Behaviour at traffic lights

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 18

Behaviour at traffic lights

Far too many Christchurch motorists regard traffic lights as an invitation to run a risk instead of as an aid to safe and usually expeditious driving. A “red light” campaign by the Ministry of Transport in the middle of 1977 showed that offences at traffic lights were common. Traffic officers netted many offenders: but the campaign did not reduce the number of violations in the long run. Reckless drivers have continued to rush the orange when they could, and should, stop. Dangerous drivers have continued to ignore red lights entirely. Probably the only way to curb this kind of behaviour is ruthless enforcement of the law.

A relatively large number of motorists have been detected breaking the law at lights by traffic officers performing routine duties. Before the Ministry decides to mount another “red light” campaign, it must determine whether some motorists’ ignoring of orange or red lights is indeed, as the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr H. G. Hay, believes, a major cause of accidents. If it is not, this may be only because cautious, considerate drivers are no longer assuming that a green light guarantees the safe crossing of an intersection. This attitude defeats the whole purpose of installing traffic lights. Even if the result of a campaign against traffic light violations is simply to restore people’s confidence in traffic lights rather than to reduce the accident

rate, it will be worth the Ministry’s effort to police the lights vigorously and prosecute the offenders. Some, usually trivial, offences at traffic lights are the result not of recklessness or foolishness but of frustration or impatience on the part of usually safe drivers who are held up by lights when the streets are empty. This impatience may be understandable, but it still encourages disregard for the signals, which is not healthy. Changes to the operation of lights by introducing a flashing amber phase outside rush hours, more sensitive triggering devices, and permitting a left turn against a red light might reduce the sense of frustration when a red light seems to be an ill-timed obstruction. A flashing amber phase would also reduce the number of occasions on which motorists assume, sometimes to their cost, that they have a clear run through an intersection. This would offer greater protection against the reckless driver. The change may seem to be capitulating to those drivers who speed across intersections without having the legal right of way: but it may be a sensible capitulation. Such drivers can still be apprehended at what are, in effect, uncontrolled intersections when they break the rules’ of the road. In the end, it must be acknowledged that, if a red light will not stop a reckless driver, little else will do so.