The Canberra Pause

Grail said :

As for those we see running reds, pull out and give them a good scare. The reason they keep running red lights is because YOU let them.

Panel Beaters love this kind of thinking.

Pull out without looking and you increase the chance of an accident – once for the guy running the red across you, and once for the guy with no patience behind you.

I’ll pause, every time.

I’ve rear-ended a car once because they did that at a roundabout. And once I scraped along the side of a car that had pulled over instead of turning left onto the road when there was a gap in traffic. Was watching the traffic to turn onto the road and looked ahead too late.

Still my fault, I should’ve looked ahead instead of watching traffic and I should’ve kept my distance.

And wholeheartedly agree with the red-light-runner thing. I’ve had quite a few near misses. Though also agree that there’s no reason to stop and start to check. You should be watching the intersection anyway and you should have enough time to check as you start moving off before you enter the intersection.

But a rear-ender remains a rear-ender and is still always the last car’s fault!

Grail said :

C’mon folks, the time to watch for red light runners is not when your light turns green, it is the entire time the lights are red. When the light turns green, you should already know whether or not it is safe to cross.

As for those we see running reds, pull out and give them a good scare. The reason they keep running red lights is because YOU let them.

Agreed.

Fubnnily enough I saw a red light runner this morning, lights at the junction of Launceston* St and Yamba drive.

Diplo plates, no headlights on, and didn’t so much jump the lights as skip and hop across very slowly after stopping three foot over the line with the lights on red.

*Note to Aussie readers, Launceston is properly pronounced “Lan-son” not “Lawn-cest-ton”.

LSWCHP said :

A few months ago I sat at the GDE off ramp on Barry Drive, and after I had the green I counted 4, yes, 4 vehicles that went across in front of me before the road was clear. These people had entered the intersection many, many seconds after the light had turned red. This is just one of *many* occasions in recent years where I’ve seen this sort of thing. On several other occasions I’ve taken off on the green and then had to brake sharply to allow some f*%kwit to run the red light in front of me. If I was less alert I would’ve been collected.

Ha – when I posted, I was actually thinking of that same intersection. I’ve seen it most from citybound cars turning right off Barry Drive, onto the GDE. I think half the reason is that because it’s a big, wide intersection, so the turn isn’t particularly sharp, cars can make the turn barely slowing down. So instead of already slowing down to make the corner, they’re accelerating towards the intersection.

It’s one intersection where I’d be more than happy to see red light cameras installed, and one of the few that I’d actually believe had them for road safety more than revenue raising.

Yep to all those saying the growing practice of red light running here in Canberra. Morons.

So if you want to hit the pedal the nanosecond it goes green, then go for it, but there’s no prize for successfully defending your right of way.

What Cross said at #2 and possibly others. Better red(-faced person behind you) than dead.

I’ve had a couple of near misses so yes, I do wait to make sure I’m not about to be t-boned by some bonehead.

Having said that, depending on the circs, I have been in my time been the bonehead. And raced through an intersection as the light changed to red right on the line. This would still put me well ahead of the green on the arterial road, but some people like to anticipate and go at T minus 2 or 3 as well.

Not quite the same thing, but as a pedestrian, I once watched as one line of cars stopped in front of the zebra crossing and reasonably assumed I was good to go across.

After the Range Rover with bull-bars finished having its way with me, they picked me up off the bitumen about 20metres downstream, and 34 years later, I still walk a bit funny. When I say ‘funny’, it’s funnier for the watcher than the walker.

So, it’s a second. (So THAT’S what a New York Second means — I never knew!)

“Chill, Win-ston!”

The only thing I hate more than the “canberra pause” is “non-canberran utter-utter pathological certifiable impatientness”. That and being T-boned by a follower of the “last two cars made the orange light while they could have easily stopped so I therefore by all rights can also go through the orange light even if it is a sort of rubyish-scarletish- sort of orange” school of thought.

C’mon folks, the time to watch for red light runners is not when your light turns green, it is the entire time the lights are red. When the light turns green, you should already know whether or not it is safe to cross.

As for those we see running reds, pull out and give them a good scare. The reason they keep running red lights is because YOU let them.

erm yeah, i’m sure you were going to do something earth-shatteringly important during that 0.2 seconds you had to wait? colour me one of those “canberra pause” drivers because i have seen too many people blow through red lights at speeds well beyond the limit. perhaps because they, like you, are too impatient?

thatsnotme said :

+1 to all the responses suggesting that it’s to avoid being cleaned up by red light runners. On numerous occassions, I’ve seen red light runners mid intersection, when the lights have been green for other traffic for a number of seconds. To do that, these drivers haven’t just run the orange – their lights have been red well before they enter the intersection, and they decide to go anyway.

I think it’s about survival instincts, more than being overly cautious.

A few months ago I sat at the GDE off ramp on Barry Drive, and after I had the green I counted 4, yes, 4 vehicles that went across in front of me before the road was clear. These people had entered the intersection many, many seconds after the light had turned red. This is just one of *many* occasions in recent years where I’ve seen this sort of thing. On several other occasions I’ve taken off on the green and then had to brake sharply to allow some f*%kwit to run the red light in front of me. If I was less alert I would’ve been collected.

I’m teaching my teenage daughter to drive, and I’ve emphatically warned her to never zoom off on the green without checking for cross traffic.

It’s bloody sad because it shows the casual disregard for the lives of themselves, their passengers and other road users held by many drivers in this city.