Emerging trend of running red lights?

Twat-Badger

So admittedly I rarely drive in Dublin but today I had to drive from the city centre out to Sandyford and in the course of that journey on 3 separate occasions I saw a number of cars blatantly ignore red lights.

The most egregious incident - two lanes approaching a set of traffic lights that had just turned red - as I began to slow the car beside me shot through. Had just enough time to think to myself "that was a bit cheeky" when another car shot by me also.

I always used to think we Irish for all our driving faults had pretty good traffic light discipline but on the evidence of today I'm starting to think different. Did I just pick a bad day to drive in Dublin or is this something that's becoming the norm?

Del2005

It's far from emerging it's been endemic for the last few years.

On the N81 the red light means that another 5 cars go though. It's gotten to the stage that if there's a car behind I seriously have to think about braking or flooring it for red lights.

Mrtestosterone

If you keep running red lights then obviously your luck will run out but I know why it's done. Some ridiculous traffic lights, you are sitting for 3 minutes if it's on red, most people get extremely frustrated after a few of them, especially when you're sitting there for minutes and not a single car passes. So they take the risk and jump the red in order to avoid sitting at a pointless light for x amount of minutes

Jimmy Dags

Majority are cars on pcp so they don’t own them anyway.

bazz26

It's the lemming effect where the idiot just follows the vehicle in front of them through the junction thinking if he can make so can I.

K.Flyer

Sooner the better they bring in automatic cameras that nab red light jumpers with an automated fine and a few penalty points.

Del2005

Mrtestosterone wrote: »

If you keep running red lights then obviously your luck will run out but I know why it's done. Some ridiculous traffic lights, you are sitting for 3 minutes if it's on red, most people get extremely frustrated after a few of them, especially when you're sitting there for minutes and not a single car passes. So they take the risk and jump the red in order to avoid sitting at a pointless light for x amount of minutes

They aren't waiting ages most of the time though, not out Tallaght direction anyway.

On Sunday I was driving and coming up to a T junction which was green for ages so I started to slow down as I knew they would be red before I got to the junction. I was going left and just as the lights went red a car flew out from behind me turning right and I though was going to break the lights, they missed the stop line but did stop. Then when the traffic on green cleared the junction they drove through the red, I waited the 30 seconds for green.

Rubberchikken

Its been happening for the past few years bit its getting so blatantly obvious now that its becoming the standard certainly in the centre of our town.

For me it means that when crossing at pedestrian crossing i wont step out til sure there's no car.
As a driver my faith in feeling safe to go on green is gone. Theres always the chance that some moron who just cant wait for 1/2 minutes maybe even less, will zip through the red.

Grolschevik

What's I've seen many times is a car stopping on red or slowing down on amber, and someone else accelerating into the inside lane (usually a bus lane) to pass them on the left and break the lights...

RacoonQueen

Amber means pedal to the metal
Red means a few more cars will get through

Dare you slow and stop on amber > red and you be beeped at / gesticulated at / nearly rearended.

tcawley29

K.Flyer wrote: »

Sooner the better they bring in automatic cameras that nab red light jumpers with an automated fine and a few penalty points.

They have them here in the states. I think they're class because you actually see a bright flash when you're caught (not me personally).

I love looking at the drivers try to stop after the flash but its too late then.

Once you cross the line...FLASH!!! :pac:

Moral of the story is, don't cross the line

Sam Quentin

I see numerous incidents every day,... tho I posted a great eg of a RLJ in the dash cam forum.
Go check it out, it could've been fatal!?

tcawley29

Sam Quentin wrote: »

I see numerous incidents every day,... tho I posted a great eg of a RLJ in the dash cam forum.
Go check it out, it could've been fatal!?

If that was from today I saw it already

twin_beacon

Twat-Badger wrote: »

So admittedly I rarely drive in Dublin but today I had to drive from the city centre out to Sandyford and in the course of that journey on 3 separate occasions I saw a number of cars blatantly ignore red lights.

