November 27, 2013 Article

The Old Coot knows his colors.

By Merlin Lessler

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but red is the new green. People don’t stop for red lights anymore. In fact, they do just the opposite; they speed up. And, those of us who are waiting at the intersection for our light to turn green are now forced to look both ways before moving ahead. If we don’t, we’ll get broadsided. I admit, I’ve done it myself, stepped on the gas as a light started to turn red, but today’s drivers act as though they have a ten second grace period. The red light doesn’t mean red until ten seconds after it comes on. 

I’ve also noticed that one or two cars will often follow the first car through the light. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we fastened our sleds together by hooking our feet onto the sled behind us to form a train; we came down the hill as a single unit. That’s how cars now run through red lights, as a train. It’s a good strategy. Safety in numbers. Who’s the cop going to ticket? The odds are good that it won’t be you.  

I started a campaign in 2007, one of those foolish old coot things, to see if the DOT would allow drivers to treat red lights as stop signs. I was tired of sitting in my car at intersections when no cars were coming, wasting time and gas. If I was allowed to go right on red, why not straight or left? Drivers do it all the time at stop signs, what’s so different when it’s a red light? I sent letters to our elected state officials, as did a modest number of like-minded old guys with too much time on their hands. I received a polite reply from our state senator. He didn’t let on how crazy he thought my suggestion was. He just said he’d refer it to the DOT for consideration. Eventually, the answer came, on official DOT stationary, a big fat, “NO”! Little did I know I should have been asking to go left and straight on a green light, not a red one.

I still think we should be allowed to treat a red light as a stop sign. I do it all the time when I’m walking, and it takes me a lot longer to scamper across the intersection to safety than when I’m in a car. If you wait for permission from a mindless traffic signal you are going to get hit by a red-light runner. But, not if you remember, “Red is the new green!”