by "AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
Published 03/22/2017 at 14:36
by "AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
Published 03/22/2017 at 14:36
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STARS: 3
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Allowing motorists to cross a red light “if a stop light is unresponsive, and no one is coming the other way.”
This strikes me as a very bad idea.
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
03/22/2017 at 14:40, STARS: 0
I could see the argument FOR- that often motorcycles may not be substantial enough to activate the sensors...
But I can’t possibly ever see anything bad happening from this. Ever. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
"DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time" (dc3ls-)
03/22/2017 at 14:41, STARS: 3
Eh, I can agree with it. Where I am in Texas we have timed lights (a huge pain in the ass.) and one day there was no traffic, except for one left turn lane. The light messed up and would only go green for literally one second.
Thankfully, there isn’t a camera there and people just went anyway. After looking of course.
"Tripper" (tripe46)
03/22/2017 at 14:42, STARS: 2
Hah funny that they’re passing a law over it allowing for common sense decisions. If you’re sitting at a read light for two minutes and no one goes by and the light doesn’t change, I’m rolling regardless of the state.
"Stapleface" (patrickgruden)
03/22/2017 at 14:44, STARS: 0
What could possibly go wrong? I get the point, but this just seems like a REALLY bad idea.
If they want to do this, there has to be some caveats to it. It probably shouldn’t be allowed during high traffic times. Similar to how a school zone speed limit works. And it should only allowed when crossing a two lane road. I don’t want to see someone in a horse and buggy crossing a 6 lane highway get crushed by a semi. Just sounds like a bad idea.
Edit: I also want to see how this works with a traffic cam. And I want to see someone do it in front of a cop. I imagine it’s totally up to discretion on how long one should wait.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 14:44, STARS: 1
Use it at select intersections at between certain hours and I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s safer than the legal method of “right on red oh wait I forgot I need to go the other direction silly me haha”.
Besides... if you can’t see any traffic, they can’t see you. If they can’t see you they can’t hit you. Who’s to say this doesn’t happen anyway? I mean it comes to the same thing as changing lights to flashing red and yellow at night. It’s basically a stop sign.
"McMike" (mcmike)
03/22/2017 at 14:44, STARS: 0
They have that law in VA for motorcycles. You have to wait two cycles of the light, or two minutes, whichever comes first. Once you wait, you can treat it like a stop sign.
It’s not very often that I get to use it, but there are a few lights I just can’t seem to trigger.
I love it.
I do see how it could be abused and/or misunderstood, though.
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
03/22/2017 at 14:45, STARS: 1
I’ve run a couple of red lights after determining that they were indeed malfunctioning. It takes a while to prove that, though. In my case, there were other cars in front of me that waited a long time too (I seem to recall that one or two ENTIRE songs played on the radio during my time waiting), and it became pretty clear that the red light was not going to change.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 14:50, STARS: 0
Basically if you can see cross traffic you shouldn’t go. If a cop is in the cross traffic and sees someone they should be able to ticket them. Otherwise? No harm no foul. No traffic, why wait?
And as far as buggys and semis... any 6-lane highway set up so that buggys can level cross generally are low-traffic. Many have stop signs instead of lights. This is essentially treating a light like a stop sign... and as that doesn’t appear to be an issue now, I don’t see the problem (apart from a taxpayer standpoint) just because your “stop sign” now costs many times as much.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 14:54, STARS: 1
It’s safer than the technically legal method of “right turn+U turn”, so it makes total sense.
But it falls into the same category fighting higher speed limits based on fear of the imagined resulting fallout, only it’s a more reasonable fear. Which begs the question: How does this get through while speed limits remain awful?
"fourvalleys" (fourvalleys)
03/22/2017 at 14:55, STARS: 1
if you can’t see any traffic, they can’t see you
This is only true if your car is the exact same size as your eyeballs. Your bumper could definitely stick out past a tree or a fence that obscures your vision.
"Tekamul" (tekamulburner)
03/22/2017 at 15:03, STARS: 1
I’m not sure why they put it in as a law.
As a motorcyclist, I am forced to run reds every time I commute either very early or very late, as there are a couple lights on my route that do not recognize motorcycles, and do not ‘cycle’ without picking up a vehicle in the non-preferred direction.
I’m happy with the current methodology. Just wait a long time until you have a good excuse, then go.
"Tripper" (tripe46)
03/22/2017 at 15:09, STARS: 1
I agree I don’t see the right turn + u turn very often, but when I do I’m like “whatthefuckareyadoingyadumbcunt!”
