5 ms·

My car, with myself and a friend inside, almost got ran over by a truck when the driver didn't even bother to slow down for the yellow light and crossed at high

by goshx 10y ago

My car, with myself and a friend inside, almost got ran over by a truck when the driver didn't even bother to slow down for the yellow light and crossed at high speed the red light. Luckily he didn't hit anyone. I totally agree with you.

elif 10y ago
I don't know your situation, but my experience driving big heavy stuff is that sometimes a yellow light does not provide enough warning to stop 55mph * crazy weight, and you sometimes find yourself with a dilemma of entering an intersection just after a light has changed, or a few seconds after the light has changed.
- kevin42 10y ago
  It sounds to me like the driver shouldn't be going 55mph in the first place, if they can't stop before the yellow light turns red. It's similar to icy roads. If you go the normal speed limit and you slide into another car, it's your fault. The fact that the speed limit was higher than your speed doesn't release the driver from responsibility.
  - jlarocco 10y ago
    That part's not really up to the driver, though. It's the responsibility of the traffic engineers to make sure the yellow light is long enough to accommodate reasonable braking time and distance for all of the traffic that can be on the road, travelling at the posted speed limit. They can lower the speed limit, increase the yellow light duration, or put up a sign limiting the max vehicle weight. It's not reasonable to expect every driver to know detailed information like yellow light times for every intersection and section of road.
    - goshx 10y ago
      In this particular road and crossing there is a sign with flashing lights indicating "PREPARE TO STOP WHEN FLASHING". It was flashing while the crossing light was still green to indicate that it would turn yellow pretty soon, but the driver still didn't slow down.
    - Naritai 10y ago
      Unfortunately there is also a profit motive in yellow light times [1]. This can cloud the decision-making significantly. [1]http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/redlight/ct-yellow-light-timing-met-20141223-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/redlight/ct-yell...
  - loeg 10y ago
    Icy conditions are maybe predictable (ok, it's under 0°C outside), but yellow light times (edit: the time between the light turning yellow and the light turning red) are not.
    - jdavis703 10y ago
      Yellow light turns are predictable in that you know that they'll happen, just not when. So if you have a heavy load or other adverse conditions you should slow down to a speed where you could stop at the correct distance. Software should do an even better job of predicting the weight to speed to stopping distance ratios.
      - loeg 10y ago
        You don't know how long the yellow light will last before turning red. That time is variable from light to light and essentially unpredictable to drivers.
      - marcosdumay 10y ago
        What is a safe speed to drive when you take into account that the yellow light may last from less than a second to 20 seconds?
  - tomohawk 10y ago
    In my state, the minimum yellow light length is 4 seconds, but it's obviously not uniformly applied. You can get a device to time the yellow lights from the state if you get a ticket, and then use that info to dispute it. Not much help if there is an accident. It's a big enough problem that there's a group trying to do something about it. http://shortyellowlights.com/standards/ http://shortyellowlights.com/standards/ EDIT: according to the link, the yellow light for a 55 mph road should last 6 seconds.
  - randyrand 10y ago
    but the problem is you don't know how long an yellow light will be. They are all different. State to state. Town to town. Hour to hour. No standardization. Chicago was caught making their yellow lights purposely short on some intersections to make more money.
- devrelm 10y ago
  Right. I actually wonder how self-driving Semis will handle such a situation. Given that it's all math at that point, I wouldn't doubt if regulations surrounding minimum yellow-light timing are updated to more accurately represent the stop time of heavy loads. Otherwise it should be easy to prove in court that stopping in time would be impossible given the speed limit & weight restrictions (or lack thereof) in place at a given intersection.
  - Naritai 10y ago
    I sincerely hope there will be such a technocratic solution to this problem. Recall that there was a trend in the late '00s where cities shortened the yellow light time so they could reap greater fines from red light cameras. Having a definitive length of time that yellow lights 'should' be will be helpful.
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    You shouldn't be driving a vehicle through a non-freeway (i.e. a road with stop lights) at a speed where you can't stop in time. In many jurisdictions that is considered reckless driving. If your vehicle is too heavy then you (or the software) needs to slow it down.
- goshx 10y ago
  This road is primarily used by heavy trucks. There are signs with flashing lights indicating "PREPARE TO STOP" before the crossing exactly for that reason. That driver sure knew what he was doing.

