V annoyed!! I got stopped this morning for what the police said was going through a red light. I don't believe it as I thought it just turned but I was head to head with a police car and he stopped at the lights and I didn't. Stupid really and I wasn't going to argue as I was late enough fo work as it was and was in a bad mood because of crap morning. I saw the flashing blue lights behind me and stopped to let him pass and was shocked when he got out and asked me to. Thought he was after someone else so didn't get that awful feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach when you know you have done something wrong!! Anyway after suffering the shame of having to stand out on the pavement of one of the busiest streets in Liverpool city centre at rush hour, confirm ID, standing like a lemon as people gawped, he decided that as I had been reasonable he was going to let me off with a verbal warning but reminded me it should have been 3 points and £60. I apologised and said I wasn't trying to be awkward but I was a bit stressed as I was late for work but I had been helpful, answered his questions etc. Then he just looked at me! I thought he might say dont do it again but sounded like I should realise he was doing me a favour and it could be worse. He was a complete jobsworth, it wasn't a dangerous manouevre and I'm sure he has better things to do with his time. I'm just glad I kept my cool or I think he would have issued a fine for the hell of it.
just sounding off....feel better now!!
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Glad he let you off. But hope everyone remembers the highway code says the amber before the red light means stop too, i.e. if you've enough time you ought to start stopping because the light is about to go red.
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rtj70 hits the nail on the head - the OP's phrase "it had only just turned" suggests that he/she treats amber as "go".
Better at least than the large minority who now seem to think that red means thre more cars can go through!
I'd always consider it a win to be let off with 'advice' - whether you consider yhourself guilty or not the copper, in practice, can book you if he wants.
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He couldn't have been that much of a jobsworth, otherwise he would have booked you and you'd have got the 3 points and a £60 fine.
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The officer saw the lights change so you should have done, I think you relly pushed you luck and managed to get away with it. Enjoy the rest of the day and be grateful. Regards Peter
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That copper should come to Luton, he'd have a field day.
On the main point, I think he would not have stopped you unless you had gone across on red, and I think he was only doing his job. To be honest the more coppers who stop us when we transgress the better. (Nothing personal. I was stopped once for a minor case of not paying attention. The copper was right to stop me.)
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Far better for plod to stop you and let you off with a caution, than having a red light camera nab you. For starters, the red light camera wouldn't have let you off.
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Friend of mine got stopped speeding on his motor bike many years ago by a policeman who said call it careless driving son, I've been following you for the last 2 miles.
Maybe the same applies crossing a red light, however soon it changed, with a police car there shows a slight lack of observation
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Some people don't know how lucky they are-lucky not to have caused an accident and lucky the non-jobsworth police officer let them off with a caution.
Take heed my fellow motorist and be more careful next time.
How many times have we stopped for the traffic lights only to be overtaken by someone just pushing through on the red...what do we say...."I wished there was a copper around now"!
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If the police stopped every motorist who jumped a red light in Liverpool and issued a £60 fine they'd pay for the annual cost of running Merseyside Police in a month....:-)
Only recently I saw two badly smashed up cars on the A59 junction opposite Maghull Town Hall - this junction has a camera to record those who jump the lights and most drivers are aware of the fact...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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No wonder apparently 'everyone hates the police' if they get labelled a jobsworth for NOT giving you a ticket.
So he told you that you SHOULD get a fine and points, but that he'd just give you a warning this time, and you responded by complaining to him that you were stressed?
They can't win either way, can they? I think you need to realise that policeman was your best friend today.
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Policeman was probably on his way for his breakfast so didn't want to paperwork or something ;-)
My driving instructor (many years ago) taught me that if you see light on green in the distance and they've been green for a while... assume they will probably start to change or have changed before you get to them and be prepared. Good advice I'd say.
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exactly what i was going to say rtj70,
I will just add that it must be really terrible being late for work and having to run red lights to make up the time, especially if you meet your alter ego doing the same from the other direction.(maybe monday eh?)
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.........but I was a bit stressed as I was late for work........
Saying you were late for work must be the worst thing you could say! It implies that you were in a hurry and that the consequent stress impaired your judgement.
Count yourself VERY lucky not to get the points, and learn the lesson.
--
pmh (was peter)
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Perhaps the policeman who stopped Siba had been further from the junction than Siba when the lights changed. A second can make the difference between it being correct to stop and knowing that stopping will be too violent and that the car behind may run into you. So perhaps the policeman really was being a jobsworth (we will never know).
However Siba's main complaint seems to be that he was made to stand beside his car in a busy street with passers-by 'gawping'. Can't say that would have bothered me much under the circumstances.
In my experience policemen appreciate a bit of courtesy when they don't run you in, although they can be a bit obtuse about recognizing courtesy when they get it. Still, they must know that a lot of respectable citizens feel very flustered when they are pulled.
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Sorry if I got your gender wrong Siba.
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Universal opinion then! Joking aside, I know I was lucky to get off this morning but I didn't give him a hard time or argue back . The policeman annoyed me but I do realise it was a stupid thing to do. Just shocked me a bit.
Lesson learned.
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if the old bill are going to dish out a verbal warning, they''ve got to be satisfied it's going to work i.e. the person receiving it is going to take notice of it and not repeat whatever the misdemeanour is....which is why if you give a load of abuse and don't accept you've done wrong, you're going in the book aren't you?
