Okay, so what is it? When you come to a yellow light, do you stop and wait for the light to turn red or do you accelerate and hope it doesn't turn red?
This is the question I have been pondering. Two weeks ago I was stopped by a state trooper because I went when the light was yellow with anticipation that the light would remain yellow. Obviously, that was not the case. It turned red. As it happened, I was feeling dread. Phrases I verbalized were, "I cannot believe I did that. The light turned red. I BROKE the law." To make it fair, it was a double light system. I had to get through two sets of lights on 1 yellow light. Once I crossed and made my u-turn, I knew I broke the law. Bright swirling lights were headed my way.
The way this happened was...a night out on the town. We hired a babysitter and went to a wedding. The wedding was getting lame so we decided to go OUT on the town to Harrah's Casino. My traffic violation occurred on Canal Street at Decatur Street, across the way from my destination, Harrah's. This is probably a routine stop for the police.
I got out the car. I must vouch for myself and say I was nicely dressed. No alcohol in my system. No signs of drug use. And I am not of the young set. I felt like all of these things gave me an advantage with the state trooper. He asked me where I was going and coming from. We joked about never going out and the one time I do, look at my predicament. He checked my drivers license and ran my license tag. All were clear and he gave me the go-ahead to continue my evening.
So here I am back to my dilemma. Do you stop or go at a yellow light? The officer said always stop at a yellow light. Sure, but the car going 45 mph behind me doesn't think so. If you are approaching the yellow light, sure I will stop. But, if I am right at the light and it changes yellow, I feel as though I should just punch it and go.
Since this night, I found myself in this situation often. I have jammed on my brakes with a yellow light and thought I would have everything from the back of the car including children up front with me. I just don't know. I guess each yellow light will be a unique experience and will have to be dealt with as it arrives.
5 comments:
I go through it. I don't stop for yellow. Yellow means caution, not stop... just like yield means caution, not stop. That's how you'll get rear-ended around hear. Yeah, it'll be their fault, but if me or my kids get hurt, who cares who's fault it is.
I was told that if you can stop on yellow that you must. I was rifing with my mom one day when she was pulled over for running a yellow light. It was yellow her whole way through. So, If I can stop, I do.
LOl..Resend it my friend when you get it worked out..In the meantime I will try to check it our in your blog! Yeah I am sure it is frustrating..hang in there! ;)
If I have to slam on the breaks and would still land up in the middle of the intersection by the time the car stopped, I would speed up at the yellow light instead. If the person in back of me was speeding up (especially if they had a bigger or cheaper car than me), I would too. Having mumbled all that, my impulse is to speed up if there's a snowball's chance in you-know-where of me making it into the intersection before the light turns red. :p
I go through if I think I have enough time. I've only been stopped once for "running a red light". I absolutely hate getting pulled over. I wonder if there are people out there that like it?
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