The most egregious incident - two lanes approaching a set of traffic lights that had just turned red - as I began to slow the car beside me shot through. Had just enough time to think to myself "that was a bit cheeky" when another car shot by me also.

I always used to think we Irish for all our driving faults had pretty good traffic light discipline but on the evidence of today I'm starting to think different. Did I just pick a bad day to drive in Dublin or is this something that's becoming the norm?

By any chance was this at the junction beside the Beacon hospital? Hundreds of cars and cyclists ignore red lights the daily. It's a miracle that a pedestrian hasn't been seriously injured

68 lost souls

I find taxi drivers are the worst for it. Headed from the Dundrum Town Center roundabout at Tesco towards stillorgan on Friday the lights were green for me from the roundabout all the way until I went through. There was a taxi who was actually stopped and as I approached decided he would just go for it despite the fact that I still had the green light.

They are also the worst for hogging the overtaking lane.

NIMAN

Also seen it often around Derry/Donegal.

I think people have learned that once their light turns to red, there is a few seconds of limbo when no-one has green, and so if they drive through a red even if its a couple of seconds late, they will still have time to exit before someone else gets a green.

Its wrong of course, but that seems to be whats happening.

blackbox

tcawley29 wrote: »

They have them here in the states. I think they're class because you actually see a bright flash when you're caught (not me personally).

I love looking at the drivers try to stop after the flash but its too late then.

Once you cross the line...FLASH!!! :pac:

Moral of the story is, don't cross the line

Even the ones that do stop, the number of them that drive over the stop line is huge. In the UK a cop would pull you for this. Cameras would sort these as well ( the Gardai won't! )

fancy pigeon

Awaits the usual whingers spouting the usual bullsh*t: "it's only a red light, calm down"

It's a growing epidemic that will only be looked into when there's more accidents and fatalities caused by red light runners.

K.Flyer

It has gotten so bad in Dublin now that I find myself double double checking left and right for red light jumpers if I'm first away when lights turn green for me.
Its really getting out of hand.

Comhrá

It all boils down to our (Ireland) relatively relaxed attitude to traffic violations plus the depleted Gardai who aren't even remotely able to tackle the red light offenders.

Even the legislators have pretty small fines relative to the potential seriousness of the offence. The (theoretical) fine for your dog crapping on the street is far higher. €1000? So your pet dog sh*tting in a public place is a far more serious offence than a motorist breaking a red light it would seem.

Same with phone usage while driving. €60 and 3 points? The UK recently doubled their penalties for same. Bottom line......Ireland Inc. doesn't really care about most traffic offences.

biko

Fairly rampant in Galway

Thoie

I was rear-ended about 10 years ago in Dublin when the light turned amber when I was still some distance from it. I slowed and stopped. A good 3-5 seconds later I was hit by a small truck. The driver's first words were "I didn't expect you to stop", as if it was all my fault.

Thankfully there was minimal damage, but he was far enough behind me that there's no way he'd have made it through on the amber, even if I hadn't been there.

blastman

K.Flyer wrote: »

It has gotten so bad in Dublin now that I find myself double double checking left and right for red light jumpers if I'm first away when lights turn green for me.
Its really getting out of hand.

You're actually supposed to do that anyway even if the light is green, AFAIK it even says this in the ROTR (sorry, TMA! ). These days it's pretty much essential.

pleas advice

Jimmy Dags wrote: »

Majority are cars on pcp so they don’t own them anyway.

Even the cars are on drugs? No wonder they're running red lights...

K.Flyer

blastman wrote: »

You're actually supposed to do that anyway even if the light is green, AFAIK it even says this in the ROTR (sorry, TMA! ). These days it's pretty much essential.

Yes, I know, but what I meant was the "Double DOUBLE" check specifically for them.

Zubeneschamali

biko wrote: »

Fairly rampant in Galway

I was going to say this, too. Dublin is nothing to Galway.

