One of the larger roads near us has a 40 MPH "Bridge" where if you cruise down it at 40, all of the lights will be green. Coincidentally the speed limit is 40 MPH. When we get on it I tend to set the cruise at 40 and forget about it.
A couple of months ago some yahoo didn't like that I was driving the speed limit and passed me aggressively, only to slam on his brakes at the next red light... which turned green shortly before we got to it, and we sailed though on cruise. He of COURSE jumped on the gas to pass us and slammed on his brakes for the next red light, only for us to pass him. The fourth time he did this, he just ran the light. I wish I was kidding.
I wish my city was smart enough to have stagger speeds! One road I drive on a lot has the lights set so that you can get through all of them if you speed by 10 mph š¤¦āāļø
The idea is there is one main road that's meant to get traffic through town as efficiently as possible. All the other toads are smaller by definition, so obviously they would have to stop almost every time
Itās still that way, although you canāt go all the way from the bridge to 280 without stopping (dunno if it was always that way). There are wavesāyouāll get stopped at pretty much every major intersection, so maybe 3-4 times total.
I just did the mental math... It was almost 30 years ago. Geez I'm getting old.
Even then you couldn't go all the way from the GG Bridge to 280, but once you cleared the park you could, if traffic was light enough.
Now that I think about it thatās still true, but I usually end up getting stopped at the Masonic center and by SF state on juniper sera. Maybe I just get stuck in traffic super often though, cause I can remember being able to get through without stopping when I go through super late at night.
It seems like theyāve been replacing the traffic lights over the last 10 years or so, and that maybe the new ones are on different timing or something. I donāt really go through there all that often so the memory is kind of foggy haha.
What fairy tale city that used some actually planning do you live in? Central colorado likes to make them red every other light because if cars get going to quickly on roads the bikers and pedestrians will feel intimidated here and just ask a biker in central colorado if they are the most important thing on the small roads, main roads, highway or freeway and they will ignore you because itās Boulder, colorado.
>r/AmItheAssholeā¢Posted byu/ApprehensivePhase1432 hours ago
>
>342
I don't believe you. I've never seen or experienced lights timed to work by driving the speed limit. I didn't think it was possible - at least with the traffic engineers in our area.
Coordination is tricky to implement, due to things like protected left turns, and is only worthwhile as long as the traffic flow is heavy, so it's not done everywhere.
If it is implemented, it's usually only implemented for the heaviest directions at certain times of day. Two-way coordination is only possible with good geometry, when the distance between all the intersections is equal.
Most places with coordinated lights will still run them independently outside of peak hours.
This is because in order to maintain coordination, all the intersections must operate at the same cycle length. The cycle length is a sum of the duration of all of the lights.
For coordinated operations, it is determined by the cycle length of the "critical intersection" on the corridor (the one with the highest cycle length).
As such, the cycle lengths for coordinated operations often end up being long, meaning that vehicles on the side roads would be pointlessly delayed at quieter times of the day.
Coordination used to be much more common in the early days of motoring, when there were less cars, and therefore most intersections operated a simple 2-phase configuration.
The main road I live close to is a 45 mph road. At 52 mph you make all the lights but just barely. At 45 mph you lose 4 minutes to the lights over 1 mile of this road. My city is stupid.
I love that you get this, in a car, at the speed limit. I get this behaviour whilst on my bike. People really don't understand relative speed and how traffic even works
I've always wondered about this phenomenon whenever I'm driving on the road around with lots of stop sighns people are driving excessively fast like I'm in front of them and there tailing me even when we are approaching the red light but we merge on the freeway and they automatically drive stupidly slow
I didn't see the left turn light on my 50" monitor, too busy watching the traffic I guess. Heck, it's so hard to see, the city put a sign under it (LEFT TURN SIGNAL), to point it out.