I can’t answer that last one. Hate the rules controlled by fear mentality.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 15:13, STARS: 0
Obviously applying this to areas with good sightlines. Like I said select locations... though I guess not so much “select locations” as “unselect locations”. Like is done now with right on red being generally allowed unless marked otherwise due to conditions at a particular intersection.
But you just reminded me of two more things that bug me:
- Stop lines set too far back. In some situations, they make sense. Like left turn lanes where there isn’t a raised median. Keeps you back from people who may cut the corner, and you don’t need to see anything because you aren’t moving. But for everyone else, it needs to be where you can see around the corner. I mean legally speaking, correct practice for turning right on a red is to pull up to the line, stop, pull ahead a matter of feet to where you can check traffic, stop again, clear=go. This also applies to two-way stop signs. It makes a lot more sense to just pull all the way up in the first place. Crosswalks obviously are viewed as an issue for this, but I don’t see that they have to be. Back them up so you can fit a full vehicle in between them and the intersection. On intersections that are big enough for THAT to be a problem, sightlines are usually good enough-- just keep the other lanes back a bit and you’re good.
- Obstructed views at corners. Main roads are pretty good for this, but secondary and residential can get stupid fast. Especially with corner lot houses and people putting up fences. And businesses that like to stick their signs right on the extreme edge of the road. We have codes and the like for the stupidest things, why not for this?
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
03/22/2017 at 15:15, STARS: 0
There are some red lights that are programmed to last even longer than that. (It used to be even worse .)
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 15:16, STARS: 0
What they are doing is turning a set of lights into a roundabout. Hint, hint.
I’ve done it myself. Not often, but when I do I just feel like I should turn and get it over with. But if a cop sees one he can’t do jack, if he sees the safer one he can nail my ass to the wall...
Idiocy.
"facw" (facw)
03/22/2017 at 15:17, STARS: 0
Seems smart to me. It’s incredibly annoying to deal with a stop light with a broken detector.
"Tripper" (tripe46)
03/22/2017 at 15:18, STARS: 1
I forgot that we were still talking about when the road was clear. I was referring to people doing the right on red +u turn in heavy traffic. Which I have seen more than once!
That is the way that I always thought about it before when I have gone through a light. “Any reasonable cop, wouldn’t ding me for rolling a light when no one is around, but if he does I was wrong and that’s that.”
"fourvalleys" (fourvalleys)
03/22/2017 at 15:24, STARS: 2
You bring up a very good point, actually. There’s a T-intersection near me that always gives me a headache.
You see, I have to make a right turn when I get to the T-intersection. The intersecting road is one lane in each direction. When I’m turning right, I’m really only concerned with oncoming traffic coming from my left. So I pull forward a bit in the right lane to see traffic from the left. No big deal.
However, people turning left next to me will always - ALWAYS -pull way past me to see cars coming from both directions. Always. They pull way forward. So now I’m stuck at a stop sign and can’t turn right until both directions are clear.
I have a tiny car! You can see above and around me! I waste so much time waiting at that stupid stop sign because of this.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 15:25, STARS: 0
That’s just stupid. But laws can’t fix stupid.
On a related note, we have some people up here who seem to think the u-turn is inherently dangerous. They like to do 3-point turns instead. In traffic. When they have 4+ lanes to use.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 15:33, STARS: 0
In their current form, T or X intersections suck. I’m fundamentally opposed to the concept of a left turn on a main road. Turning right and making a u-turn is far better (I mean properly, like
here
, not as a means of running red lights). Alternately replace them with roundabouts, though I prefer roundabouts to stay in intersections with 2 or less lanes each way.
"Tripper" (tripe46)
03/22/2017 at 15:34, STARS: 1
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 15:40, STARS: 0
Basically “mfw”
"fourvalleys" (fourvalleys)
03/22/2017 at 15:49, STARS: 2
I’ve always thought
this
was a well-planned T-intersection... The right lane of the straight road is always green, but all other lanes have a normal, signaled intersection.
Typically, there are dividers or a raised curb in that hashed area, but not always. It keeps traffic flowing forward. It works well, because the straight road is a major road with most traffic heading in that direction (whether turning or continuing straight).
Now, combine that with a separated right-turn from the minor road where there’s always a green right-turn arrow with a merge. Like this one .
You see that sign? Right turn does not stop. After you turn, there’s a merge. It works pretty flawlessly. I’ve heard this intersection used to be a horrible bottleneck when it was a normal signaled intersection. But this works well because the road you’re turning onto is a smaller road with one traffic lane, and there isn’t usually much traffic to merge into.
"wafflesnfalafel" (wafflesnfalafel1)
03/22/2017 at 15:52, STARS: 0
Isn’t that just for motorcycles? (Maybe I’m thinking of something else..)
