Have you ever in your driving career deliberately broke a red light at a junction?

moxin

Following on from the "have you driven drunk before" thread, curious what the responses to this would be. I specifically ask about junctions as they have greater risk of a collision with a car than a pedestrian crossing(sorry pedestrians )

The question is laid out in the following manner. You have deliberately broke a red light when the red light appeared before you crossed the white line, not when you crossed it a few milliseconds beforehand on yellow\orange, that is you visually made eye contact with the red signal and made a go for it carelessly. When you crossed that junction on a red, you were of the mind afterwards "phew, that was close. I made it and got away with it"

So have you broke a red light in this manner in your driving career?

PS: I have selected option 1 to when i was younger as I did do it on a few occasions, i've learned since that risk ain't worth it.

MuppetCheck

Early in the morning and if the coast is clear I sometimes do.

moxin

MuppetCheck wrote: »

Early in the morning and if the coast is clear I sometimes do.

Do you see stopped traffic on the opposite side at such a junction? Guess its an easier decision with visuals on both directions at 3am

bop1977

I work nights, so at 4 in the morning and zero traffic yes I have and will probably take the chance again.

MuppetCheck

moxin wrote: »

Do you see stopped traffic on the opposite side at such a junction? Guess its an easier decision with visuals on both directions at 3am

Usually between 630-7 in the morning when I hit lights but if it's clear I can't see the point in waiting for the lights to go through their sequence. I am more careful than normal but still do it.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

bop1977 wrote: »

I work nights, so at 4 in the morning and zero traffic yes I have and will probably take the chance again.

Used to do it all the time myself as above, working as a driver until 4/5 am and not another soul to be seen anywhere , always with great caution though !

corktina

Rules are made for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men....so my answer would be " hell yes"

moxin

MuppetCheck wrote: »

Usually between 630-7 in the morning when I hit lights but if it's clear I can't see the point in waiting for the lights to go through their sequence. I am more careful than normal but still do it.

At crossroads also?

Perhaps I should have rephrased the poll to normal busy hours instead of overnight hours

MuppetCheck

moxin wrote: »

At crossroads also?

Perhaps I should have rephrased the poll to normal busy hours instead of overnight hours

At any other time I wouldn't, but I do think the orange arrow could be used more in this country.

djimi

A couple of times where I suspected the lights might be broken, and I could see that it was clear and safe to do so.

Probably a couple of times at roadworks also where the options are latch onto the back of the train of cars or wait another ten minutes for the lights to change again...

dr.fuzzenstein

corktina wrote: »

Rules are made for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men....so my answer would be " hell yes"

I bloody hate the Irish attitude to rules, but I can't help but be impressed with that!
All my internets to you, good sir.
Plus I drive through Limerick every morning around 7, so have blasted through the occasional "dark orange".

nc19

I ran 3 reds on the way home from work today. They went red just before i went through them so thats my excuse

nc19

I ran 3 reds on the way home from work today. They went red just before i went through them so thats my excuse

Mycroft H

Midnight green

Captain Slow IRL

Only once or twice but it was at a notorious set of traffic lights - you could be waiting there 10/15 minutes waiting for them to change.

moxin

Captain Slow IRL wrote: »

Only once or twice but it was at a notorious set of traffic lights - you could be waiting there 10/15 minutes waiting for them to change.

Light that take 10\15min to change, an exaggeration? (assuming non-faulty lights!)

Duiske

I used to do it regularly at the 2 sets of lights at either end of Barrack St in Carlow. Granted it usually just after 6am with no other traffic about. Always took care though and didn't just barrel through.

kippy

Never done it, nor felt the need to.

Captain Slow IRL

moxin wrote: »

Light that take 10\15min to change, an exaggeration? (assuming non-faulty lights!)

No exaggeration, faulty lights. (they've since been fixed)

moxin

Captain Slow IRL wrote: »

No exaggeration, faulty lights. (they've since been fixed)

But you broke the law Yeh, lights that don't change past 3 minutes are a pain.

Lando Griffin

Done it far more times as a pedestrain than a driver.

