Red Light Blindness
Discussion
See it every day around these parts. Private hire cabs are bad for it, whilst on their 'phone and without a seat belt on. However yesterday (on the way to work) I was a few cars behind a colleague and saw her run straight through a red (changed from amber aprox. 3 seconds before she went through) to get onto a traffic light controlled round-about.
As I continued to work, I was wondering whether to say anything to her about what I saw. I decided not too - I'm responsible for drawing up a monthly 'duty' rota in our office and I'm in her bad books 'cause of her sessions on the rota as it is. Constructive criticism of her driving might not go down too well!!!
As I continued to work, I was wondering whether to say anything to her about what I saw. I decided not too - I'm responsible for drawing up a monthly 'duty' rota in our office and I'm in her bad books 'cause of her sessions on the rota as it is. Constructive criticism of her driving might not go down too well!!!
blackburn said:
See it every day around these parts. Private hire cabs are bad for it, whilst on their 'phone and without a seat belt on. However yesterday (on the way to work) I was a few cars behind a colleague and saw her run straight through a red (changed from amber aprox. 3 seconds before she went through) to get onto a traffic light controlled round-about.
As I continued to work, I was wondering whether to say anything to her about what I saw. I decided not too - I'm responsible for drawing up a monthly 'duty' rota in our office and I'm in her bad books 'cause of her sessions on the rota as it is. Constructive criticism of her driving might not go down too well!!!
All depends upon your position in the company and whether company vehicles.As I continued to work, I was wondering whether to say anything to her about what I saw. I decided not too - I'm responsible for drawing up a monthly 'duty' rota in our office and I'm in her bad books 'cause of her sessions on the rota as it is. Constructive criticism of her driving might not go down too well!!!
Perhaps, if appropriate, you could suggest a company wide "defensive driving" course.
You know, sell the positives, less collisions, less days off work, cheaper company insurance.
supersport said:
It seems to be an encroaching disease oop here too; along with entering a junction even if it is stacked regardless of the existance or not of a yellow box.
This winds me up too. Theres a big junction near where i live which i have to go through to get to work on a saturday morning. Going accross me is the traffic going to the beach blocking the road. Then when my lights are green i can't go anyware. loomx said:
Maybes its because traffic lights seem to be appearing on all roundabouts... which completely negates its use as a roundabout!
There is a roundabout in Essex, with a monumental plethora of traffic lights around it, honestly I've never seen so many in one place. All of the lights have orange covers, not in use. And this has been the case for over a year to the best of my knowledge. Strikes me as an utter waste of resources. I would have thought traffic would flow better off a roundabout anyway, even at the risk of minor bumps (as opposed to the potentially more-significant collisions that could occur if someone ran a light at a T-junction, for example).loomx said:
Maybes its because traffic lights seem to be appearing on all roundabouts... which completely negates its use as a roundabout!
I have worked in MK for over 10 years, and the road network has just worked, you drive up to a roundabout, look, if no ones coming you go, if not, you stop, simple and it works. Now however the council are increasingly putting traffic lights on roundabouts to "help traffic flow" As a driver with reasonable skills and one who trys to look a decent distance up the road, i could pretty much cross MK to work without ever stopping, smooth, efficient and environmentally friendly. Now i find myself spending over 5mins every journey, stopped at red lights, waiting, whilst exactly NO-ONE comes around the roundabout!!! If it's off peak, the visability is good and theres no one comming or to see, i have occasionally crept through the red light at less than 1mph, then gone on my way! Sure, competely illegal, but please, lets have some sensible rules first. If i'm ever stopped for it or get a traffic light ticket, i'd be the first to admit i am wrong and pay up. but in the meantime........
loomx said:
Maybes its because traffic lights seem to be appearing on all roundabouts... which completely negates its use as a roundabout!
Indeed. Pretty much every day I ignore 2 sets of roundabout red lights on my way to work. Total visibility, nobody about, zero danger. Over the last few years, this has saved me several hours where I would otherwise have been sat there like a lemon waiting for nobody. Of course, I have put this gained time to excellent use, by devoting it to life-enhancing activities like lurking on internet forums...I like to think that my behaviour is somewhat different to flying through a 'crossroads' type junction well after the light's turned red which, as the OP points out, appears to be something of a popular pastime these days. However, that could just be me trying to morally justify my daily criminal act.
GTMSpyder said:
The lesson is to never cross a junction - light controlled or not, without making sure that its safe to do so. And always be prepared to give way to the crazy coulour blind numpties...
I absolutely and completely agree, several years ago I was approaching a traffic light controlled cross roads in my old chevy camaro, years of riding bikes has taught me to check both ways irrespective of what the traffic in front of me has done, and I was about the fifth or sixth car through on the green. as I approached i looked both ways, and as I did I saw a car coming to the red light on his side with his front wheels locked. i slammed on the brakes, and stopped (on my green) as he shot past the nose of my car, stopping almost a complete car length past me. I learned a lot about driving at a very high level at a very young age, from my Father, a life long professional driver, long term IAM member and observer, and a friend of his, a police class 1 of many years.
I took a lot of stick as a younger driver for not driving like a tit, one night i was in my old volvo with a couple of mates, when one of my mate said 'you only drive slow because you cant drive fast' so I responded by totally calmly and nonchalantly dipping the clutch, giving the throttle a blip and drifting the volvo around a roundabout at quite a decent angle, but done totally calmly, even reaching into the door pocket to take out and drink my maccy D's milk shake mid drift. oddly I never got the mick taken after that!!!
not clever, but it was completely deserted where we were, with excellent visibility, and it proved a point in relative safety, rather than flying round a town center putting other people in danger
Edited by philoldsmobile on Saturday 10th July 18:23
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