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
03/22/2017 at 15:56, STARS: 1
Lake street east bound past the entrance to 290 does this. If you’re going straight east, you never have to stop. It’s pretty nice.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 15:57, STARS: 1
Wow, who’d have thought that traffic keeps moving when you don’t make it stop all the time...
I like that first one. Though the middle lane seems kinda pointless. I guess it helps it flow better than by forcing both lanes to merge or something? Less unfamiliar drivers panicking at the last second?
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
03/22/2017 at 16:00, STARS: 0
I did a right + u the other day. But it wasn’t to get through a light, it was to make a left. You see, I was in the right lane on a curvy road with just enough traffic that when we came around a curve and saw the road after this stop light was closed I didn’t have the opportunity to move over to the left turn lane, I was stuck going right, which would have taken me back to work. So right + u it was. The road to the right also doesn’t have many turn offs it other opportunities to turn around, so right at the intersection was my only option. Multiple cops saw me and gave no fucks.
"facw" (facw)
03/22/2017 at 16:03, STARS: 0
Not bad, though you’d probably be better all-around with a roundabout in those cases.
"facw" (facw)
03/22/2017 at 16:04, STARS: 0
That method still isn’t legal if you are stuck in a left turn lane that won’t turn green.
"fourvalleys" (fourvalleys)
03/22/2017 at 16:05, STARS: 1
Hah!
I think you’re right. The lane seems pointless, but what about someone who decides not to turn left while sitting in the turn lane? Yes, I know it’s a bad decision, but you can’t keep people from making bad choices. That lane could serve to help prevent them from changing lanes into 50mph traffic.
"facw" (facw)
03/22/2017 at 16:08, STARS: 0
Well I mean it is nice to make that explicitly legal, but fining someone for not staying a permanently red light is dumb regardless.
How much of an issue is bad detection for motorcycles? I know it’s a big issue for bicycles. Some places have special markers to help bicycles find the detector, but I’ve never seen one for motorcycles:
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 16:09, STARS: 0
1. Most of the lights that do this in my experience are secondary or residential crossing a main road. Which mostly are a single lane each way. The main roads seem well attended to.
2. You can’t just sit there all day, either. Gotta do something. Blatantly going through is illegal too. You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place... fuck the rules. If it’s safe, go.
"Tekamul" (tekamulburner)
03/22/2017 at 16:14, STARS: 1
I think it depends greatly on the age of the infrastructure.
That bicycle sign leads me to believe it’s for machine vision detectors. Around here, almost everything is inductive loops.
"facw" (facw)
03/22/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 0
The bike sign is actually for loops, helps you make sure you are lined up right on top of a loop.
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
03/22/2017 at 16:21, STARS: 0
The middle lane stops to give vehicles making a left from the subordinate road a place to turn into.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 16:30, STARS: 0
I get that. What I meant was, why run it through at all? Who would sit at a light and wait while the lane beside them keeps moving? Just end that lane and let it start again beyond the intersection. Like in this highly skilled drawing:
The only thing I can think of is that perhaps it flows better when the option is still open to use both lanes rather than cramming people over. Dunno.
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
03/22/2017 at 16:33, STARS: 1
Highly skilled indeed! That pre-light merge might stifle traffic. I’d argue that a better option is to have a left lane merge for the turning traffic, but this would require a larger median and left lane merge situations can also slow traffic.
Clearly, the only viable solution is an intersection in which every direction can travel in every other direction without stopping!
"AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
03/22/2017 at 17:24, STARS: 0
Per the article it was, but they ended up expanding it to everyone.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 17:45, STARS: 0
Agreed. It’s popularly termed “roundabout”.
"wafflesnfalafel" (wafflesnfalafel1)
03/22/2017 at 20:37, STARS: 0
yikes... yeah agree - not a great idea.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
03/22/2017 at 20:41, STARS: 1
because there are morons that dont understand you cant go 65 in fog.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
03/22/2017 at 21:08, STARS: 0
I dont have a problem when the lights near me switches to blinking red after 10. However this seems like a terrible decision when some asshole shows up, who’s running late and thinks “I can make this”
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
03/22/2017 at 21:46, STARS: 0
They claim the limits are for “fair weather”, so the doesn’t even register. Idiots gonna idiot. Laws won’t stop that.
"bhtooefr" (bhtooefr)
03/23/2017 at 05:00, STARS: 0
So you’re supposed to sit at a malfunctioning red forever?
"fhrblig" (fhrblig)
03/25/2017 at 10:59, STARS: 0
I’ve seen several of our traffic lights in Colorado have problems when it snows, or if there’s construction materials around. One intersection by my work is notorious for being unable to see cars in the snow. I will run it if it makes me sit through two cycles.