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Lesson learned....... as they to say "Driver Education @ £60.00 a lesson"
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Haven't heard that before but its apt!
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After some time to cool down and reflect, I would say that this was good policing, as a lot of people mentioned, it had made you think about what happened but not harshly penalised you with 3 points and £60 fine. I wish there was more policing like this and less cameras!
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I would happily sit in the stocks and have rotten fruit and veg chucked at me in Trafalger Square at Midday if it meant no points.
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Let me know Pug, and I´ll be there with some windfall apples from the garden ;-)
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my last post has gone missing and can't be bothered to retype all of it!
contrary to what was said by someone above, people gawping at me was not my main gripe!
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Sorry Lud, but as said before, if a traffic light is green expect it to change to amber NOW. Depsite going through on red only a fraction of a second before, this would mean it had been on amber for longer. The original poster got off lightly and if I were him/her I would have not even bothered posting.
Anyhow, lesson learned and move on!
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Sorry Lud, but as said before, if a traffic light is green expect it to change to amber NOW.
So, when you see a green light you should slow down because it might change to amber and you don't want to stop too suddenly? Logically this means all traffic should always slow to a cautious crawl when approaching any traffic light.
Personally I always accelerate in the hope of getting through before the light changes. Seems to work OK, but I am better at it now than when I was young. Only experience can teach you to recognise in a few milliseconds whether you need to brake or carry on accelerating.
What you really don't want to do is a wheels-locked emergency stop or a T-boning charge across the junction well into the red.
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I was taught to approach lights in the expectation that they were about to change to amber ie not slowing down but slightly higher level of anticipation than normal.
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I remember reading an article about a traffic calming experiment , think it was in the states. Although traffic lights do regulate traffic quite well usually, there is the problem of people speeding through changing lights in a bid to get through them. Before anyone comments, I was not speeding throught them this morning, just trundled on over - it was rush hour!
The experiment was that the traffic lights were deliberately turned off and motorists were left to negotiate the junction themselves. The results were that everyone had to slow down as the lights were out and the traffic moved along smoothly. Unfortunately I can't remember much more than that :-)
I've always thought that was an interesting one. There are many problems with it but umtimately it would slow people down.
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Don't think it would work anywhere where the locals are likely to be tooled up with handguns, and probably not in America either.
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What a nice policeman - and it had the desired effect - "Lesson learned"
One would be a lot more annoyed had an inhuman and unforgiving lights/speed camera been involved perhaps?
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Phil
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My experience of driving in US - is that generally drivers are much more cautious at lights.. probably because in many sates police cars park nearby looking for infrigemnets. And in the US if you get caught for speeding you do get fined..
But of course they have lots of traffic police there - unlike here:-)
madf
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The experiment was that the traffic lights were deliberately turned off and motorists were left to negotiate the junction themselves. The results were that everyone had to slow down as the lights were out and the traffic moved along smoothly. Unfortunately I can't remember much more than that :-)
Had this happen to me once - power failure took out half the traffic lights in Reading one weekday morning - my usual 45 minute commute to work was down to 25!
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One or two enlightened countries (Thailand and Cuba come to mind, but there must be others) have a countdown display incorporated in their traffic lights showing how many seconds left until the next change; brilliant idea but it does add to the installation costs....nuff said!
----------------------------------------------
One mans junk is another mans treasure
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Bet it's cheaper to install a countdown system than a camera. No revenue from it though!
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Or do away with them-see tinyurl.com/yfkzn3
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Some cities in Germany (e.g. Karlsruhe) used to have displays on the main roads would that indicate what speed to drive at in order to catch all the traffic lights along a long stretch of main road on green. It seemed to work pretty well but I haven't seen it for quite a number of years so I don't know whether it's still used.
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The traffic lights in CArdiff were synchronised this once upon a time.
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"The traffic lights in CArdiff were synchronised this once upon a time. "
I'd add were like this back in the the late 80s and early 90s. You could get off the M4 and drive into the centre of Cardiff at the speed limits with all lights on green the whole way. Speed and you'd stop at lots of lights. Cannot comment on now.
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Too much traffic now to get to the limit........
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"The traffic lights in CArdiff were synchronised this once upon a time. " I'd add were like this back in the the late 80s and early 90s. You could get off the M4 and drive into the centre of Cardiff at the speed limits with all lights on green the whole way. Speed and you'd stop at lots of lights. Cannot comment on now.
Apparently it used to be like that on the A4 through Slough. Now the lights are 'anti-synchronised' so as to maximise journey time. But I suspect that if you speed you can make it through the next set of lights. It seems to be the fashion to 'anti-synchronise' lights. Maybe it's all part of making driving as uncomfortable as possible so that we all take to the buses and shortly after hell freezes over.
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>Apparently it used to be like that on the A4 through Slough
yup very true, did it loads of times.
>Now the lights are 'anti-synchronised' so as to maximise journey time. But I suspect that if you speed you can
>make it through the next set of lights
yup also now true,
>Maybe it's all part of making driving as uncomfortable as possible so that we all take to the buses
problem is, the buses on that stretch also use the same lights so they are now stopped at every set of lights as well.
Madness.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It's easy to be an amber gambler and I suspect most of us do it on occasions. What is the ruling if there is one policeman in the car who says you jumped an anber and you swear blind you didn't?
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Been the dilema since time in memorial barney. Probably a contested Careless Driving summons if it got that far.
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