China now ticketing drivers for running yellow lights.

[Brian556]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/03/world/asia/china-traffic-rules/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

[vdeane]

They're crazy.  The point of having a yellow light is to warn when the light will turn red.  If you treat a yellow like a red, all you do is punish motorists who are doing nothing wrong.

[Brandon]

Part of the point of the yellow phase is a warning of the signal turning red.  It lets those too far away that they have to stop, and those too close to maintain speed and get out of the intersection.

[kphoger]

There are states in our own country that treat a yellow light as a red light.  My wife got pulled over in Minnesota just a few years ago for "running" a yellow light.  No ticket, though, fortunately.

[1995hoo]

There are states in our own country that treat a yellow light as a red light.  My wife got pulled over in Minnesota just a few years ago for "running" a yellow light.  No ticket, though, fortunately.

Virginia has a statute:

.... When the amber signal is shown, traffic which has not already entered the intersection, including the crosswalks, shall stop if it is not reasonably safe to continue, but traffic which has already entered the intersection shall continue to move until the intersection has been cleared. ....

The current DMV manual they distribute to people learning to drive says that you should stop if you're not already in the intersection and that you should not speed up to beat the light. When I originally got my license the then-current version said that it was illegal to speed up to beat the light, but that doesn't mesh with the current statute. Of course lots of people are always flooring it when they see yellow. I think the "shall stop if it is not reasonably safe to continue" provision is a rather strange way of doing it–it might make more sense to say "shall stop unless it is not safe to do so."

I've never heard of anyone being ticketed for failure to stop on yellow, but I'm pretty careful about trying to stop (unless I think the guy behind me will rear-end me if I stop) because of red-light cameras in various local jurisdictions. It really pisses off some people when you don't floor it through a yellow, too.

[KEK Inc.]

Most lights in China do have a timer countdown now, though. 

[agentsteel53]

Most lights in China do have a timer countdown now, though. 

I would love for the US to have that.  I know that sometimes triggered signals are impossible to predict exactly, in which case leave the timer blank - I believe the minimum delay before a trigger causes a yellow light is about 3-4 seconds anyway (at least, by my observation), so it would be very nice to have that extra 3-4 seconds of information available.

[1995hoo]

I agree that the countdown timer is a nice idea. I'd also like for the US to have something telling you when the green is coming–whether a countdown timer or a combined red-yellow cycle as is used in much of Europe doesn't matter, but it's damn annoying that there's nothing telling you when the green is coming. I try to look at the other street's light, but that's not always possible depending on intersection configuration or the particular light cycle or even random factors like sun position behind the signal heads, and in either case I know I'm atypical because most drivers have never even thought of the idea of watching the other light. Yeah, it seems trivial to most people that you lose some time as people take longer to start up because they didn't realize the green was about to show, but when you multiply that by 20 cars ahead of you multiple times a day it starts adding up.....

Of course I know another significant difference between here and Europe (Western Europe, at least) is that red-light running is a much bigger problem here, such that if people went immediately on green there might wind up being more crashes. But that's a separate discussion.

[KEK Inc.]

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6621.0

I made a thread about it above.  I look like an idiot triple-posting, but that's because someone deleted their posts.  In AARoads tradition, a lot of people decided to derail the thread and talk about pedestrian crosswalk timers instead. 

---
I support signal timers; however, the biggest issue would by the psychological drag race mentality that will come of it.  People will fail to check both ways if there's a car running a red or if there's a car that can't brake in time before they proceed through the intersection.  The driver will just look at the signal timer, rev his or her engine up and do a Cape Canaveral Launch.

Edit:  basically what hoo said...

[agentsteel53]

I support signal timers; however, the biggest issue would by the psychological drag race mentality that will come of it.  People will fail to check both ways if there's a car running a red or if there's a car that can't brake in time before they proceed through the intersection.  The driver will just look at the signal timer, rev his or her engine up and do a Cape Canaveral Launch.

that sounds like typical LA behavior on yellow.  "can I make it through in three seconds?  probably!"

[Duke87]

I support signal timers; however, the biggest issue would by the psychological drag race mentality that will come of it.  People will fail to check both ways if there's a car running a red or if there's a car that can't brake in time before they proceed through the intersection.  The driver will just look at the signal timer, rev his or her engine up and do a Cape Canaveral Launch.

This happens anyway. I have noticed that I am often quite fast compared to many people to get going when a light turns green.

This is, of course, because I built up instincts and reflexes about hitting the gas when a light turns green from racing video games years before I could actually drive. So that quick green-GO! is pretty much hard wired into me.

[1995hoo]

At the traffic light nearest our house the stop bar is well back from the intersection as we leave our neighborhood. I watch the other street's light and, provided I'm first on line at the light, I've usually shifted into gear and started rolling before the green arrow comes on.... I almost always dust off anyone else. But I also don't sit there playing with a mobile phone ignoring the light, either.

[Road Hog]

Don't let the Texas Legislature know about this. They'll be authorizing "yellow light cameras" before you can say Jack Robinson.

[agentsteel53]

Don't let the Texas Legislature know about this. They'll be authorizing "yellow light cameras" before you can say Jack Robinson.

who is Jack Robinson?  the Dr. John Nestor of Texas?

[Tarkus]

Don't let the Texas Legislature know about this. They'll be authorizing "yellow light cameras" before you can say Jack Robinson.

who is Jack Robinson?  the Dr. John Nestor of Texas?

Redflex would have to change their name to Yellowflex.