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Writer's pictureBrian Ceccarelli

What do Red-Light Runners Look Like?

Updated: Feb 13

Through the lens of red-light cameras, here is what they look like.



The drivers are not the reckless scofflaws that you might assume. Rather they are good drivers who run the red light a fraction of a second after the light turns red. Over 70% of violations look like the ones in the video. Notice that these violations are imperceptible to your eye. The human eye cannot look down and tell whether the front bumper of the car passed over the stop line while simultaneously looking up and seeing the light turn red. Without these billions of safe infractions into the red, the red-light camera business would be out of business. Now, recall the law. Red-light camera firms and their government partner actively advertise that the cameras are for safety. As you can see with your own eyes, the claim is false advertising. The government and camera company actively commit a felony against you. Beating the Light


By accelerating, it "looks like" some drivers are not obeying the yellow. It looks like they should stop. But the problem is that it would not be comfortable for the driver to make such a quick stop. So the drivers go. The kind of acceleration we see is exactly what traffic engineers demand of the driver as written in the traffic engineer's ITE Transportation and Engineering Handbook, p 756, (1982):




Engineering POV


There is a difference between the legal motion of traffic and the safe motion of traffic. While traffic engineers care that drivers are safe, they do not care whether drivers enter the intersection lawfully. In fact, engineers know they force drivers to enter intersections unlawfully. Engineers make drivers run red lights in order to make the intersections more efficient; that is, to increase vehicle flow through the intersection. Unfortunately, the traffic engineer also creates unsafe traffic movement. The traffic engineer, forces commercial vehicle drivers (like school buses), older drivers, turning drivers and impeded drivers (drivers slowing down for obstacles) to run red lights several seconds after the light turns red. This amount of time can easily be long enough so that cross traffic will get the right-of-way while school buses are still in the intersection, or while drivers are still turning left.

 

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Guest
Feb 14

The section you quote is from the 1982 version of the book. I don't know the most recent date of publication, but it has been updated multiple times since 1982, which mathematically is more than 40 years ago.

Is the language retained in the most recent update?

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Guest
Feb 12

I strongly disagree. While several of the instances shown are, as you say, only a fraction of a second after the red, others have adequate time to stop, especially if they would pay attention to the yellow. In fact, a few of them are "riding the bumper" of the vehicle ahead which itself is going through on the last second of the yellow.

Further, my own observation has been that of 4 or 5 cars parading though a red light, tailgating the last driver to push through the yellow. I have seen that many, many times while sitting a green light, unable to move forward.

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Guest
Feb 13
Replying to

Thank you Guest for your reply. First of all, the yellow is half the time to stop. Not the time to stop as you state. The yellow light gives the driver the time to go, not to stop, and requires that the driver goes at least the speed limit. It also requires that driver knows exactly the location of the point upstream from the intersection where "stop" turns to "go". There is such a point, but traffic engineers do not tell anyone. Traffic engineers also do not allow a driver to make the slightest mistake. Off by 1 foot, and the driver runs a red light. Beating the light is the requirement of the traffic engineer's yellow l…

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