Martin Dann said:Yesterday I went out for a ride for about one hour. On the
ride back up from the city center I saw two cars drive
through different red lights within a few minutes.
I had thought I had perceived a worsening of motorist's response to
red lights. The two recent incidents (witnessed in teh space of one
week) that seemed to confirm it for me were:
1: Pelican. Traffic lights go red, pedestrian crosses. As soon as
the pedestrian was past the front of the car stopped at the lights
(ie, pedestrian is in the middle of the road, traffic lights still
red, green man still on, crossing still beeping) the car drove through
the lights and off. I caught the car up in the queue at the
roundabout about a quarter mile further on and since the driver's
window was open, stopped and told him that "a red light means stop".
He just gaped at me - no sign of any thought processes at all. My
fish look more sentient.
2: Also pelican (but a different one). Queue of cars along the road,
but the one at the pelican has stopped at the stop line, leaving the
crossing clear (which is relatively unusual). Young teenager was
waiting at the crossing, which switched just as I approached. So,
traffic lights red, green man, beeping, and teen starts to cross.
She'd done one step out from the kerb when the queue on the other side
of the crossing started moving - so the car set off, forcing the girl
to leap backwards out of the way. I didn't catch up with the driver
in that case.
And both of these are, of course, completely ignoring the systematic
red light jumping done by motorists who seem to think braking when the
lights change ahead might kill them.
regards, Ian SMith
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