If the lights stay red

whiteonblu

What happens if the lights stick on red and you are at front. Happened a friend of mine last week.He stayed put but the lght seemingly missed a turn to green. Lots of traffic behind blowing horn.

I just wondered is there s limit to the time you have to stay, say if the lights went out of order and stayed red. would you call the gardai who could sort it out

johnnyskeleton

whiteonblu wrote: »

What happens if the lights stick on red and you are at front. Happened a friend of mine last week.He stayed put but the lght seemingly missed a turn to green. Lots of traffic behind blowing horn.

I just wondered is there s limit to the time you have to stay, say if the lights went out of order and stayed red. would you call the gardai who could sort it out

As long as it is red, don't go. You could call the gardai who could direct the traffic or the local council who could fix the light. Some lights do two rotations of other traffic before they go green so it is not certain that the lightswere broken.

Out of curiosity, what did he do next?

Pkiernan

Is he still at the light?

Del2005

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

As long as it is red, don't go. You could call the gardai who could direct the traffic or the local council who could fix the light. Some lights do two rotations of other traffic before they go green so it is not certain that the lightswere broken.

It's even more fun for cyclists and bikers. They don't have enough metallic weight to trigger the sensors so are often stuck at lights waiting for a car. Read an article from the UK about a biker who has a late night commute home for work. A sensor light couldn't pick up his bike and after several attempts by the council it still didn't work, the only solution was for him to take a 40mile detour.

johnnyskeleton

Del2005 wrote: »

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

As long as it is red, don't go. You could call the gardai who could direct the traffic or the local council who could fix the light. Some lights do two rotations of other traffic before they go green so it is not certain that the lightswere broken.

It's even more fun for cyclists and bikers. They don't have enough metallic weight to trigger the sensors so are often stuck at lights waiting for a car. Read an article from the UK about a biker who has a late night commute home for work. A sensor light couldn't pick up his bike and after several attempts by the council it still didn't work, the only solution was for him to take a 40mile detour.

It's frustrating alright and a serious flaw in the system. I suspect it's a vicious circle whereby cyclists are assumed to be prepared to break the lights so the lights don't accomodate them thus forcing law abiding cyclists to break the lights etc.

whiteonblu

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

As long as it is red, don't go. You could call the gardai who could direct the traffic or the local council who could fix the light. Some lights do two rotations of other traffic before they go green so it is not certain that the lightswere broken.

Out of curiosity, what did he do next?

just waited till it went green.lots of cars behind blowing horns but he was not going thru a red

MagicSean

whiteonblu wrote: »

just waited till it went green.lots of cars behind blowing horns but he was not going thru a red

So there was nothing wrong with it then? As someone already said, some lights get skipped at certain times to allow for traffic on the busier routes.

whiteonblu

MagicSean wrote: »

So there was nothing wrong with it then? As someone already said, some lights get skipped at certain times to allow for traffic on the busier routes.

there was something wrong, took twice as long as should, but he did not break the light

Del2005

whiteonblu wrote: »

there was something wrong, took twice as long as should, but he did not break the light

He may not have been on the sensor for the 1st cycle

johnnyskeleton

whiteonblu wrote: »

just waited till it went green.lots of cars behind blowing horns but he was not going thru a red

Good man. It's very hard to abide by the rules when someone is behind you beeping.

Procrastastudy

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Good man. It's very hard to abide by the rules when someone is behind you beeping.

I make sure to follow every procedure - twice when some tw*t does this to me.

Yes I can see the filter has gone green - I'm taking 2 seconds to let off the hand brake and check my mirror. Beep me and its going to take 6 more as I'm sure you are alerting me to a hazard I've missed as you can see the L plate. Oh no! you were just being a tw*t? oh well...

Just Jack

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I make sure to follow every procedure - twice when some tw*t does this to me.

Yes I can see the filter has gone green - I'm taking 2 seconds to let off the hand brake and check my mirror. Beep me and its going to take 6 more as I'm sure you are alerting me to a hazard I've missed as you can see the L plate. Oh no! you were just being a tw*t? oh well...

Good sense,to start as you mean to go on. Also I think most drivers react as you do to being honked at. The fact, is there is seldom reason to use your horn at all, if you observe a situation, concentrate on evasive action. Slowing down,or even stopping.Many years ago in my first years driving, I was involved in four fairly major accidents, luckily only car damage. I was adjudged blameless in all four, and recieved damages. But a friend of mine, who was a driving instructor for London transport, decided, I would benefit from a course of defensive driving lessons. This is where you drive assuming the other motorist will make a error, and you must be prepared to make allowance for his error.Thereby avoiding the accident.Thats more than fourty years ago, and I have not had as many accidents in that fourty years ,as I had in my first year. Think ahead

MadsL

Honking when the light turns green isn't necessarily hostile, these days it is the beep you need to get most people to look up from their smartphone.

odds_on

MadsL wrote: »

Honking when the light turns green isn't necessarily hostile, these days it is the beep you need to get most people to look up from their smartphone.

