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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think there is definitely an increase in people driving through red lights?!

59 replies

FrasierCranium · 19/02/2016 12:45

This is driving me bonkers Angry

Maybe it's just around here, I dunno, but recently I have noticed more and more that people are just frankly not stopping at red lights. I mean wtf?! When did this become ok?

Most annoying in rush hour. Causes the junctions to get all snarled up.

Gives me the rage. Has anyone else noticed this?!

OP posts:
MadisonAvenue · 19/02/2016 12:51

Yes, we were just talking about this the other day. It does seem to be on the increase which is a worry, and I've also noticed people ignoring red lights on pedestrian crossings too.

SweetAdeline · 19/02/2016 12:53

It's very common where I live in Dublin. As a pedestrian I wait for the green man then wait for another car to try to sneak through, then I cross. Cyclists seem to ignore them entirely including their own little bike shape ones. It's particularly frustrating, because even if cars/bikes obey the signals, pedestrians are only given about three seconds to cross every ten minutes.

FrasierCranium · 19/02/2016 12:53

Not even sneaking through on Amber. Just a blatant red light!

OP posts:
feellikeahugefailure · 19/02/2016 12:54

Yes and no. I live somewhere with a high retirement population and I see both people jumping red lights and people making emergency stops on amber after they have started to cross the line.

SweetAdeline · 19/02/2016 12:55

Yep. They treat amber like green and the first few seconds of red like amber.

MadisonAvenue · 19/02/2016 12:56

Not even sneaking through on Amber. Just a blatant red light!

Yep.

Furiosa · 19/02/2016 13:00

Yes I've noticed this a lot since DS started nursery. To get there we use a crossing that drivers think you don't need to stop at unless someone is crossing on a green man!

Most never stop when they are approaching on amber, they usually speed up and red makes no difference. It's scary.

jay55 · 19/02/2016 13:06

Yes last night crossing the road taxi kept going even though light had been on red before he got there. I see it every week now. In queued traffic people just not looking but following the car infront.

MadisonAvenue · 19/02/2016 13:15

Jay55, I was crossing a while ago where the traffic was queued up. I was just stepping out (green man was beeping) when the car at the front of the queue started to drive across, because the queue on the other side of the crossing started moving so she followed it.

JennyOnAPlate · 19/02/2016 13:41

We definitely see it a lot round here (Midlands). Pedestrian crossings have apparently become an optional stop too. I walked dds to the post box the other day and we stood at the kerb to cross on a zebra crossing and 12 cars drove past before one stopped (yes I counted!)

The thought of my dc having to go out and navigate the outside works in their own in a few years makes me nervous!

JennyOnAPlate · 19/02/2016 13:45

Outside world not works!

BrianCoxReborn · 19/02/2016 13:46

Was having same convo with my mum the,other day.

It's as though a red light is a mere suggestion to some.

There aren't enough police on the roads, government cuts in action.

Pipbin · 19/02/2016 13:46

Many years ago there used to be public information films about this and one of them had the tag line 'don't be an amber gambler'. The advise then was to stop on amber, which is what most people did.
These days amber seems to mean 'speed up a bit and you can make it' and if the car in front of you has gone through on amber then you can too if you are close enough to it.

Pipbin · 19/02/2016 13:48

And I am the only person left alive who actually obeys a box junction.
I've had people beep me or cut me up when I've stopped at one.

Goadyflattery · 19/02/2016 13:49

Happened to me this morning actually, car went straight through on red as I was crossing on pedestrian lights. He definitely didn't even notice what he had done.

Owllady · 19/02/2016 13:53

I know re box junction and ppl not stopping at crossings

wasonthelist · 19/02/2016 13:54

Pipbin no you aren't but I get the same. There is a particularly stupid one near me on a roundabut that also has traffic lights, if I obey it, I often get shit off the car behind; if I don't, I choke the roundabout.

onemouseplace · 19/02/2016 13:54

I've definitely noticed this more - I'm in London and at most sets of lights you will get at least one (if not more!) car going through on red. I've got so used to it that I assume that the next car approaching changing lights will go through on red rather than stop.

MintyChapstick · 19/02/2016 13:55

YANBU. There's also been a massive increase in people who don't bother to idincate at roundabouts and junctions. I think it's a reflection on how selfish society has become.

Owllady · 19/02/2016 13:55

A lollipop lady got run over on a crossing before christmas. V badly injured :( then week after it happenedto her replacement Shock

wasonthelist · 19/02/2016 13:56

Ps sure I will get told off for this, but you do know you can go onto a box junction if you're turning right across traffic and the only thing stopping you is oncoming traffic? If not that could be why people are expecting you to move onto it.

SweetAdeline · 19/02/2016 14:00

I was going to ask if it still happened in London despite all the enforcement cameras (or is that just central London?).

MadameDePompom · 19/02/2016 14:04

YANBU

This seems to be happening more and more.

A car did this to me yesterday and I caught up with them and gave them a stern 'YOU'RE MEANT TO STOP AT THE RED LIGHT YOU FOOL'. They pretended they couldn't see me or hear me.

Draylon · 19/02/2016 14:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JeanneDeMontbaston · 19/02/2016 14:33

Cyclists do it a lot here. My colleague was hit by one turning left, and the woman came off her bike and was obviously quite shaken - she thought that you were entitled to turn left on a red light, which apparently is the rule where she learned to drive (non-UK, obviously!). I also quite regularly come across students who genuinely aren't aware red lights apply to cyclists, because they see everyone else jumping them.