Red light issues...

All i hear is, well what about this situation out that situation. OMFG!

You are supposed to be a professional driver. Drive like one and quit trying to justify runninga red light.

As a professional driver, you should be doing the following:

- PAY ATTENTION TO THE FREAKING ROAD.
- BE AWARE OF THE CONDITIONS AROUND YOU AND THE ENVIRONMENT YOU'RE IN.
- "AIM HIGH IN STEERING "
- USE COMMON SENSE. If you're on a road with lights, assume you're going to catch a red one and be prepared to do so.

If you run a red light its because of one of the following....
- Not paying attention
- Not having FULL CONTROL of your vehicle
- Driving too fast for conditions (its not just weather, ya know)
- Consciously choosing to run it
- Not caring if you do or not
- Too ###### dumb to be driving a CMV

 

And what's sad is that there are drivers who will actually believe that story

 

I try not to run any lights but when I do, I just lay on the horn and pray Mr. Important isn't crossing the intersection the moment his light turns green.

But I remember In Chicago, City Hall got busted a while back for shorten the yellow light to increase revenue for the city.

"The Emanuel administration on Friday acknowledged that it had changed the rules on what qualifies for a $100 ticket, quietly directing its new red light camera vendor to tag drivers even when the duration of a yellow light slips just below the 3-second standard set by the city. The policy generated 77,000 more tickets and nearly $8 million in revenue for the city over the last six months."

-Chicago Tribune

 

No sadder then the idea we're all supposed to believe you've never seen a light turn red as you were passing under it. Or are you new?

 

It will cost you.

What you do have to do is drive slow enough to BE ABLE TO STOP for ANY red light in your face. You will gain a skill that measures by eye about how far ahead you can stop if you have to right now. In heavy red light areas such as route 1 into Jersey from 287 interstate it's 40 miles worth of red lights every block. What I do is hit the first set green and speed up to about 3 over speed limit and stay there, as long I hit the next set green all is well. When I start to hit yellows passing through I increase speed 2 more mph to get ahead of the regional light time clocks. Eventually I will hit a red.

DONT do this. DOnt do what I do. A speeding ticket is worse than a red light ticket.

Here is the thing, your trailer in small towns. Especially a railroad crossing. Do NOT stop at the light and white line hanging your trailer over that track. Ticket time.

DO stop at the track and wait for light to change to green, proceed. Same with a stop sign.

You can fight anything. But how much money are you about to indebit yourself? Or sign your house over to the law for bond? etc. I just pay the ticket and be done with it. Literally done with that particular light. Never get caught there again. I'll creep half a block to it if i have to.

My post is a bit disorganized so take it with a grain of salt. Don't do what I do.

 

US59 in Marshall Texas. Red light cams all over the place. We were pulling 53meter blades through town. That load is so big that even if you hit the intersection on green, the light will be red before we can get through the intersection. 30ft of overhang off the rear of the trailer. Rear pilot car tucks underneath the blade tip, and the traffic cams wont trigger for none of us. I guess the light could sense that we were in the middle of the intersection before it went red.

 

See Steel Tigers original reply.. at the beginning of this post.

 

Too clarify, a vehicle in the intersection has the right of way. That means if you have passed the perpendicular line that goes from corner to corner, you are legally in the intersection.
That line is the furthest most point you can be before you are considered in the intersection.
Not the crosswalk, not the edge of the stop sign, not the white line.