Personal Stories and Comments by Members of Crashprevention.org
The Issue of Red Light Runners
by: Michael G
5 May, 10
5 May, 10
When you witness in a video, or even in person, accidents caused by red light runners, it strikes a strong chord and sticks in the brain permanently.
I think this is the kind of permanent realization that most effectively convinces people to NOT run a light when they see it turning red.
But that being said, it seems that these videos show that a only a minority of red light runners are making a cognitive decision to run the light. As I watch many of these, I don't see the driver thinking "I'm gonna get through this light even though it's turning red!" .It seems to me that in most of these cases, the drivers simply fail to realize when it turns red; either they notice too late, or not at all. So, though the mistake is still the driver's, it happens out of failed perception. I'm sure that a lot of 'failed perception' is because the driver wasn't paying attention, but I don't think that is the whole story.
I clearly remember one time when this happened in my own life. When I was in college, a young driver, with friends in the car, I was driving in an unfamiliar state, the intersections were much different and larger than I was used to, the stop-light was mounted higher and further away than I expected, and I noticed too late that it had just turned red. Fortunately, a vigilant driver in the car in the perpendicular lane noticed, and did not drive out, and we escaped collision. Since then, the memory of it has always scared me into caution, but I know there was another time when a stop sign was hidden from view, so I blew right through it, and again the driver of another car stopped, avoiding the accident. So, despite all our efforts, and all of the publicity campaigns to convince people not to run red lights, it will continue to happen, sometimes deliberately, but oftentimes inadvertently.
So, I'm wondering, are there measures that can be taken to improve drivers' attentions, and their perceptions of the driving environment? Specifically, can intersections be improved to engage the drivers to a more attentive state? Can traffic lights be improved, standardized, or made more obvious? Can the delay be lengthened between the light turning red and the next light turning green? Couldn't the yellow light rapidly flash for attention? Can vehicles have a built-in audible/visible warning that a light ahead is turning red? What else? There must be a hundred things that could be done to the drivers, the vehicles, and the traffic control systems.