Broken traffic signals

[RobertN]

I am amazed sitting here. I work on the second floor of a building that looks out on a busy 6 lane road. there's a high school across the street, my work and the high school both have entrances with lights right here.

The power is out to a few local signal lights. That means you treat them as a stop sign(at least in California). Some people are stopping, but a number of people are blowing thru at 40-50 mph(normal speed on road). In amoungst all this, there are people make left hand turns onto the main road, and in to both the business and high school parking lots.

There have been a few close calls as I have watched. I'm surprised there have not been any crashes...

I'm guessing people are not paying attention, and don't notice without the red/yellow/green lights.

 

[Bird]

Maybe it's just a day for it, Robert. There's a road that goes under I-35W a couple of miles north us us; hospital on the NE corner, Quick Trip convenience store/service station on SE corner, service station on the NW corner, and medical clinic on the SW corner, and the signal lights were not working today. It's not a power outage since all of them are flashing red all directions. But no one's going through at a high rate of speed because traffic is backed up a couple of hundred yards in every direction. But then a little later today, in a nice residential area, there's an intersection with 4-way stop signs and as I approached, a vehicle coming on my right at about 25 mph never even slowed down as she blew through the stop signs. I'm guessing, from the way she was looking around, that she was looking for a particular address and never even saw the stop sign.

 

[riptides]

I That means you treat them as a stop sign(at least in California). ..

i thought it was common law that signal outs are treated as 4-Way stops.

Scary.

-Mike Z.

 

[MrJimi]

It is in Florida, if they aint on their darn cellphone

 

[Soundguy]

i thought it was common law that signal outs are treated as 4-Way stops.

Scary.

-Mike Z.

Yep.. that's how i treat them her ein fl.

Boy.. you should have seen it during the hurricanes. people were blowing thru intersections like no tomorrow..

soundguy

 

[RollTideRam]

The problem around here is most people don't know how to go through a 4-way stop. They just pull up and stop, and then take off. I guess they don't care about the other 3 people. JC

 

[RonMar]

Set up a video camera. Might make some money selling the footage to the local news or one of those incredible video shows... Failed stoplight disclipline is a very common example of how easy society breaks down when the trons stop flowing.

 

[SnowRidge]

Every place I have ever lived treated a failed traffic signal as a four way stop by law, and in every place I've ever lived, the number of morons that ran them was at the same time amazing and frightening.

I think we need to make it a firing squad offense.

 

[Soundguy]

I'm not sure why people forget basic traffic laws when the power goes out???

soundguy

 

[RobertN]

I think people are very visual most of the time; if they do not see red/yellow/green in front of them, it does not register. Add to that cell phones, radio and other distractions; a lot of poeple do not pay enough attention.

I'm not sure why people forget basic traffic laws when the power goes out???

soundguy

 

[tallyho8]

I'm not sure why people forget basic traffic laws when the power goes out??? soundguy

I don't know why either but it sure IS true. After Katrina most lights in the New Orleans area were not repaired for over a year. Many are still not working 2 years later. Driving through the area was a nightmare as everyone went nuts while driving. If you slowed down for an intersection with no lights, cars behind would blow horns or pass on either side. Speed limits were not enforced so everyone quickly learned to disobey all traffic laws. Things are a little better now but traffic violations are still much higher than pre-Katrina.

 

[goaliedad]

There must be a direct connection between electrons and the human brain- ever go to a fast food resturant when the cash registers are down? the poor people have no idea how to make change. I guess if the light is out for me, it must be red for the other guys! Be careful out there.

 

[KubotaSteve]

I think it is arrogance. People blowing through Stop signs or lights that aren't working have the opinion that what they are doing is more important that what you have to do so rules don't apply to them. I've seen cars passing on the shoulder of a highway because 2 cars are running side by side and the one isn't going past the other one fast enough. I've noticed in the last few years in our county where we have so many city folks moving to our county, the increase of running red lights, not yielding the right of way, not respecting funeral processions, etc. has increased dramatically. Also the number of deer getting hit, because the city folk don't understand the concept to look out for them and just becasue the one in the road walked off the edge doesn't mean another one isn't coming too.
I was talking to an officer the other day and he said some of the excuses people give for speeding: I was running late for my nail appointment, I am on my way to show a house for some important people, my yoga class is getting ready to start, and my favorite "I was going too fast to STOP so I didn't even bother to try to at the stop sign".

 

[Soundguy]

i know a guy that got pulled over for some meaningless violation.. brake lamp out or something.. was a motorcycle cop. Cop walked up, got his license.. etc.. walked back to the cycle and about that time someone about ran the both of them over and kept on going.. cop rode up real quick to his window tossed him his license and said have a nice day and zoomed off after the other guy.. I'll never get that lucky i'm sure...

Soundguy

 

[Bird]

Chris, that's probably not as unusual as a lot of people would expect. Lots of folks who see an officer with a vehicle stopped figure they can get away with anything because the officer is too busy to do anything about it. Sometimes they're right; sometimes they're not, and sometimes their timing is off. One night when I was a young patrolman, I was writing a citation for a motorist I had stopped, and just as I was handing him his copy and his license, a Corvette passed behind me as close as he dared, stepped on the clutch, gunned the engine hard a couple of times (I assume in an effort to startle or frighten me), then took off. Yep, his timing was off. Naturally, I jumped in my car and took off after him. Now that Corvette had a lot more power than my squad car, but he only ran a mile or so, turned right, and lost control. He spun a full 360 degrees in the street and came to a stop against the left curb with me sitting right beside him. I got him out of the car, back to the squad car and informed him that he was under arrest for fleeing or seeking to evade an officer. He informed me that he was a law student at SMU and that I couldn't arrest him because he wasn't running from me; that I had to just write him a speeding ticket and let him go. And when I went to talk to the female passenger in the Corvette, she said she told him to slow down and he said, "I can't; the cops are after me." She was an airline stewardess on their first, and I suspect last date, and in a Corvette he had borrowed from his brother. Needless to say, he did not go to court and try to plead not guilty.

 

[Phils]

I think it is arrogance. People blowing through Stop signs or lights that aren't working have the opinion that what they are doing is more important that what you have to do so rules don't apply to them. I've seen cars passing on the shoulder of a highway because 2 cars are running side by side and the one isn't going past the other one fast enough.

The day before the Minneapolis bridge collapse, we had an overpass under construction about 5 miles down the road from my house collapse. A FedEx driver had an angel on his shoulder as huge beams squashed both the front and middle of his truck.

Traffic backed up.

A women didn't want to be delayed by the traffic so just started passing it all on the shoulder. She came to an abrupt halt when when she rear-ended a CalTrans truck that was parked on the shoulder.

When the news was reporting on the incident, there were three injuries listed: the FedEx driver, the construction worker that "surfed" the bridge structure 50 feet to the ground (factoring in the horizontal movement actually a 100 ft ride to the ground and only a couple of broken bones), and that ditz was listed as one of those injured by this bridge collapse!

Phil