will I be fined?

IndigoUK

Yesterday in central London, when I approached a traffic light in close distance, I saw it turning orange. Given the decades of driving experience (not in London to be honest), I calculated that I could speed up (not more than 30-40mph) and pass it. However, that particular traffic light turned IMMEDIATELY into red within fractions of second! So I ended up passing it while being red!

1) Will I be fined? Are all traffic lights in central-ish London monitored?
2) Can I raise a dispute about this, based on that particular traffic light turns red immediately after turning orange?

Any advice?

forgotmyname

IndigoUK wrote: »

Yesterday in central London, when I approached a traffic light in close distance, I saw it turning orange. Given the decades of driving experience (not in London to be honest), I calculated that I could speed up (not more than 30-40mph) and pass it. However, that particular traffic light turned IMMEDIATELY into red within fractions of second! So I ended up passing it while being red!

1) Will I be fined? Are all traffic lights in central-ish London monitored?
2) Can I raise a dispute about this, based on that particular traffic light turns red immediately after turning orange?

Any advice?

Don't jump the lights? Amber = STOP.

IndigoUK

It seems you are an extraterrestial driver. Most drivers I 've seen do not always stop with orange. They may or may not. But definitely they DONT always stop.

DUTR

Amber gambler was aterm from the past.

Joe_Horner

IndigoUK wrote: »

It seems you are an extraterrestial driver. Most drivers I 've seen do not always stop with orange. They may or may not. But definitely they DONT always stop.

There's a big difference between not stopping and "calculating that you could speed up to not more than 30-40mph" to get through.

If you had time to calculate that and were far enough away that you'd have to hit 40 to get through (in central London almost certainly in a 30 limit) then you also had time to stop.

And an aggressive response to the first (absolutely reasonable) reply. Typical new poster behaviour lately!

IndigoUK

Obviously I would had to hit the brake too sudden and too hard to stop. I was driving with a bit less than 30mph and I was very close to the traffic light. Obviously that traffic light is VERY BADLY programmed, either on purpose to give people fines or for some kind of ignorant attempt to improve mobility efficiency, but it ends up to be absolute garbage

w00519772

If I went through a red light then I would expect to get a ticket. Maybe you just thought it went from amber to red too quickly?

You can always hope that there was no camera or it was not working I guess.

w00519772

IndigoUK wrote: »

It seems you are an extraterrestial driver. Most drivers I 've seen do not always stop with orange. They may or may not. But definitely they DONT always stop.

Ok, but if the lights turn red then they should get a ticket like I did in my opinion. They take a gamble.

agrinnall

It seems to me that you're wanting us to agree with your method of approaching traffic lights. I think you may find that you're out of luck. I'm guessing that this will be your one and only visit to the forum.

IndigoUK

w00519772 wrote: »

Ok, but if the lights turn red then they should get a ticket like I did in my opinion. They take a gamble.

My point is that they should allow a proper time before making an orange light go into red. They cannot simply make the light go from orange into red within 30msec, while the average in other lights is 2sec. There should be some set time to turn an orange light into red and I guess they violated it by far.

forgotmyname

Ahh the amber gambler adverts, i remember those. The guy crashes and gets out to rant at the other driver then sees that its himself.