4 ms·

I miss right on red every time I drive outside the US. Right on red is a blessing, and it makes a lot of sense. Why would anyone want to take it away?! The onl

by tasn 3y ago

I miss right on red every time I drive outside the US. Right on red is a blessing, and it makes a lot of sense. Why would anyone want to take it away?! The only exception is maybe next to bike lanes.

dventimi 3y ago
If you were told that getting rid of it would lower pedestrian fatalities, and you believed that, would YOU want to take it away?
- PakG1 3y ago
  Sure, except Americans may also have a weird obsession with driving that makes them oblivious to pedestrians, whereas many other nations may be more aware of pedestrians and thus have fewer fatalities per capita. I have no data to back up such a statement. Just anecdotal experiences.
  - sshine 3y ago
    ...pe-de-strians? What's that? Walking people??? Have they lost their car? You have to know what it is to see it. :-D
- detourdog 3y ago
  I found the statistics in the article were not presented in a coherent manner. I couldn’t tell if right on red had a greater impact or not.
- cykros 3y ago
  If it's really pedestrian fatalities we're concerned about, we should be implementing red right-facing arrows, which are on when the walk light is on. Right on red, unless that arrow is on. Perhaps a blinking yellow arrow for when it isn't, just to avoid the ambiguity. Or, when you're walking into the road, maybe make sure that drivers nearby see you. I played Ingress and Pokemon Go for years, in the city, at night, for years. Perhaps it's that I knew it put me at heightened risk so I paid more attention, but I really have a hard time understanding why people think that drivers are the only ones who need to pay attention when they're in the street.
Johnny555 3y ago
As a driver, I love right-on-red. As a pedestrian, I hate it -- it generally results in drivers stopping past the stop line, or not stopping at all as they roll into their right turn, and many times they aren't even looking to the right for pedestrians, they are only looking to the left for traffic. As much as I love the right-on-red as a driver, I think it should be ended because drivers aren't responsible enough to use it safely. Perhaps when (if?) self-driving cars are ubiquitous it can be revisited.
- cozzyd 3y ago
  Even worse than being a pedestrian is being a cyclist. Right on red makes it dangerous to get in front of the light queue by passing on the right
  - fiddlerwoaroof 3y ago
    Or, we could just ban this unsafe practice of cutting in the light queue and make bicycles follow the rules of the road like other vehicles.
    - xigoi 3y ago
      Then car drivers will complain that the slow bicycles are blocking them.
  - cykros 3y ago
    When I was a cyclist, at least when there were multiple lanes, I'd hop to the left of cars turning right. When there is one lane, you do sort of have to pay attention to blinkers. Well designed bike lanes, where they exist, typically already follow this pattern. If you're going straight it's pretty silly to be to the right of traffic that is turning right.
  - nunez 3y ago
    As another cyclist, agreeed, but to be fair, cyclists run reds and traffic controls all of the damn time. Shits maddening.
CalRobert 3y ago
Because it leads to dead pedestrians. I walk a lot and right on red is a curse, drivers often only look left for traffic instead of right for pedestrians before turning. Coupled with hoods so high you can't even see kids or short people walking in front of your vehicle it's very dangerous.
- cozzyd 3y ago
  The last two vehicles which nearly ran me over in a crosswalk have been pickup trucks... Not sure if they have shitty visibility or if pickup drivers are less likely to conceptualize there might be pedestrians....
- tasn 3y ago
  I think there are two bigger problems here: people turning when there are pedestrians and the car size inflation. These are not inherent problems with right on red.
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    Yet right on red seems to correlate with drivers not paying as much attention to pedestrians and people getting killed https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223000696?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259019822...

by tasn 3y ago

I miss right on red every time I drive outside the US. Right on red is a blessing, and it makes a lot of sense. Why would anyone want to take it away?! The only exception is maybe next to bike lanes.

dventimi 3y ago

If you were told that getting rid of it would lower pedestrian fatalities, and you believed that, would YOU want to take it away?

PakG1 3y ago
Sure, except Americans may also have a weird obsession with driving that makes them oblivious to pedestrians, whereas many other nations may be more aware of pedestrians and thus have fewer fatalities per capita. I have no data to back up such a statement. Just anecdotal experiences.
- sshine 3y ago
  ...pe-de-strians? What's that? Walking people??? Have they lost their car? You have to know what it is to see it. :-D
detourdog 3y ago
I found the statistics in the article were not presented in a coherent manner. I couldn’t tell if right on red had a greater impact or not.
cykros 3y ago
If it's really pedestrian fatalities we're concerned about, we should be implementing red right-facing arrows, which are on when the walk light is on. Right on red, unless that arrow is on. Perhaps a blinking yellow arrow for when it isn't, just to avoid the ambiguity. Or, when you're walking into the road, maybe make sure that drivers nearby see you. I played Ingress and Pokemon Go for years, in the city, at night, for years. Perhaps it's that I knew it put me at heightened risk so I paid more attention, but I really have a hard time understanding why people think that drivers are the only ones who need to pay attention when they're in the street.

Johnny555 3y ago

As a driver, I love right-on-red. As a pedestrian, I hate it -- it generally results in drivers stopping past the stop line, or not stopping at all as they roll into their right turn, and many times they aren't even looking to the right for pedestrians, they are only looking to the left for traffic. As much as I love the right-on-red as a driver, I think it should be ended because drivers aren't responsible enough to use it safely. Perhaps when (if?) self-driving cars are ubiquitous it can be revisited.

cozzyd 3y ago
Even worse than being a pedestrian is being a cyclist. Right on red makes it dangerous to get in front of the light queue by passing on the right
- fiddlerwoaroof 3y ago
  Or, we could just ban this unsafe practice of cutting in the light queue and make bicycles follow the rules of the road like other vehicles.
  - xigoi 3y ago
    Then car drivers will complain that the slow bicycles are blocking them.
- cykros 3y ago
  When I was a cyclist, at least when there were multiple lanes, I'd hop to the left of cars turning right. When there is one lane, you do sort of have to pay attention to blinkers. Well designed bike lanes, where they exist, typically already follow this pattern. If you're going straight it's pretty silly to be to the right of traffic that is turning right.
- nunez 3y ago
  As another cyclist, agreeed, but to be fair, cyclists run reds and traffic controls all of the damn time. Shits maddening.

CalRobert 3y ago

Because it leads to dead pedestrians. I walk a lot and right on red is a curse, drivers often only look left for traffic instead of right for pedestrians before turning. Coupled with hoods so high you can't even see kids or short people walking in front of your vehicle it's very dangerous.

cozzyd 3y ago
The last two vehicles which nearly ran me over in a crosswalk have been pickup trucks... Not sure if they have shitty visibility or if pickup drivers are less likely to conceptualize there might be pedestrians....
tasn 3y ago
I think there are two bigger problems here: people turning when there are pedestrians and the car size inflation. These are not inherent problems with right on red.
- CalRobert 3y ago
  Yet right on red seems to correlate with drivers not paying as much attention to pedestrians and people getting killed https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198223000696?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259019822...