Cars running red lights

[Annoying Twit]

Most days on the way to/from work I cross the A50 on a crossing here: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.64764 ... a=!3m1!1e3

I'm getting very tired of the number of cars that run the red light. I have to push the button, wait for the lights to change, check the cars, and often find a car speeding through even though their light is red and my light ( the crossing light) is green.

It makes it harder to cross as often I have to wait until my light has been green for a while before cars start stopping.

Is there anything I can do about this?

[reohn2]

You could report it the police,claiming a couple of near misses

[thirdcrank]

For a number of reasons, a lack of enforcement being the biggy, many road users have come to treat traffic lights as advisory and only obey them if a collision is otherwise inevitable, and increasingly, that means a collision in which they will suffer. In short, if they aren't going to collide with a bigger vehicle they don't bother much about stop signals. Cyclists don't have a lot of credibility over RLGing BTW. (Where's kwackers?)

[mjr]

How fed up are you?

Easy: post any near-misses to www.collideoscope.org.uk

Harder: tell your local cycling campaign and persuade them to act upon it, possibly calling for RLJ cameras (fixed or temporary) on any problematic arms.

Start of a long road which might fix it and many other similar problems: find out if the cycling campaign is representing Vulnerable Road Users to the local Casualty Reduction Partnership (public-health+highways+PROW+police+others) and if not, maybe help them to do so.

[simonhill]

I call it crossing on "early red". I reckon getting on for 50% of drivers will cross the lights on early red. It used to be a bit iffy to go on amber, but now this is the norm.

The knock on effect is that you cannot pull away as soon as your light goes green, so everyone is delayed by this driving technique.

Cameras on many/most lights would cure.

[thirdcrank]

The truly unfortunate thing is that camera enforcement at lights could be used to reduce the "intergreen" when everybody is supposed to be stationary to create a safety margin, but which in reality is an incentive to ignore the lights to save time.

I'm convinced that universal camera enforcement - even if that meant prominent boxes at all lights with the cameras being rotated - would speed the flow of traffic considerably. There's no political appetite for this measure.

I think that cyclists advocating this risk being drowned out in the cries of derision, or have to accept the risk of some form of number plates for pedal cycles.

Stand-up comic: I have a mate who's a cyclist. He wants cameras at traffic lights. He's very photogenic...."

[Bez]

I'd stand by the crossing with a phone and take a few videos of what happens when other people use it, with a steady camera position that shows the carriageway lights, the crossing lights, and the crossing itself. Then glue them together, stick the full thing on YouTube, and email the link to the council and the police.

[Bmblbzzz]

I call it crossing on "early red". I reckon getting on for 50% of drivers will cross the lights on early red. It used to be a bit iffy to go on amber, but now this is the norm.

The knock on effect is that you cannot pull away as soon as your light goes green, so everyone is delayed by this driving technique.

Cameras on many/most lights would cure.

If this made people check their way was clear rather than seeing green and going, that would be a small degree of compensatory benefit. But I see no evidence that it does.

[sirmy]

Drivers, not cars, running red lights

[Wanlock Dod]

Push a pram into the road the instant the lights say you are allowed to cross. Pranging the front of their car on an old pram, and thinking they've just killed a baby might make them think about what they are doing next time. Keep going back to the charity shop for more prams if it continues.

[Cyril Haearn]

Push a pram into the road the instant the lights say you are allowed to cross. Pranging the front of their car on an old pram, and thinking they've just killed a baby might make them think about what they are doing next time. Keep going back to the charity shop for more prams if it continues.

+1

Trouble is too, the green time is usually too short, if one waits a moment to be sure they have all stopped one might not get across before the lights change again

At one junction I use often the only *safe* time to ride off is a moment b e f o r e the light turns green. If one waits for green one is almost hit by buses coming the other way who also have green

What I a l w a y s do after crossing: press the button on the other side, helps the next people who want to cross and slows down the motons

[kwackers]

Cyclists don't have a lot of credibility over RLGing BTW. (Where's kwackers?)

Here.

I find it easy to put drivers down.
"So you obviously have a problem with cyclists jumping red lights, yet I've never heard/seen you post about drivers jumping red lights and yet they actually kill around one hundred people a year doing so. Perhaps you can show me where you complain about their behaviour or if not then explain what your real problem with cyclists is?"

They usually mumble a reply about everyone should obey the law - but just keep pressing the point. If they can't demonstrate that they've also been vocal about car drivers jumping red lights then it's not jumping red lights they have a problem with, it's cyclists so what is their problem exactly?
Don't allow yourself to be drawn off a tangent.

Push it enough and you'll get down to the real reason.
Cyclists are freeloaders using their roads and they don't like it. They don't know what the law says nor do they really care. They simply don't want you there.

[thirdcrank]

Push a pram into the road the instant the lights say you are allowed to cross. ...

I've sometimes thought that a supermarket trolley would be good for this.

[JohnW]

Push a pram into the road the instant the lights say you are allowed to cross. ...

I've sometimes thought that a supermarket trolley would be good for this.

Stand watch by a set of lights, and I'd guess that, on average, there be one vehicle running the red light at every other sequence. Do you really suppose that a pram with a kiddie in it would bring out the best in a bad person?

[Bez]

I had a good one today. Stopped at a red (in the car) and the driver behind overtook me, across double white lines, to jump the light. Still, number plates stop people doing that, right?