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Why do Americans jump red lights???

With yellow lights, it seems that whenever you figure you can beat the red the guy ahead of you figures he can't!!
 
n4gix said:
The one thing that truly annoys me are the cops who seem to believe that traffic laws don't apply to them.

If they are responding "Code 2" on official business, it's only to be expected that they have every right to do so, but when they are just "crusing around" they must obey the law, just as anyone else!
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Better not ever visit the UP of Michigan then! Geez when we were up there earlier this year cops were breaking traffic laws left and right. They were driving without lights on in the dark, not using blinkers, and making turns from incorrect lanes.
 
I didn't have a problem driving through red lights in Massachusetts or Alabama. What I did have a problem with was driving on the right when the roads were clear :blind:
 
ananda said:
I didn't have a problem driving through red lights in Massachusetts or Alabama. What I did have a problem with was driving on the right when the roads were clear :blind:
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LOL
when i first moved here
i always got in the right hand door and sat in the passengers seat
looking like an idiot!
dont think i could drive in the UK nowadays
i was going to rent a car last year but im glad and the residents of the UK probably are also:salute:
H
 
HAH!

When I was last living in Germany, an American friend of mine came over from the UK where she was living for a few years to spend a couple weeks with my wife.

We were driving down A-3 on our way back from Wurzburg and she suddenly started screaming that we were "on the wrong side of the road!"

She had nodded off and then suddenly come awake not quite sure where she was.

I couldn't help myself and laughed my a** off.
 
After having spent two years in Scotland, I came back to the states and my brother let me drive his 66 Mustang. First thing I did was to take off down the left side of the road. Scared him to death. He told me to forget driving the Mustang and gave me his old 63 Impala to drive instead.
 
Aviator32 said:
I'm still on vacation in Arizona and I'm getting fed up with risking my life every time I cross the road. Tell me if I'm being unreasonable - I don't drive so I honestly don't know.

I get to a cross walk, watch the traffic lights and wait for them to turn red for straight ahead and red for turning left or right and for the green light/green man on the cross walk to appear and nine times out of ten a car turning left or right will look to see if a car is coming and illegally sneak around the corner without looking to see if anyone might be legitimately crossing the road right in front of them. Is this normal practise in America? I've seen cars, buses, schoolbuses, ambulences - everyone do it and nobody looks to see if anyone is crossing the road first - just if there is a car coming the other way. Several times I've been close to being hit. I turn around to check the lights and they are red - the car has jumped the lights, as does the car behind him and the car behind him.

Where does the law stand on this? Are you guilty of doing this yourself? What would a patrol car do if they saw this happening? If I get hit can I sue the driver and pay for this holiday?

On a related note - there don't seem to be any traffic cameras here. In London, if you go through a red light or do a U turn where you shouldn't you will get a fine in the mail a day or two later - there are cameras everywhere. I haven't noticed any here.
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Reuben, as an ex semiprofessional drag racer who has been in two blistering car accidents(both the other guy's fault)and seeing cars disintegrate on the strip, I don't jump red lights. The main reason Americans do is is because they are basically fools. This is manifested as people passing you in a 35 mph zone and race you to a stop sign or red light, ie; get ahead get ahead get ahead screw the other guy me first you second.

Tony Bones

"...I...I...I...I'm an excellent driver..." Dustin Hoffman as Raymond, RAIN MAN
 
Toastmaker said:
Hm. . . good question. Here's another - why do foreign tourists walk out in front of moving cars ?

:running:
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But they don't, they stand and watch in amazement as a car breezes past them just as they were about to step off the pavement with the driver completely oblivious to their presence.

But here's yet another question - why don't cyclists ever use the road in this country??

Every cyclist I've seen since I've been here has exclusively used the pavement, usually but not always asking me to move out of the way so they can get past. I've even seen cyclists cycle on the pavement to the bus stop, put the bike on the rack on the front of the bus, go two blocks and then cycle on the pavement again.

Is it illegal to cycle on the roads in America?
 
Hey Aviator,

Aviator32 said:
But here's yet another question - why don't cyclists ever use the road in this country??

Every cyclist I've seen since I've been here has exclusively used the pavement, usually but not always asking me to move out of the way so they can get past. I've even seen cyclists cycle on the pavement to the bus stop, put the bike on the rack on the front of the bus, go two blocks and then cycle on the pavement again.
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I have nothing against people cycling but to be honest, I think the whole system of how cyclists use the roads needs to be addressed. In this part of the world, before you can drive on any public road, you have to be over the age of eighteen and have a valid drivers license.

In order to get a drivers license, you have to pass an eye examination and write a learners license test. After the learners license test you are able to drive on the road only if there is a licensed driver in the front passenger seat next to you.

Once you think that you have enough experience and are ready to do your drivers license test, you are taken out on the road by a licensed driving instructor where your competency is evaluated.

Now, to get to the point of cyclists and roads, if a person has to be eighteen and in posession of a valid drivers license in order to drive on a public road, then I think it is only fair that cyclists be asked to conform to the same standard - Namely that they be of a suitable age, undergo a test to prove competency and be lawfully bound to renew their license every five years like everybody else.

The other day I was driving home and a kid came screaming around a corner on their bicycle without checking for oncoming traffic. The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that they then proceeded to cycle on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic.

If a motorist had hit and killed that child they would have been up for charges on negligence and manslaughter!

Regards,
Stratobat
 
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