It’s astonishing, the ways people find to hurt themselves in cars. It’s also saddening. Running red lights is one of the most frivolous and preventable reasons that people get hurt or die in while driving.
Don’t run red lights. First of all, it’s an easy way to get a very pricey traffic ticket. Though you might be able to wiggle out of a speeding ticket by sweet-talking a police officer, you can almost never avoid a ticket for running a red light, and these can cost you two week’s worth of spending money. Even if you don’t see any police officers around, many lights have cameras that activate when a car passes through a red light. It’s a silly, embarrassing way to get caught doing something illegal. Avoid the costs – wait the extra few seconds to obey the light.
More importantly, running lights, especially in busy intersections or streets, can harm you and other drivers. Lights are timed in very specific ways; they give people time to turn left, and they indicate when it is safe to drive. As the person at the red light, it is your responsibility to stay there, not other cars’ responsibility to notice you if you decide to go. So, even if you don’t see any cars, don’t move, because if you run a light, the accident will be your fault. It could also happen at a lethally high speed, and then it doesn’t matter whose fault it is.
Yellow lights are a little subtler. When you should you slow down and when should you speed up when you see a yellow light? A good rule of thumb is to slow down unless you’re driving in an area you know well. If you drive there often and you know exactly how long the yellow light is in that particular spot, it’s okay to speed up a little bit in order to make the light. Still, don’t accelerate so much that you’ll be unable to stop if the light changes.
Green lights are a similar case. Many people speed up when they see green lights, and that’s not a bad idea. But police officers often patrol near traffic signals for this reason (among others). If you do speed up for a green light, stay within the speed limit or just one or two kilometers faster so that you don’t become easy prey for patrol officers. Paying attention to traffic signals is the easiest way to be a more responsible driver.