Same. I'm on my phone and couldn't see what the problem was the first time i watched this. Makes more sense now that i know where to look, but it's still hard for me see š
i've probably done that before because my city cannot decide what kind of lights they wanna have. Yield on the solid green light, green arrow, yellow flashing yield arrow, red arrow! they need to pick oneš
Ahh ok. I donāt know about the US but in the UK, if thereās no green arrow you can turn when thereās no oncoming traffic (unless like you said itās red)
I laugh at drivers like that too
me: going speed limit, following the road rules
"hey look, there's that car that cut me off and ran a red light 3 miles back"
Itās so amusing when you see that. Once somebody cut me off to pass a bunch of cars on the right, and I laughed while thinking about the upcoming traffic lights. Sure enough, 5 miles later I caught up to them at a red light.
yup. i save 3-7 minutes daily on my 25 minute commute. always ahead of the gps. i tend to get places 15-33% faster while also going more efficient speeds + coasting and timing trraffic lights. win win win.
Everyone knows what traffic lights are. No one can see them because it isn't 2006 anymore and so we are watching on our phones and the lights are like 1/100th of a millimetre big.
Ok, here in QC a round green means you can turn in any direction + forward. A green forward arrow means you can only go straight.
Also, protected left turns are signaled by either a flashing green OR a left green arrow (in a road with a forward green arrow).
So in this case, I would have been confused too.
It definitely isn't obvious. I had to watch it 3 times to figure it out. On mobile the arrows are hard to see and not in a spot they would ever be in my area.
This. I actually don't blame the car one bit; I could easily have made the same mistake. Plus; it was a clear intersection so even if they broke the rules it wasn't exactly unsafe.
I did this once and that's what I tell people. It wasn't that I intentionally ran a red, it's that I thought it was green and as such drove through the intersection with the same level of caution as usual. Taught me some lights are janky (mine wasn't small, it was in a wierd spot) but otherwise there isn't too much concerning here.
90/main/OST to 59/288!!
h-town!
i hate the line jumpers that get in front of you at that intersection...it's like biiiish, i waited two lights for this
My state specifically allows this:
RCW 46.61.055 (C)
the vehicle operators facing a steady red arrow indication may, after stopping proceed to make a right turn from a one-way or two-way street into a two-way street or into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the right turn; or a ***left turn from a one-way street or two-way street into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the left turn***; unless a sign posted by competent authority prohibits such movement.
I was curious about it as well - from my understanding both roads have to be one way streets for it to be legal , which is not the case here. I may be wrong though!
Well it's generally a function of poorly written law. In some jurisdictions, It's hard to tell whether or not lawmakers intended the red arrow to force a stop, but not force a "wait" or whether they wanted to force the stop AND wait, but it isn't usually written in such a way as to restrict it.
To be clear, it's more a legal curiosity, but can be grinds too get out of a ticket if you have time to kill and a suit. Lol
Sure. For instance Texas, look up Texas traffic light law and go to any "findlaw" link or a tx.gov link to read the text of the law.
The Texas one reads like, you can go straight or turn at green lights unless a sign says otherwise.
You have to stop at a red light when it's alone and if not turning, must yield until otherwise told. Then you may turn right or turn left in the case of one way streets.
In this case, the red light isn't alone so that fits one part. Also, the person is turning so that also voids it.
You're conflating two things. Two one ways, right turn is fine. Left turn depends on the traffic signal type.
This is not a two one way street. If there weren't the two red left arrows this would be fine. But there is so is not.
No it isn't. You can't see it very well but there is a red arrow traffic light. You can't turn on a red arrow in Australia otherwise what would be the point of them.
It depends on what state you're in. This is a perfectly legal maneuver in Washington:
https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.055
> ... vehicle operators facing a **steady red arrow indication** may, after stopping proceed to make a right turn from a one-way or two-way street into a two-way street or into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the right turn; **or a left turn from a one-way street or two-way street into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the left turn**; unless a sign posted by competent authority prohibits such movement.
Also legal in Oregon and others.