I am often first to stop at a red light in Galway. Drivers generally take out their phones and browse the web while stopped, meaning it's 30 seconds after Green before the line of stopped traffic even thinks about starting. They then compensate by having no-one slow on orange and 5 cars run each red light.

I got a light tap on the bumper in Cork a year ago for stopping at a red light from a pickup who just assumed I was going to run it.

Kato74

Twat-Badger wrote: »

So admittedly I rarely drive in Dublin but today I had to drive from the city centre out to Sandyford and in the course of that journey on 3 separate occasions I saw a number of cars blatantly ignore red lights.

The most egregious incident - two lanes approaching a set of traffic lights that had just turned red - as I began to slow the car beside me shot through. Had just enough time to think to myself "that was a bit cheeky" when another car shot by me also.

I always used to think we Irish for all our driving faults had pretty good traffic light discipline but on the evidence of today I'm starting to think different. Did I just pick a bad day to drive in Dublin or is this something that's becoming the norm?

This is a massive issue in Dublin.
Lack of Garda presence is not helping.
At this stage it is every set of lights you are at your light will go green & can be up to 3 seconds after a car will cross, obviously breaking the red light.

Noodle Scratcher

I see it every time I drive through Galway. Sometimes two or three cars. People are just impatient in general these days. They want everything now. Instant karma is gonna get you!

GBX

No city town is immune to it. Look at the dash cam thread for many examples.

This ain't a dig - but the Garda are obviously not sitting at every junction waiting to see if somebody breaks a red - so people know there is less of a chance of getting caught and keep going basically not giving a ****e about other road users who have a green. They don't care about the consequences. The want to get from A to B and if that means flouting the law, so be it.

If people abided by light sequences, traffic would move quicker. There is a knock on effect because of their impatience and I bet they wonder why they get delayed at the next lights.

lau1247

tcawley29 wrote: »

They have them here in the states. I think they're class because you actually see a bright flash when you're caught (not me personally).

I love looking at the drivers try to stop after the flash but its too late then.

Once you cross the line...FLASH!!! :pac:

Moral of the story is, don't cross the line

if they are doing that, they better bring in a display timer for green to amber also. Some light change are too short at certain junctions.

tcawley29

GBX wrote: »

No city town is immune to it. Look at the dash cam thread for many examples.

This ain't a dig - but the Garda are obviously not sitting at every junction waiting to see if somebody breaks a red - so people know there is less of a chance of getting caught and keep going basically not giving a ****e about other road users who have a green. They don't care about the consequences. The want to get from A to B and if that means flouting the law, so be it.

If people abided by light sequences, traffic would move quicker. There is a knock on effect because of their impatience and I bet they wonder why they get delayed at the next lights.

In fairness I have witnessed people run lights before and nearly hit garda cars.

As you can guess, absolutely nothing happened because both the garda and the red light runner continued on their way

magicbastarder

it's not even just running reds, it's that a seeming majority of motorists seem to have forgotten what the stop line at a junction is for. i regularly see cars who pull past the stop line - often more than a car length - leaving them sitting across the space which would be intended for pedestrians crossing, or into advanced stop boxes for cyclists.

CramCycle

NIMAN wrote: »

Also seen it often around Derry/Donegal.

I think people have learned that once their light turns to red, there is a few seconds of limbo when no-one has green, and so if they drive through a red even if its a couple of seconds late, they will still have time to exit before someone else gets a green.

Its wrong of course, but that seems to be whats happening.

I always wondered why traffic engineers in Ireland facilitate this. In most countries I have driven in, once the light hits red the other light eg crossing traffic goes green. God help you if you have crossed on Amber and not cleared the junction, there will be war. It is 100% the fault of drivers who do it but I do wonder why road traffic systems here seem designed to allow or facilitate it.

circadian

Grolschevik wrote: »

What's I've seen many times is a car stopping on red or slowing down on amber, and someone else accelerating into the inside lane (usually a bus lane) to pass them on the left and break the lights...