Chris_Heilong

I have done it once at faulty broken lights after waiting more than 10 mins,
I have done it once when I could not see because the window was dirty and I was driving against the sun, when I saw it was red I was on top of it and it would be dangerous to stop.
There is a Junction with a rail gate that you must wait at for ages and I always turn left when it shows a red for left and a green for straight, red just means the gates are down.

angelfire9

Ha ha was going through Limerick city at 5.30am on a Saturday morning came to a red at the top of William Street and I admit I thought about going through it but decided not to take a chance, see lights in my rear view mirror as I lit my cigarette and a traffic car pulls up beside me in the left lane
Could have been nicely caught
:cool:

fasttalkerchat

One poorly designed roundabout that you had to floor it round as if the first light was amber the 3rd and 4th would be red. It gave you less time depending on time of day.

corktina

well, a stop sign is the same exactly as a red light, who can say they always come to a dead stand at a stop sign? There's no magic about a red light, why do we obey them more than a simple sign?

evolving_doors

nc19 wrote: »

I ran 3 reds on the way home from work today. They went red just before i went through them so thats my excuse

People run red lights because they are just about to turn green too.

But ya ......the night time is de right time

Mc1981

Have had to do it when lights suddenly stick on red due to fault. The same set of lights used to stay on red for about five minutes every once in a while.

Daveysil15

Yes plenty of times, especially when the fecking thing only stays green for about 3 seconds and then changes back again. I hate when that happens. :mad:

woody33

In parts of the U.S. you are allowed to turn right (that would be turn left for us...) at a red light if the way is clear.

Mister Man

I've ran a handful, but only when I know I : A)Won't cause an accident, and B)Won't get caught. Generally it's very early morning to even consider it. Would only do it if I was in a rush too.

moxin

Surprised at the confessions here, thought ye all were holier than thou high horse brigade motorists

Sobanek

corktina wrote: »

Rules are made for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men....so my answer would be " hell yes"

This should be the post of the day

djimi

woody33 wrote: »

In parts of the U.S. you are allowed to turn right (that would be turn left for us...) at a red light if the way is clear.

This is a perfectly logical law that should be standard everywhere really.

Daveysil15

People are always going on about the bad driving and amount of road deaths in Ireland. If you think its bad here, you'd want to go to places like Italy and Czech Republic - absolutely crazy driving.

Cleveland Hot Pocket

Yup
Got penalty points for it, and won't do it again now. Orange lights are fair game though :P

Cleveland Hot Pocket

djimi wrote: »

This is a perfectly logical law that should be standard everywhere really.

One of a few things that the US has done better than elsewhere.
In Ireland that would have the potential to bring chaos though.

AltAccount

Yep, regularly break them and will do it again..

99% because there is no other traffic around (and let's be honest, the point of a traffic light is to stop collisions at a junction, so if you're the only vehicle then the light is rendered redundant).

AugustusMinimus

Have done it before on signalised roundabouts in the early morning (1AM to 6 AM) where it is quite obvious there is no one else on the roundabout.

IMO, at these hours, all signalised roundabouts should have flashing amber. There is zero chance of me or a flashing amber causing a crash.



The only other time I've broken a red light was the morning in Cork City where all the traffic lights got stuck on red for over an hour. Got told off for it on here by a person who claimed they wouldn't break a red even if it meant waiting for an hour at a light. This sort of logic would lead to death in the wild within a day.

AugustusMinimus

AltAccount wrote: »

Yep, regularly break them and will do it again..

99% because there is no other traffic around (and let's be honest, the point of a traffic light is to stop collisions at a junction, so if you're the only vehicle then the light is rendered redundant).

The problem in this country is that there are simply too many traffic lights popping up everywhere. In addition, most of these lights should be changed to flashing amber from a certain hour onwards each night.

I also don't understand why there is such a stigma on cars breaking lights when cyclists do it all the time. I too don't see a huge problem in breaking lights where it is obvious there is no other car and sight lines are good, but I personally don't do it very often (see my post above).

djimi

While I agree that flashing amber at night would make a lot of sense, the problem here is that too many people see an amber light as the signal to put the foot down before it turns red, so it would invariably lead to some pretty serious accidents initially.

AugustusMinimus

djimi wrote: »

While I agree that flashing amber at night would make a lot of sense, the problem here is that too many people see an amber light as the signal to put the foot down before it turns red, so it would invariably lead to some pretty serious accidents initially.

The other thing I've seen is flashing green and flashing red. This IMO is a better solution to just flashing orange as it shows which road has the right of way at a junction.

For roundabouts, you could just turn the lights off completely.