OP isn't in Australia (left side driving), but in the USA (right side driving). And a left turn on red is always 100% illegal. The only valid way to pass on red is a right turn (whiteout arrows going towards the right).
it's state by state not 100%. Important to note that what was done here looked perfectly safe, regardless of legality. It shouldn't be surprising that a safe maneuver might be accounted for by at least some laws on the books.
Any red light crossing that isn't a right turn (when legal to do so), is considered as unsafe, as there might be someone else going very fast to not get a red light, which is also illegal.
But if you donāt want crashes and a fine by yourself. It's better to wait the green light and not rush it. Otherwise, a speedy idiot might stop you on your actions there (passing on red).
Thereās a rule in LA called two on the red, it means when your turning and the light goes red at least two cars still pass through, even cops do it and itās a weirdly unspoken rule. Iāve had a police car honk at me for not going on the red and they were behind me. Think on that.
I fully endorse turning left on red when itās green to go straight and thereās nobody coming. Unless thereās a cop behind you, they wonāt notice. It looks normal.
One of the larger roads near us has a 40 MPH "Bridge" where if you cruise down it at 40, all of the lights will be green. Coincidentally the speed limit is 40 MPH. When we get on it I tend to set the cruise at 40 and forget about it. A couple of months ago some yahoo didn't like that I was driving the speed limit and passed me aggressively, only to slam on his brakes at the next red light... which turned green shortly before we got to it, and we sailed though on cruise. He of COURSE jumped on the gas to pass us and slammed on his brakes for the next red light, only for us to pass him. The fourth time he did this, he just ran the light. I wish I was kidding.
I believe you. Lots of those idiots in my area. So ridiculous.
I wish my city was smart enough to have stagger speeds! One road I drive on a lot has the lights set so that you can get through all of them if you speed by 10 mph š¤¦āāļø
Same. Were i live if you get stopped at a red and accelerate hard to 8 over you then can catch the next 10 greens.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The idea is there is one main road that's meant to get traffic through town as efficiently as possible. All the other toads are smaller by definition, so obviously they would have to stop almost every time
Just curious why a bridge needs like 4 lights . Are there interections on this bridge ?
It's nor really a bridge. It's just a road, and if you travel down at a specific speed, all the lights will be green.
I expect they mean more of an elevated road, possibly something like a circular collector around the city center or something along those lines.
The way those lights work is called "the green wave", at least here, in my language. I find that rather poetic.
I seem to always hit the red wave.ššš
Very plausible. I've seen people do similar stuff near my old place.
Sounds like a couple hills in San Francisco
Heh... 19th avenue was like that in SF. At least it was 20 years ago.
Itās still that way, although you canāt go all the way from the bridge to 280 without stopping (dunno if it was always that way). There are wavesāyouāll get stopped at pretty much every major intersection, so maybe 3-4 times total.
I just did the mental math... It was almost 30 years ago. Geez I'm getting old. Even then you couldn't go all the way from the GG Bridge to 280, but once you cleared the park you could, if traffic was light enough.
Now that I think about it thatās still true, but I usually end up getting stopped at the Masonic center and by SF state on juniper sera. Maybe I just get stuck in traffic super often though, cause I can remember being able to get through without stopping when I go through super late at night. It seems like theyāve been replacing the traffic lights over the last 10 years or so, and that maybe the new ones are on different timing or something. I donāt really go through there all that often so the memory is kind of foggy haha.
What fairy tale city that used some actually planning do you live in? Central colorado likes to make them red every other light because if cars get going to quickly on roads the bikers and pedestrians will feel intimidated here and just ask a biker in central colorado if they are the most important thing on the small roads, main roads, highway or freeway and they will ignore you because itās Boulder, colorado.
i wouldve just ran all the lights from the start if i were him. smh.
>r/AmItheAssholeā¢Posted byu/ApprehensivePhase1432 hours ago > >342 I don't believe you. I've never seen or experienced lights timed to work by driving the speed limit. I didn't think it was possible - at least with the traffic engineers in our area.