This happens almost every time I'm on the swords road heading to the N1 overpass.

J Mysterio

A couple of weeks ago was sat in a taxi heading to town. We slowed to a stop at the light before Grand Parade/ the Canal on Leeson St. when after 3 or 4 seconds a car ran the light from the other direction and ploughed into a car which had green along Grand Parade.

It was hard to beleive, but the guy just went straight through the red and smashed into the side of horizontal traffic.

CrankyHaus

magicbastarder wrote: »

it's not even just running reds, it's that a seeming majority of motorists seem to have forgotten what the stop line at a junction is for. i regularly see cars who pull past the stop line - often more than a car length - leaving them sitting across the space which would be intended for pedestrians crossing, or into advanced stop boxes for cyclists.

All of this could be addressed with the simple and revenue neutral solution of red light cameras. No need to reinvent the wheel. The tech has been in the US for ages. Put out a tender and watch motorist's behaviour improve.

Walter Bishop

Green means go, yellow means go faster.

Dravokivich

Del2005 wrote: »

They aren't waiting ages most of the time though, not out Tallaght direction anyway.

On Sunday I was driving and coming up to a T junction which was green for ages so I started to slow down as I knew they would be red before I got to the junction. I was going left and just as the lights went red a car flew out from behind me turning right and I though was going to break the lights, they missed the stop line but did stop. Then when the traffic on green cleared the junction they drove through the red, I waited the 30 seconds for green.

As bad as it is gunning for it when the lights are about to change towards amber, and ultimately red. That driver shouldn't have stopped.

If you enter a junction prior to a red light, you are to proceed, regardless of who has a green light. The driver within the junction has the right of way.

CramCycle

CrankyHaus wrote: »

All of this could be addressed with the simple and revenue neutral solution of red light cameras. No need to reinvent the wheel. The tech has been in the US for ages. Put out a tender and watch motorist's behaviour improve.

I suppose it is too easy and simple. I'd start putting them up with no announcement, put a tendering process out as you said. Tell them that you want them installed as quickly as possible, maybe identify specific junctions first. All installations at night, wearing unmarked gear so they look like council workers. The fines in the next month will pay for the entire system, social media from whingers will act as the advertising campaign. Simples.

tcawley29

CramCycle wrote: »

I suppose it is too easy and simple. I'd start putting them up with no announcement, put a tendering process out as you said. Tell them that you want them installed as quickly as possible, maybe identify specific junctions first. All installations at night, wearing unmarked gear so they look like council workers. The fines in the next month will pay for the entire system, social media from whingers will act as the advertising campaign. Simples.

Del2005

Dravokivich wrote: »

As bad as it is gunning for it when the lights are about to change towards amber, and ultimately red. That driver shouldn't have stopped.

If you enter a junction prior to a red light, you are to proceed, regardless of who has a green light. The driver within the junction has the right of way.

I know how junctions work but I was the first vehicle on a single lane road and I stopped on red behind the line. They pulled out when it was red and missed the stop line, then when the traffic on green cleared they drove into the junction.

evolving_doors

Del2005 wrote: »

It's far from emerging it's been endemic for the last few years.

On the N81 the red light means that another 5 cars go though. It's gotten to the stage that if there's a car behind I seriously have to think about braking or flooring it for red lights.

I've been on the same route for 8 years and this year its just gone nuts. Nearly creamed 2 cyclists this year.

If you're going to chance it you always have to remember that the opposing traffic mightnt be pulling off from a stop position.
I've seen it before where cars speed up to the red cos they know the lights are about to change green (if they have a straight road and long lead in time).

I think the guards couldn't be arsd anymore. The more that do it and get away with it.. the more that do it.

Samuel T. Cogley

It's down to our traffic light sequence and poor reactions. You know for a fact that once the light goes red it will be a few seconds before the opposing light goes green and a few more seconds while the person waiting puts down their phone, let's off the handbrake, realises it's still in third gear, changes into first and pulls off. By which time the lights have gone amber again, people are pissed off and break the red, and the cycle continues.

