(*it must be ok, no-one tells them off…)

(*it must be ok, no-one tells them off…)

If I remember correctly, it’s not actualy illegal to jump a red light. 😯 Only if you are seen doing so, and then you are only likely to have problems if those doing the seeing are police or you cause an accident. (This might be an urban myth).

I see it a lot too and there is a pedestrian crossing near us (pelican crossing) that people just ignore people on. Saying that it is a commuter town and they could be late for the train hence making it acceptable*

*may or may not be true in their heads as reasonable justification

(This might be an urban myth).

I’d say so.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070332

Junctions controlled by traffic lights

175
You MUST stop behind the white ‘Stop’ line across your side of the road unless the light is green. If the amber light appears you may go on only if you have already crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to stop might cause a collision.

[Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 36]

176
You MUST NOT move forward over the white line when the red light is showing. Only go forward when the traffic lights are green if there is room for you to clear the junction safely or you are taking up a position to turn right. If the traffic lights are not working, treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction and proceed with great care.

[Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 36]

(bold ‘MUST’ means it’s backed up by law, as per the footnotes)

edit: Too slow

Theres a mini roundabout on an estate road that joins a main road near me. I usually leave at 6am most mornings and turn left at this junction.(there are in total 16 lights on the roundabout!)
Its a clear road with a good view both way so if its red I ignore it.

Im not wasting my life sat for nothing just because this countries gone mad.

Ah, see.

Drivers round here have worked out that red lights don’t apply so long as you drive through them really slowly, like kids playing musical statues.

This.
I was stopped at a set of red lights, sat in my advanced stop box thing, just holding onto the railings on the left. The car behind me stopped at his line then, while the lights were red, crawled slowly forward, through the advanced stop box and about 5ft out the other side of it!

WTF?! Which part of STOP do you not understand? But you can be sure that if I’d have jumped the lights, I’d have had a yell of “don’t jump lights!” maybe with a “pay your road tax” for good measure from the first car past me…

BTW thats why more sensible countries have flashing amber lights, allow turns with the flow or turn them off at night.

@IanW

Let’s hope it doesn’t catch on and everyone starts choosing which laws to obey because “this countries gone mad”

Traffic lights on a mini roundabout would be pretty unusual I think

bold ‘MUST’ means it’s backed up by law, as per the footnotes

It must fall into an area that the Spanish would call “alegal” which is neither legal nor illegal. Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 36 gives a provision that emergency vehicles can cross the white line in the course of duty, which does open things up a bit.
Alegal basically means that although it might be illegal to do something, it is widely known and accepted that no-one is going to do anything. Otherwise a 5 min (100% green light) journey across Chester can take over 25 mins at 3am if you get unlucky, not very beneficial for taxis, or anyone else for that matter. Aka common sense. 😛

I might buy a camera flashgun and keep it charged and ready to go in the car. Red light ignorers round our way will be nervously waiting for the post for a few weeks. Mwahahaha….******F L A S H******

I’m not talking about common-sense, middle-of-the-night, carefully slipping through on red. What I’m seeing a lot of is in the middle of rush hour. Pretty blatant stuff.

I am shocked that so many of you admit to going through red lights.

Only times I have ever gone through a red are to move out of the way for an emergency services vehicle.

Weird.
I rarely, if ever, see anyone jumping red lights.

This.
I was stopped at a set of red lights, sat in my advanced stop box thing, just holding onto the railings on the left. The car behind me stopped at his line then, while the lights were red, crawled slowly forward, through the advanced stop box and about 5ft out the other side of it!

Haaa I see this everday! But for some reason the ones that do this then take 2 seconds to set off once the light turns green! If i was a passenger I’d be asking what they thought they were doing. It’s bizarre

Worst part about it is that if you set off on a green light and get hit by someone chancing the red, it’s your fault.

derek_starship – I like the idea!

for years driving in that London I’ve taken care of stopping at ambers. the general view seems to be amber or ‘just gone red’ is ok. So as per Don Simon’s Madrid scenario, if you do ‘arbitrarily’ decide to obey the law and be a responsible driver, you risk getting whiplash from the dope behind… it can be quite challenging trying to look where you’re going as well as checking the driving standards of the guy behind in your rear view mirror at the same time 😯
does make me laugh that everyone loves to have a pop at bankers and politicians for breaking the law whilst doing much the same ourselves at plenty of opportunity…