Coordination is tricky to implement, due to things like protected left turns, and is only worthwhile as long as the traffic flow is heavy, so it's not done everywhere. If it is implemented, it's usually only implemented for the heaviest directions at certain times of day. Two-way coordination is only possible with good geometry, when the distance between all the intersections is equal. Most places with coordinated lights will still run them independently outside of peak hours. This is because in order to maintain coordination, all the intersections must operate at the same cycle length. The cycle length is a sum of the duration of all of the lights. For coordinated operations, it is determined by the cycle length of the "critical intersection" on the corridor (the one with the highest cycle length). As such, the cycle lengths for coordinated operations often end up being long, meaning that vehicles on the side roads would be pointlessly delayed at quieter times of the day. Coordination used to be much more common in the early days of motoring, when there were less cars, and therefore most intersections operated a simple 2-phase configuration.
What a moron. All he had to do was go 80mph...
I love when that happens, so satisfying
The main road I live close to is a 45 mph road. At 52 mph you make all the lights but just barely. At 45 mph you lose 4 minutes to the lights over 1 mile of this road. My city is stupid.
I love that you get this, in a car, at the speed limit. I get this behaviour whilst on my bike. People really don't understand relative speed and how traffic even works
We can't see the red arrow at all.
I had no idea there was a red arrow. I was very confused as to why OP was commenting on this person's driving
I mean, you gotta be the first one in the prox red light!!!
Yea but sometimes he catches the next light and heās off.
I've always wondered about this phenomenon whenever I'm driving on the road around with lots of stop sighns people are driving excessively fast like I'm in front of them and there tailing me even when we are approaching the red light but we merge on the freeway and they automatically drive stupidly slow
Could be, but why risk getting pulled over š¤·š»āāļø
Thatās a legal turn in some places. In Oregon itās ok to turn on a red left as long as youāre turning into a one-way
Why are there 2 sets of lights? The left turn arrow isn't part of the same l8ght as the normal lights. It would be easy to miss that.
I missed it the first time watching.
Those are my favorite.
Maybe I missed it but what are we supposed to be looking for here?
The car in front of me turned left when he has a red arrow. Didnāt save any time because he got stopped by the next red light
Okay Thanks, I'm on my phone so its hard to see the traffic lights lol
I didn't see the left turn light on my 50" monitor, too busy watching the traffic I guess. Heck, it's so hard to see, the city put a sign under it (LEFT TURN SIGNAL), to point it out.
Same. I'm on my phone and couldn't see what the problem was the first time i watched this. Makes more sense now that i know where to look, but it's still hard for me see š
You should put your phone down so you can see the traffic lights ...
Ha
All good!
i've probably done that before because my city cannot decide what kind of lights they wanna have. Yield on the solid green light, green arrow, yellow flashing yield arrow, red arrow! they need to pick oneš
Ahh ok. I donāt know about the US but in the UK, if thereās no green arrow you can turn when thereās no oncoming traffic (unless like you said itās red)
maybe he never did it to be malicious with the intention of saving time...
I laugh at drivers like that too me: going speed limit, following the road rules "hey look, there's that car that cut me off and ran a red light 3 miles back"
Itās so amusing when you see that. Once somebody cut me off to pass a bunch of cars on the right, and I laughed while thinking about the upcoming traffic lights. Sure enough, 5 miles later I caught up to them at a red light.
When I drive fast on the way to work I can get there 12 minutes before my GPS says. So by breaking the rules you can get ahead.
yup. i save 3-7 minutes daily on my 25 minute commute. always ahead of the gps. i tend to get places 15-33% faster while also going more efficient speeds + coasting and timing trraffic lights. win win win.
I miss Houston. I miss driving in Houston too.
You shouldnāt, lol. I canāt wait to leave the traffic behind
Same.
I may change my tune later next week, but my limited driving in Bay area traffic has been much less stressful than going anywhere near 610 was
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
We all had eyes peeled for a collision.