If we had the UK system of Red and Amber, means get ready to go, sure there's be a year or two of 2000+ road deaths but people would eventually learn.

Mycroft H

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

It's down to our traffic light sequence and poor reactions. You know for a fact that once the light goes red it will be a few seconds before the opposing light goes green and a few more seconds while the person waiting puts down their phone, let's off the handbrake, realises it's still in third gear, changes into first and pulls off.
By which time the lights have gone amber again, people are pissed off and break the red, and the cycle continues.

If we had the UK system of Red and Amber, means get ready to go, sure there's be a year or two of 2000+ road deaths but people would eventually learn.

Sorry lad, I don't buy that argument. I live in Manchester. The amber before green thing is essentially just floor it, people don't wait for the green.

People run ambers frequently, and running reds is endemic. So much so, I find Dublin a relaxing place to drive now.

As a paramedic, I've been to accidents from one person runs early on an amber-green and the other junction ran the red.

tcawley29

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

It's down to our traffic light sequence and poor reactions. You know for a fact that once the light goes red it will be a few seconds before the opposing light goes green and a few more seconds while the person waiting puts down their phone, let's off the handbrake, realises it's still in third gear, changes into first and pulls off. By which time the lights have gone amber again, people are pissed off and break the red, and the cycle continues.

If we had the UK system of Red and Amber, means get ready to go, sure there's be a year or two of 2000+ road deaths but people would eventually learn.

Or die off. Its a win win really

Samuel T. Cogley

Mycroft H wrote: »

Sorry lad, I don't buy that argument. I live in Manchester. The amber before green thing is essentially just floor it, people don't wait for the green.

People run ambers frequently, and running reds is endemic. So much so, I find Dublin a relaxing place to drive now.

As a paramedic, I've been to accidents from one person runs early on an amber-green and the other junction ran the red.

You've just made my point for me.

fattymoon

I have noticed it too. It's shocking. Imagine being visually impaired and you hear the pedestrian signal telling you you're good to cross when several cars fly through. The reason it's gotten so bad recently is because of the increase in the volume of traffic on our roads. Drivers are losing patience sitting at lights and taking more risks. Every household has at least 1 car now. People feel entitled to drive wherever they want and eschew public transport. If you work in the city, just look at the private vehicles on the road - most have 1 occupant in them. Further, the average car journey is around 2km in distance. While this prevails, the roads will continue to be clogged with traffic, meaning impatient drivers, meaning more drivers running red lights. Recording those breaking read lights, with stiff fines and penalty points for doing so will definitely help.

TheShow

Epidemic, bus drivers especially bad. And don’t get me started on people not using indicators.

wexie

tcawley29 wrote: »

They have them here in the states. I think they're class because you actually see a bright flash when you're caught (not me personally).

I love looking at the drivers try to stop after the flash but its too late then.

Once you cross the line...FLASH!!! :pac:

Moral of the story is, don't cross the line

They have them in Holland....they brought them in really well. Here's what they did :

1) put up the camera's that catch you breaking the red light
2) wait for people to get used to them
3) inevitably this will involve people speeding to catch the light
4) quietly change the cameras for ones that catch you breaking the light....AND catch you speeding
5) sit back and enjoy the chaos

Dartz

It's a symptom of the modern world really.

Everyone's busy. Everyone's day is too short with too much to do to keep from missing out. Everyone's under a lot of stress.

It's easier to blast through rather than be controlled by a brainless light. It's one little iota of control left.

tcawley29

wexie wrote: »

They have them in Holland....they brought them in really well. Here's what they did :

1) put up the camera's that catch you breaking the red light
2) wait for people to get used to them
3) inevitably this will involve people speeding to catch the light
4) quietly change the cameras for ones that catch you breaking the light....AND catch you speeding
5) sit back and enjoy the chaos

I love their methodology