Honestly right on red is so stupid. So many people don’t even slow down and they just go. Sometimes I’ll be waiting to turn right at red light and some dickhead in a behemoth truck behind me will start spamming their horn like they think I have the right away and can just mow down whichever pedestrians are in the crosswalk. I bike a lot and I have narrowly avoided being hit by a car turning right on red multiple times. One time I had a car graze my back tire which was really scary but fortunately I ended up okay.
To offer a counter argument.
Right on red the concept isn’t stupid, its stupid to just sit there when there’s not a car in sight.
The drivers, shitty driver tests and 0 enforcement is all dumb.
It’s supposed to be treated like a stop sign, you stop, look, and go when safe. Not roll through at max speed.
People also don’t seem to know that a red arrow equals a no-turn on red sign.
I’ve been seeing electronic no-turn on red signs that can turn on/off with the light cycle. So if the opposite lane has the left green, the sign tells you not to turn on red. One would hope they’re integrated into the cross walks too, (not that everyone uses those either).
I think the us has the worse road tests, mine was just some suburbs with 0 merges, no highways, a couple stops signs and maybe a light. Pretty much anyone driving for a day could have passed that thing, and that’s how we end up with the bullshit like “the fast cruise lane (pass lane)” “right roll on red” “the merger has right away” “merge on highway 20miles(32kmh) slower than traffic” “blinker optional” “blinker on only when half way through turn or merge” “break before blinker” “wave of death on two lane roads” the list could go on and on…
I know I’m being pedantic but I just thought it’s interesting that you said “there’s not a car in sight” when I thought the primary concern was drivers not paying attention to pedestrians crossing the street.
However, why is it more stupid to sit there when there’s not a car on sight only when turning right but not when going straight or turning left? There’s an argument for larger roads with many lanes, sure, but isn’t it the same when it’s only 1-2 lane roads?
You are correct, I should have said “Not a car, pedestrian or other obstacle in sight”.
The problem is absolutely people not paying attention when turning; they’ll fixate on the traffic coming from the left, and the moment there’s a tiny opening they’ll floor it and ram into stopped traffic or pedestrians on the right.
I would say its equally stupid to sit there with no car in sight. I guess this most often happens at night when little traffic. There are some light that seems to have a 60sec cycle and it sucks idling there for no reason. Roundabouts help, and over the last 10? years they’ve been appearing more.
Telling people to use their judgment to decide if they can just go regardless of red is a bad idea. People barley handle the right-on-red as it is.
Everything you wrote after this sentence told me that people are stupid, not necessarily the right itself. It makes a lot of sense, I’d like to have it in the EU.
Just trying to help where I can through pedantry. Had someone this morning use “all intensive purposes” and he was amazed at how much more sense the actual phrase makes. Recontextualized things for him a bit.
Honestly right on red is so stupid. So many people don’t even slow down and they just go. Sometimes I’ll be waiting to turn right at red light and some dickhead in a behemoth truck behind me will start spamming their horn like they think I have the right away and can just mow down whichever pedestrians are in the crosswalk. I bike a lot and I have narrowly avoided being hit by a car turning right on red multiple times. One time I had a car graze my back tire which was really scary but fortunately I ended up okay.
To offer a counter argument. Right on red the concept isn’t stupid, its stupid to just sit there when there’s not a car in sight.
The drivers, shitty driver tests and 0 enforcement is all dumb.
It’s supposed to be treated like a stop sign, you stop, look, and go when safe. Not roll through at max speed. People also don’t seem to know that a red arrow equals a no-turn on red sign.
I’ve been seeing electronic no-turn on red signs that can turn on/off with the light cycle. So if the opposite lane has the left green, the sign tells you not to turn on red. One would hope they’re integrated into the cross walks too, (not that everyone uses those either).
I think the us has the worse road tests, mine was just some suburbs with 0 merges, no highways, a couple stops signs and maybe a light. Pretty much anyone driving for a day could have passed that thing, and that’s how we end up with the bullshit like “the fast cruise lane (pass lane)” “right roll on red” “the merger has right away” “merge on highway 20miles(32kmh) slower than traffic” “blinker optional” “blinker on only when half way through turn or merge” “break before blinker” “wave of death on two lane roads” the list could go on and on…
I know I’m being pedantic but I just thought it’s interesting that you said “there’s not a car in sight” when I thought the primary concern was drivers not paying attention to pedestrians crossing the street.
However, why is it more stupid to sit there when there’s not a car on sight only when turning right but not when going straight or turning left? There’s an argument for larger roads with many lanes, sure, but isn’t it the same when it’s only 1-2 lane roads?
You are correct, I should have said “Not a car, pedestrian or other obstacle in sight”.
The problem is absolutely people not paying attention when turning; they’ll fixate on the traffic coming from the left, and the moment there’s a tiny opening they’ll floor it and ram into stopped traffic or pedestrians on the right.
I would say its equally stupid to sit there with no car in sight. I guess this most often happens at night when little traffic. There are some light that seems to have a 60sec cycle and it sucks idling there for no reason. Roundabouts help, and over the last 10? years they’ve been appearing more.
Telling people to use their judgment to decide if they can just go regardless of red is a bad idea. People barley handle the right-on-red as it is.
Everything you wrote after this sentence told me that people are stupid, not necessarily the right itself. It makes a lot of sense, I’d like to have it in the EU.
You are correct in my opinion. I don’t like how many people assume it’s a green arrow or that you must go if able, but I wouldn’t give it up.
Maybe it was autocowreckt but the phrase is “right of way”.
You’re correct. I wrote that at around 4 am and I had a variety of other errors as well on my first draft, that one happened to slip through.
Just trying to help where I can through pedantry. Had someone this morning use “all intensive purposes” and he was amazed at how much more sense the actual phrase makes. Recontextualized things for him a bit.
Not nearly as bad as left on green BUT yielding to oncoming traffic.