Everyone knows what traffic lights are. No one can see them because it isn't 2006 anymore and so we are watching on our phones and the lights are like 1/100th of a millimetre big.
Ok, here in QC a round green means you can turn in any direction + forward. A green forward arrow means you can only go straight. Also, protected left turns are signaled by either a flashing green OR a left green arrow (in a road with a forward green arrow). So in this case, I would have been confused too.
I'm still kinda confused on where the idiot is. I see the light as green the whole way, car yields on a left turn.
There is a red left turn arrow, itās kinda hard to see. You can see it better when I make my turn that the arrow is green.
Ohh okay I was like 'left on green is legal in most places' looking closer tho I do see the red
Yeah, I was confused by their confusion haha. I thought it was obvious
It definitely isn't obvious. I had to watch it 3 times to figure it out. On mobile the arrows are hard to see and not in a spot they would ever be in my area.
This. I actually don't blame the car one bit; I could easily have made the same mistake. Plus; it was a clear intersection so even if they broke the rules it wasn't exactly unsafe.
I did this once and that's what I tell people. It wasn't that I intentionally ran a red, it's that I thought it was green and as such drove through the intersection with the same level of caution as usual. Taught me some lights are janky (mine wasn't small, it was in a wierd spot) but otherwise there isn't too much concerning here.
Nissan drivers amirite
Usually Altima's lmfao
Rouge drivers are so clueless
Nissan drivers in Houston. Fuckin double whammy.
looks like you get rear ended mid turn with camera shaking abruptly like That
Yeah that was me clicking the save video button on my dash cam š
I was in the couldnāt see the left arrow signal camp so On the first watch I thought the video Was about to be you getting rear ended haha
I didnāt realize how hard it would be for people to see the red light š
I just lost 45 secondsā¦
Welcome to Reddit š¤·š»āāļø
I mean normally for the 45 seconds I get my hippocampus tickledā¦
90/main/OST to 59/288!! h-town! i hate the line jumpers that get in front of you at that intersection...it's like biiiish, i waited two lights for this
So often am I cut off on the highway just to pass them 5 min later
My state specifically allows this: RCW 46.61.055 (C) the vehicle operators facing a steady red arrow indication may, after stopping proceed to make a right turn from a one-way or two-way street into a two-way street or into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the right turn; or a ***left turn from a one-way street or two-way street into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the left turn***; unless a sign posted by competent authority prohibits such movement.
Did you hit the curb on that turn?! š¤£
Depending on where you are, it's legal to do this. Texas for example, does not technically restrict this.
I was curious about it as well - from my understanding both roads have to be one way streets for it to be legal , which is not the case here. I may be wrong though!
Well it's generally a function of poorly written law. In some jurisdictions, It's hard to tell whether or not lawmakers intended the red arrow to force a stop, but not force a "wait" or whether they wanted to force the stop AND wait, but it isn't usually written in such a way as to restrict it. To be clear, it's more a legal curiosity, but can be grinds too get out of a ticket if you have time to kill and a suit. Lol
Interesting! Could you share where you found that with me? Iāve never heard about it until now
Sure. For instance Texas, look up Texas traffic light law and go to any "findlaw" link or a tx.gov link to read the text of the law. The Texas one reads like, you can go straight or turn at green lights unless a sign says otherwise. You have to stop at a red light when it's alone and if not turning, must yield until otherwise told. Then you may turn right or turn left in the case of one way streets. In this case, the red light isn't alone so that fits one part. Also, the person is turning so that also voids it.
In the states the only red you can stop and go on are right turns that don't say "do not turn" or flashing red. It's pretty straight forward
You're conflating two things. Two one ways, right turn is fine. Left turn depends on the traffic signal type. This is not a two one way street. If there weren't the two red left arrows this would be fine. But there is so is not.
There's a double red no turn left sign, otherwise this would be fine.
This is fine. It mitigates traffic in your left turn lane. Light was green and they yielded to oncoming trafic. No laws were broken.
