Doesn't anyone take notice of amber lights any more?

londonTiger

It seems that people see a traffic switching to red as the new amber.

There's a busy junction near where I live which has traffic lights on all 4 roads. It's a main road and if you're turning right then good luck to you.

I presume the traffic light changes are mirrored on opposite direction of traffic. So oncoming traffic will have exactly the same changes at the same time.

I've been stuck in junctions trying to turn right many times on this paticular road. I've seen the traffic light change to red while I'm in the middle of the junction trying to turn right. Meanwhile there are oncoming cars still driving straight on when the lights have turned red, sometimes 2 or 3 cars.

Sometimes you wish there were red light cameras who spot these people and issue tickets. I imagine it would be a good revenue generator for them.

TrickyWicky

In my town most folks just start going over the line when they get fed up of waiting for red. It's as if they give themselves permission to be excused from the law.

Some people just really don't give a **** about anything except themselves.

Gloomendoom

It must be something to do with the colour. Using direction indicators went out of fashion a while a go now.

westwood68

In my experience:

Traffic lights on a big roundabout in rush hour=Audi drivers* jumping the red light and almost taking me out on my bike

*This may be a generalisation but it's happened at least 20 times this year and over half have been Audi drivers. But that's ok because they soon loose their wing mirrors

Hintza

This is not new in London, in the dim and distant past I remember the first time I drove in London and if you even thought about stopping on amber you would be rear ended.

paddedjohn

There is a set of light near me that are staggered, while I may have to stop at a red light the oncoming traffic light allows for a few more seconds before going to red, might be the case here.

dementedfeline

Hintza wrote: »

This is not new in London, in the dim and distant past I remember the first time I drove in London and if you even thought about stopping on amber you would be rear ended.

Exactly - in London amber means put your foot down so you don't have to wait 2 minutes. Or at least it did to the guy behind me who ended up in my boot

BlueFox

westwood68 wrote: »

In my experience:

Traffic lights on a big roundabout in rush hour=Audi drivers* jumping the red light and almost taking me out on my bike

*This may be a generalisation but it's happened at least 20 times this year and over half have been Audi drivers. But that's ok because they soon loose their wing mirrors

Where I live you could also insert any of BMW, Mercedes, 4x4, VW Passat or Golf drivers...:mad:

hewhoisnotintheknow

goto india / greece or similar then come back and learn how strict we really are!

forgotmyname

Half the people dont bother with red so amber is totally ignored. Its a non colour.

Take the bulb out and save some money on electricity. Just change the other 2 bulbs to green and green.

sharpy2010

Gloomendoom wrote: »

It must be something to do with the colour. Using direction indicators went out of fashion a while a go now.

I can't help but think that the idea of direction indicators is a completely old fashioned thing now.

Personally, I would NEVER rely on someone else giving me an indication of what they are going to do because they might 1) get it wrong 2) not bother at all.

I drive defensively, which means I use my head and drive sensibly regardless of what someone else does or doesn't do.

That having been said, the idea of indicators is a good one, just it can't be relied upon these days.