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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Speeding or red light jumping

25 replies

AddressLabel · 04/03/2020 11:16

We were having a discussion about this at work and I thought it would be an interesting one (or should that be contentious one) to raise on MN.
Which do you think is the worse offence (if any; an equally valid response is to say they are both as bad as each other) – speeding or driving through a light that had only just turned red at roadworks?
Yes I am fully aware that both are naughty and wrong, but I’m just curious to see if one is more “socially acceptable” than the other.
Some people thought the red light jumping was worse, but couldn’t really articulate WHY. Both can be dangerous and yet both can be harmless e.g. speeding on a straight road with no one else about or going through a red light at roadworks at 3am when no one else is about. Yet both of the latter would still be an offence.

OP posts:

ShirleyPhallus · 04/03/2020 11:19

Did you then follow this up with a conversation on “how would you most like to die” followed by a few grisly options?!

I’d say jumping a red light is much worse than driving through a red light that had just turned red at traffic lights. Jumping a red light you have no idea what other traffic is coming in the other directions, whereas going through a light just turning red at roadworks then anyone coming the other way wouldn’t know it had just turned red so would be on the lookout for traffic.

Not sure if there are cameras in place at roadworks either?

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 04/03/2020 11:24

Jumping red light is worst because it's more dangerous, it shows a total lack of road awareness and when the other side starts moving when the light is orange/green, you crash.

adaline · 04/03/2020 11:25

Jumping a red light. We have some traffic lights here where if you jump them, you're in serious trouble. They're there because you go around two blind corners on a single track road - if you went round when the signal was red you'd end up very stuck indeed!

Borisdaspide · 04/03/2020 11:29

I suppose because a red light in the UK is a definitive sign to stop and so all road users should be able to trust that they can cross/ drive safely when the green light is theirs. Whereas speeding can be a little bit naughty, or extremely bad depending on where you do it. I wouldn't ever say jumping a red light is harmless at all.

Original poster

AddressLabel · 04/03/2020 11:30

Jumping red light is worst because it's more dangerous, it shows a total lack of road awareness and when the other side starts moving when the light is orange/green, you crash.

Totally agree with normal traffic lights. With roadworks though the other side can't go even if their side is green if traffic is still coming from the other side. It's annoying, especially if more than one car follows the first car through the red light and the lights are quite short. It seems people who wouldn't ordinarily go through a red light at normal traffic lights don't always bat an eye about going through roadworks when the light has just turned. Double standards

OP posts:

Borisdaspide · 04/03/2020 11:32

Also as a confirmed pedestrian, you can plainly see when a car is speeding, or just going fast, if you want to cross the road. Predicting that someone is going to jump the red light is impossible and terrifying when it happens.

SarahTancredi · 04/03/2020 11:34

I'd say jumping a red light.

I've has it few times where I'm just about to cross with the green man only to have a lorry or a van and in one case a horse box carry on straight through. On one occasion I even had dd2 with me. Thank god I had hold of her bag handle.

Speeding is obviously bad but alot of the time it happens on clear straight ish roads ( you can't speed if therds heavy traffic as theres no where to go) or people miss the sign where it drops from 40 to thirty and it's still the same road.

PhoneLock · 04/03/2020 11:37

A few years ago, in a state of boredom, I looked through the court section in a local paper (biggish city). What struck me was that male convictions were mainly speeding. Female convictions were mainly driving through red lights.

HaddawayAndShite · 04/03/2020 11:40

Yes I am fully aware that both are naughty and wrong
They’re not naughty or wrong. That is how you describe a 5 year old misbehaving. They are illegal.

If you do either you’re a grade A moron and should have your driving licence removed.

Original poster

AddressLabel · 04/03/2020 11:41

Did you then follow this up with a conversation on “how would you most like to die” followed by a few grisly options?!

No, but that can be a discussion for another lunchtime/break

OP posts:

Original poster

AddressLabel · 04/03/2020 11:44

**Yes I am fully aware that both are naughty and wrong
They’re not naughty or wrong. That is how you describe a 5 year old misbehaving. They are illegal.

If you do either you’re a grade A moron and should have your driving licence removed.**

Shall I put you down for the "both as bad as each other" option then?

OP posts:

BrimfulofSasha · 04/03/2020 11:46

red light jumping is worse.
Speeding all traffic is heading in the same direction on your lane. With red light jumping the risk is hitting someone in the opposite direction or a pedestrian. Which I see to be more dangerous.