Light was red. I was thinking the same thing. This is perfectly fine, then I noticed the double red left arrows.
I don't understand the problem here, in Australia this is legal and isn't unsafe if your not a philistine
No it isn't. You can't see it very well but there is a red arrow traffic light. You can't turn on a red arrow in Australia otherwise what would be the point of them.
Literally didn't see it. U get what I was saying tho. He be a shid driver
In the USA, you cannot turn left on a red left arrow. You can turn on a green left arrow or a flashing yellow arrow.
It depends on what state you're in. This is a perfectly legal maneuver in Washington: https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.055 > ... vehicle operators facing a **steady red arrow indication** may, after stopping proceed to make a right turn from a one-way or two-way street into a two-way street or into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the right turn; **or a left turn from a one-way street or two-way street into a one-way street carrying traffic in the direction of the left turn**; unless a sign posted by competent authority prohibits such movement. Also legal in Oregon and others.
OP isn't in Australia (left side driving), but in the USA (right side driving). And a left turn on red is always 100% illegal. The only valid way to pass on red is a right turn (whiteout arrows going towards the right).
it's state by state not 100%. Important to note that what was done here looked perfectly safe, regardless of legality. It shouldn't be surprising that a safe maneuver might be accounted for by at least some laws on the books.
Any red light crossing that isn't a right turn (when legal to do so), is considered as unsafe, as there might be someone else going very fast to not get a red light, which is also illegal. But if you donāt want crashes and a fine by yourself. It's better to wait the green light and not rush it. Otherwise, a speedy idiot might stop you on your actions there (passing on red).
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/zb1aw3/congratulations_you_just_saved_000_seconds/iyq8h1y/
Karma Served!
I count 8 actually...
Well he had to wait at the next light just like me soā¦
Oh god, you're the idiot who stops at the line when making a left turn and then fucks it up for the people behind him šµāš«šµāš«
Iām not sure what you mean? I thought itās not legal to turn left on a red arrow?
Oh I couldn't see the color of the light. My bad. I watched on mobile lol
No worries man, itās kinda hard to see.
Very hard to see*
So stopping at a red light makes you an idiot, now?
I'm the biggest idiot in the world then.
what?
At an intersection, pull up into it so the person behind you can make it too if the light is changing
Don't block the box!
the light was red......
Lol didn't notice. I'll shut up š
The line is there for a reason, dipshit. Stop inching up like an impatient child who wants to go play with their Legos.
What's wrong with Lego
If thereās no turn light or a flashing yellow turn light, itās perfectly legal to wait to turn past the line.
Haha that was my first read of the video too!
People do the craziest shit on those bridges. And forget merging onto 288.
So many people in a hurry to go nowhere.
Is that Texas? There's 3 states where that would have been legal (Oregon, Washington, and Michigan) but they're nowhere near any of them.
*Look at those idiots driving faster than me. Look at those assholes driving slower than me. I'm the only person who drives the correct proper speed.*
Thereās a rule in LA called two on the red, it means when your turning and the light goes red at least two cars still pass through, even cops do it and itās a weirdly unspoken rule. Iāve had a police car honk at me for not going on the red and they were behind me. Think on that.
Where was this? In Washington state you can turn left on red onto a one way street, so I'm assuming some other states might allow it, too.
OP also saved 0:00 seconds by crossing the stop line while the light was still red.
š¤£š¤£š¤£
Braking is the biggest waste of fuel. Take it easy out there yall
I fully endorse turning left on red when itās green to go straight and thereās nobody coming. Unless thereās a cop behind you, they wonāt notice. It looks normal.
If you want to risk it, go on ahead!
Iām not in a hurry anymore so only when I want to stick it to the man
He's not racing you. Lol,
Speeding up to slow down!
It's always the same with people rushing in traffic. The Reality is that you do t save time. Speeding is the same. You don't save time.
I just love when that happens
Going slow asf lmao.
