According to the Highway Code red+amber means stop but as you're already stopped, what are you supposed to do?
Most people begin to move off if the road is clear but is this an offence?
I believe that traffic light cameras take one photo as a vehicle crosses the white line and another to determine that it actually crossed the junction or whatever, i.e. that it didn't make an emergency stop after crossing the line. What does the camera record if someone starts to cross on amber+red?
bax
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A camera does nothing on an amber to red it only work's on red if you cross the sensor in the road.
I thought the traffic light sequence went, red, red amber, green, amber, red.
Have not looked this up, just one of those things, that sticks in your head.
Hope this helps.
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That'll do for me.
Red and Amber does not mean stop -
it means "prepare to go".
I think what you MEAN is just Amber.
And that means STOP (unless you have already crossed tha stop line OR are so close that to stop may cause an accident).
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hi banger,I probably didn't phrase the question too well. The situation I had in mind was that you're stopped on a red light then the amber comes on with the red and most people move off just a short time before amber and red are replaced by green.
Is that an offence and is it picked up on any camera?
bax
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Last Q first - No. (there is no way you can cross the complete junction with lights on Red & Amber)
BUT - do you want to be an amber gambler?
With maybe another Amber Gamber coming at you sideways?
I think not.
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Nothing to add to your message TrevorP.
Exept well said!!
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Red+amber means stop.
You are only legally safe to cross the line on the green.
There is a set of lights near us with a camera which has caught countless people out for starting off before the green.
Don't risk a fine and points to save less than a second!
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Here we have a different system. Green-amber-red-green.
Occasionally there are "three-phase" robots (traffic lights are called 'robots' here, for some reason) where it goes green-amber-red-flashing amber-green. You can proceed on the flashing amber IF it is safe to do so - same as a give way sign. (called YIELD signs here, BTW).
There is also the flashing red - makes a junction like a 4-way stop - stop-and-if-it-is-safe-to-proceed-then-go. Mostly used late at night, as a safety measure. You don't want to sit at a light waiting for it to change when there are sinister people about.
However, our local cowboys disregard most traffic signals anyway, so ...
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Thank you for your contributions but I'm still not clear if it's an offence.
Banger and TrevorP think not but BrianW says that it is, at least in his area.
I'd be really interested to know who's right. bax
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It's an offence and you'd fail your test if you did it
Terry
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I did NOT say it was not an offence.
I said that it was very unlikely that a camera would catch you doing it. I stand by that.
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Traffic Signs and General Directions Regs 1984:-
Significance of light signals
33.—(1) The significance of the light signals prescribed in paragraphs (2) and (3) of regulation 30 and in regulation 32 shall be as follows
(a) except as provided in sub-paragraphs (b), (f) and (g) the red signal shall convey the prohibition that vehicular traffic other than tramcars shall not proceed beyond the stop line;
(b) when a vehicle is being used for fire brigade, ambulance or police purposes and the observance of the prohibition conveyed by the red signal in accordance with sub-paragraph (a) would be likely to hinder the use of that vehicle for the purpose for which it is being used, then sub-paragraph (a) shall not apply to the vehicle, and the red signal shall convey the prohibition that that vehicle shall not proceed beyond the stop line in a manner or at a time likely to endanger any person or to cause the driver of any vehicle proceeding in accordance with the indications of light signals operating in association with the signals displaying the red signal to change its speed or course in order to avoid an accident;
(c) except as provided in sub-paragraph (f), the red-with-amber signal shall denote an impending change to green or a green arrow in the indication given by the signals but shall convey the same prohibition as the red signal;
(d) the green signal shall indicate that vehicular traffic other than tramcars may proceed beyond the stop line and proceed straight on or to the left or to the right;
(e) the amber signal shall, when shown alone, convey the same prohibition as the red signal, except that, as respects any vehicle other than a tramcar which is so close to the stop line that it cannot safely be stopped without proceeding beyond the stop line, it shall convey the same indication as the green signal or green arrow signal which was shown immediately before it;
DVD
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Thank you everyone especially DVD.bax
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(e) the amber signal shall, when shown alone, convey the same prohibition as the red signal, except that, as respects any vehicle other than a tramcar which is so close to the stop line that it cannot safely be stopped without proceeding beyond the stop line,
Of course sometimes you have to really cane it it to get up to a speed where you "cannot safely be stopped without proceeding beyond the stop line"... ;-)
--
These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
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I can concur with Brian W that I have seen a camera which fires at folks who cross the line on red + amber. Even if they are just creeping across.
Of course have no idea at all if prosecution actually follows, and don't intend to find out by empirical methods either, eye thank yew,
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This is what was explained to me by a trafpol when cameras first began to appear. Whether the camera will operate as you cross the stop line on the the red/amber phase depends on how that particular camera has been set. Whether you are prosecuted for that offence depends on what the picure shows. If you are judged to have created a hazard to other road users by your actions police will persue a prosecution, if not they will probably ignore it.
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Personally, I was always under the impression that if a red light is showing in any part of any combination it means stop, or stay stopped, certainly that is as was explained when I learnt to drive and have never seen anything to contradict that. Thanks to DVD for quoting chapter and verse which confirms it.
However, I always used to work on the basis of using the red-amber to be ready to go, and occasionally a bit on the sharp side. But I find that these days even if you wait for the green you find it difficult not to collide with the vehicles still coming through the red from the other direction!!
Cockle
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Cockle, agree with you yet again - so many drivers jump the red light anyway, that there's no way we can safely proceed till they've all gone past. Which often results in the problem of maybe 3 cars geting past the lights, then others trying to jump the lights, and compounding the problem!
HF
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I've always thought that, apart from green, all combinations meant stop. With green meaning 'prepare to stop at the next set of lights, because we've resync'd them to engineer congestion so we can charge you to come into town sooner rather than later.'
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