by goshx 10y ago

elif 10y ago

I don't know your situation, but my experience driving big heavy stuff is that sometimes a yellow light does not provide enough warning to stop 55mph * crazy weight, and you sometimes find yourself with a dilemma of entering an intersection just after a light has changed, or a few seconds after the light has changed.

kevin42 10y ago
It sounds to me like the driver shouldn't be going 55mph in the first place, if they can't stop before the yellow light turns red. It's similar to icy roads. If you go the normal speed limit and you slide into another car, it's your fault. The fact that the speed limit was higher than your speed doesn't release the driver from responsibility.
- jlarocco 10y ago
  That part's not really up to the driver, though. It's the responsibility of the traffic engineers to make sure the yellow light is long enough to accommodate reasonable braking time and distance for all of the traffic that can be on the road, travelling at the posted speed limit. They can lower the speed limit, increase the yellow light duration, or put up a sign limiting the max vehicle weight. It's not reasonable to expect every driver to know detailed information like yellow light times for every intersection and section of road.
  - goshx 10y ago
    In this particular road and crossing there is a sign with flashing lights indicating "PREPARE TO STOP WHEN FLASHING". It was flashing while the crossing light was still green to indicate that it would turn yellow pretty soon, but the driver still didn't slow down.
  - Naritai 10y ago
    Unfortunately there is also a profit motive in yellow light times [1]. This can cloud the decision-making significantly. [1]http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/redlight/ct-yellow-light-timing-met-20141223-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/redlight/ct-yell...
- loeg 10y ago
  Icy conditions are maybe predictable (ok, it's under 0°C outside), but yellow light times (edit: the time between the light turning yellow and the light turning red) are not.
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    Yellow light turns are predictable in that you know that they'll happen, just not when. So if you have a heavy load or other adverse conditions you should slow down to a speed where you could stop at the correct distance. Software should do an even better job of predicting the weight to speed to stopping distance ratios.
    - loeg 10y ago
      You don't know how long the yellow light will last before turning red. That time is variable from light to light and essentially unpredictable to drivers.
    - marcosdumay 10y ago
      What is a safe speed to drive when you take into account that the yellow light may last from less than a second to 20 seconds?
- tomohawk 10y ago
  In my state, the minimum yellow light length is 4 seconds, but it's obviously not uniformly applied. You can get a device to time the yellow lights from the state if you get a ticket, and then use that info to dispute it. Not much help if there is an accident. It's a big enough problem that there's a group trying to do something about it. http://shortyellowlights.com/standards/ http://shortyellowlights.com/standards/ EDIT: according to the link, the yellow light for a 55 mph road should last 6 seconds.
- randyrand 10y ago
  but the problem is you don't know how long an yellow light will be. They are all different. State to state. Town to town. Hour to hour. No standardization. Chicago was caught making their yellow lights purposely short on some intersections to make more money.
devrelm 10y ago
Right. I actually wonder how self-driving Semis will handle such a situation. Given that it's all math at that point, I wouldn't doubt if regulations surrounding minimum yellow-light timing are updated to more accurately represent the stop time of heavy loads. Otherwise it should be easy to prove in court that stopping in time would be impossible given the speed limit & weight restrictions (or lack thereof) in place at a given intersection.
- Naritai 10y ago
  I sincerely hope there will be such a technocratic solution to this problem. Recall that there was a trend in the late '00s where cities shortened the yellow light time so they could reap greater fines from red light cameras. Having a definitive length of time that yellow lights 'should' be will be helpful.
- jdavis703 10y ago
  You shouldn't be driving a vehicle through a non-freeway (i.e. a road with stop lights) at a speed where you can't stop in time. In many jurisdictions that is considered reckless driving. If your vehicle is too heavy then you (or the software) needs to slow it down.
goshx 10y ago
This road is primarily used by heavy trucks. There are signs with flashing lights indicating "PREPARE TO STOP" before the crossing exactly for that reason. That driver sure knew what he was doing.