Definition of a split second: The time it takes from the lights going green and the driver behind you honking the horn.

johnnyskeleton

Just Jack wrote: »

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I make sure to follow every procedure - twice when some tw*t does this to me.

Yes I can see the filter has gone green - I'm taking 2 seconds to let off the hand brake and check my mirror. Beep me and its going to take 6 more as I'm sure you are alerting me to a hazard I've missed as you can see the L plate. Oh no! you were just being a tw*t? oh well...

Good sense,to start as you mean to go on. Also I think most drivers react as you do to being honked at. The fact, is there is seldom reason to use your horn at all, if you observe a situation, concentrate on evasive action. Slowing down,or even stopping.Many years ago in my first years driving, I was involved in four fairly major accidents, luckily only car damage. I was adjudged blameless in all four, and recieved damages. But a friend of mine, who was a driving instructor for London transport, decided, I would benefit from a course of defensive driving lessons. This is where you drive assuming the other motorist will make a error, and you must be prepared to make allowance for his error.Thereby avoiding the accident.Thats more than fourty years ago, and I have not had as many accidents in that fourty years ,as I had in my first year. Think ahead

the only reason to use the car horn is if you are driving along on a sunny day and there is a pretty girl in a short skirt walking on the footpath. In such circumstances, it is important that you beep, otherwise she won't know that there's a sophisticated car/van driver who thinks she's a bit of allright.

Procrastastudy

Just Jack wrote: »

Good sense,to start as you mean to go on. Also I think most drivers react as you do to being honked at. The fact, is there is seldom reason to use your horn at all, if you observe a situation, concentrate on evasive action. Slowing down,or even stopping.Many years ago in my first years driving, I was involved in four fairly major accidents, luckily only car damage. I was adjudged blameless in all four, and recieved damages. But a friend of mine, who was a driving instructor for London transport, decided, I would benefit from a course of defensive driving lessons. This is where you drive assuming the other motorist will make a error, and you must be prepared to make allowance for his error.Thereby avoiding the accident.Thats more than fourty years ago, and I have not had as many accidents in that fourty years ,as I had in my first year. Think ahead

I'm digressing here (more than usual) but that reminded me of what my Dad told me (I'm 32 now so this was some time ago) when I first starting riding on the road on my bike. "Treat everyone as an idiot - expect them to do something stupid at any moment". While I have found this is as equally true off the road as on - it's served me well.

The odd thing about driving is like many other people - I change behind the wheel. 95% of the time I'll stay back, I'm very relaxed - pretty good and making sure I'm driving defensively. There is that odd time I'll roar past someone driving slowly or get narky because someone has beeped me at the lights. Really odd facet of human nature.

neemish

whiteonblu wrote: »

What happens if the lights stick on red and you are at front. Happened a friend of mine last week.He stayed put but the lght seemingly missed a turn to green. Lots of traffic behind blowing horn.

I just wondered is there s limit to the time you have to stay, say if the lights went out of order and stayed red. would you call the gardai who could sort it out

Strange that you should mention that - I was twenty minutes sitting at lights yesterday evening. I know the junction and usually there's only a 3/4 minute wait. i didn't know what to do

Stark

whiteonblu wrote: »

What happens if the lights stick on red and you are at front. Happened a friend of mine last week.He stayed put but the lght seemingly missed a turn to green. Lots of traffic behind blowing horn.

Out of curiosity, he wasn't sit through a full green waiting for a filter light did he?

the culture of deference

neemish wrote: »

Strange that you should mention that - I was twenty minutes sitting at lights yesterday evening. I know the junction and usually there's only a 3/4 minute wait. i didn't know what to do

TBH after 3 or 4 minutes I would just go through it as safely as possible

neemish

the culture of deference wrote: »

TBH after 3 or 4 minutes I would just go through it as safely as possible

Eh ya, left it twenty minutes, waited for a good gap in traffic and off I went...could see a few other cars do the same. Oh the guilt. I'm the kind of person who'd wait for a green light at three o'clock in the morning on a country road in Offaly!

the culture of deference

neemish wrote: »

Eh ya, left it twenty minutes, waited for a good gap in traffic and off I went...could see a few other cars do the same. Oh the guilt. I'm the kind of person who'd wait for a green light at three o'clock in the morning on a country road in Offaly!

well if it was them new lights on the bridge in rhode i wouldn't break them. i would get out of the car and walk over 1st before driving.:D

whiteonblu

Stark wrote: »

Out of curiosity, he wasn't sit through a full green waiting for a filter light did he?

no, there is no filter there

RandolphEsq

Re: bikes not being recognised.

I find that standing up and going slowly up to the red light does the job to get recognised.