CLSII

I feel a bit stupid posting this as it is obvious that I just haven't been able to keep up with recent changes to road traffic legislation. I've only just turned 40 as well so it's not as though I'm even senile just yet.

The question is how long after traffic lights turn red is it OK to drive through them? 2 seconds? 5 seconds? 10 seconds or is it best to just ignore them completely?

For example last week I went through lights on amber just as they were changing to red. I felt that this was a really idiotic thing to do and considered it quite dangerous. It's not something I normally do however when I checked my rear view mirror I saw that three cars had followed me through the lights. I assumed that one of them must be a police car about to book me but NO! This must have been a conscious decision on their part to do this rather than the last minute decision I made...which was still wrong and obviously dangerous...or so I thought

Yesterday I was on a dual carriageway road approaching traffic lights which changed to red. Mindful of my disgraceful behaviour of the previous week I stopped at the red light only to watch 3 cars drive straight through the lights on my offside. They could easily have stopped.

I've also noticed that whilst setting off from green lights there seem to be vehicles still driving through lights presumably on red in front of me.

This seems to be really common behaviour so I'm assuming it must be legal.

Is it like the 'Only a fool breaks the three second rule' type thing?

Can anyone e-mail me the new regulations please?

Thanks in advance

astraboy

aaaaand, breathe
astraboy.

OllyK

A lot depends on the car you drive. Cars like BMWs and such have a far bigger grace period than most. It seems that not only is the steering faulty in these cars, making it impossible for them to be driven in anything other than lane 3 of the motorway, but also the braking distances are 7 or 8 times greater than suggested by the highway code in the presence of traffic lights. It should be noted however that the braking distances for BMWs seems to be about 1/50th of that suggested in the highway code when on the motorway allowing them to travel inches from the car in front.

ru'

As stated above, only some drivers are allowed to do this, mainly BMW, police (plod, not traffic), women in large 4x4s (only when distracted by only child in rear), white vans and certain old people.


Also, if the car is not taxed or insured etc. then anything goes. Doubly so if the driver does not have a valid visa.

Sadly, these sort of stunts are not allowed for the legal, capable majority of drivers.



<flame suit on>

Leslie

I think that officially it is acceptable to drive through the ambers if you can say you were too close to stop without possibly causing an accident with a car close behind you and you could see that the road was clear. Still unwise as you say though.

Looks like a few green eyes around as far as BMW's are concerned. I really like my M3 Evo.

Les

Nick100

BMW's are the ones with really unreliable indicators aswell - I don't think I've ever seen a BMW indicate

unclebuck

Jumping red lights, turning right illegally, entering box junctions when the exit is blocked, u-turns on dual carraigeways, driving with defective lights/fog lights always on - all OK now as there are no longer any traffic police to enforce the laws.

Drive 0.001 mph over any speed limit though and you had better watch out.

richs2891

Yes thats abouit right and people wonder why the driving standard has slumped, and will do until the goverment bring in a hughly expensive and complicated technoligical based solution to try and resolve it, when proper training and policing would work !

Richard

CLSII

Thanks for those replies......I thought it was just me

Astraboy.....thanks..biggest laugh of my week so far

danwrx1980

i always thought indicators were optional extras on bmws and jags?

SWRTWannabe

When I moved to Reading from Nottingham it struck me that there were more red light jumpers. Having said that, the traffic light phasings seem to be really long in Reading, so it was probably people not wanting to spend half an hour for the next green light!

OK, so I exaggerate, but I have seen police drivers putting their blue lights on just to get through traffic lights, turning them back off again once they are through!