Leo90 · 04/03/2020 11:51

I live in a town where red light jumping as become the norm, everyone just seems to expect. I didn't even really notice it till my boyfriend pointed it out.

pedanticstyleguide · 04/03/2020 11:52

I agree with this. You have to be able to rely on a red or green light. Whereas if you do 55 in a 50 limit that's not so bad. Doing 55 in a 30 limit is terrible and worse than sneaking through a red light as it changes from amber.

pedanticstyleguide · 04/03/2020 11:53

To be honest I rarely see a car driver blatantly going through a red light. They sneak though as it changes and sometimes you think "that was red!!" but they rarely come up to a light that is already red and just go through it. Whereas it happens with people on bikes quite a lot.

RustyBear · 04/03/2020 11:55

When there were roadworks outside our back fence last week, most people seemed to be doing both at once!

Hingeandbracket · 04/03/2020 12:00

To be honest I rarely see a car driver blatantly going through a red light.
I see it all the time.

DGRossetti · 04/03/2020 12:19

There's a scale of speeding thought. Whereas jumping a red light is more black and white.

31 in a 30 is speeding. But so is 90 in a 30. Which I have seen proof of - outside a school. Rather lost interest in any and all excuses after that.

pedanticstyleguide · 04/03/2020 12:36

I see it all the time

Really? I genuinely don't see it. I mean where the light is on red, and you can see from some way that it's red and people go through. Occasionally lights are confusing and people make mistakes but most of the time I just see people sneaking through on a light which may just be amber for the front of their car but is categorically red by the end of their car!

Whereas (some) cyclists just go straight through whatever.

adaline · 04/03/2020 13:04

The thing with speeding is there's a scale, isn't there?

Like a PP said, 31 is a 30 is speeding, but so is 90 in a 30. One is clearly far more dangerous than the other, and it's why the police can occasionally use their discretion.

You're highly unlikely to get a ticket for being 1-2mph over the limit, but you will for being 10mph over, because the latter is far more dangerous than the former. Running a red light is generally much more black and white, although at night when there's nobody around I don't really see the problem (not that I'd do it, but I can see why people do).

DGRossetti · 04/03/2020 13:07

You're highly unlikely to get a ticket for being 1-2mph over the limit

That's going to change as we get more 20mph zones and average speed cameras. On my speed awareness course there was a driver who was summonsed for 32 in a 30. That was 6 years ago.

mencken · 04/03/2020 13:09

neither are 'naughty', both can kill and frankly anyone who thinks otherwise needs their right foot amputated to stop them driving.

BTW speeding uses extra fuel which fucks the planet. But this is MN so we don't care really.

GruciusMalfoy · 04/03/2020 13:20

It depends. I'd say speeding hugely (like 60 in a 30) is worse than jumping a red at roadworks. Jumping a red is worse than speeding at, say 33mph in a 30.

LuckyLickitung · 04/03/2020 13:22

I agree that speeding is a sliding scale of wrong. Speed limits can also be quite indiscriminate, for example a rural road near me is 40mph for about 4 miles due to sections of bends and junctions, but there is a straight stretch where you would be very unlikely to come to harm by getting towards NSL (which it was until a car full of teenagers high on amphetamines went fatally crashing off the road at 63mph on the tightest bend half a mile away... personally it's more of a 30-35mph bend and my car does not handle it well at 40mph) , but it's not worth having speed limits varying every few hundred metres as that would be too confusing.

Traffic lights are a safety measure for a specific hazard. It is either green (proceed with caution) or amber/ red (stop). Most traffic lights won't keep you waiting long and many will be phased to change according to traffic at quiet times. There could easily be another road user at risk from someone jumping red lights.

DGRossetti · 04/03/2020 14:06

Speed limits can also be quite indiscriminate

Whilst that's as may be, we don't get a free pass to pick and choose which laws we obey. It's all - or none.

On my speed awareness course there was a chap whose name was "Entitled McEntitled" (I may have made that up). He spent nearly 10 minutes insisting that he shouldn't be there because the road he was snapped on (40 mph limit) was perfectly safe for 50. The instructors had to give him a warning that he would be disqualified from the course and referred back to the courts if he couldn't admit he was wrong.

I was never a massive speed merchant - the odd 10 over sometimes. but those 3 hours were a smack to my head that I will pass on wherever possible

Sorry, 90 in a 30 past a school ... still makes me ill now.

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