Highway onramp traffic lights: Who obeys them?

In My Humble Opinion
1

If you don’t exactly get what I mean, there are these small traffic lights on various onramps on the highways near me. They only have green and red lights and they are tripped by sensors on the road some distance before the merge point on the onramp. They’re to help regulate traffic so you don’t have huge backups by everyone trying to merge at the same time.

I bring this up because I find that I almost never actually obey these things. In high traffic situations, a lot of space can open up or close up in the short distance between the sensors and the light. It makes more sense to figure out the merge at the merge point rather than at the light. I almost never have problems making a safe merge when I do it. Also, because of how the signal is activated, the light will sometimes flick from red to green to red in under a second leaving no time to hit the gas anyway.

What does everyone else do in this situation? Also, can we get tickets for going through these things when they’re red? (I always assumed they were suggestions more than they were actual traffic lights).

2

When I lived in the big city, I obeyed them. I guess I don’t think I’m as important as you do.

3

Hmmph. Well, I don’t know if you can get ticketed for skipping them, but I do always obey them. I don’t take the freeways much here (Los Angeles) becuase I live close enough to work to take surface streets, but when I do and they are on, the freeway is busy enough that it spaceing things out makes sense.

4

I obey 'em – you never know when there’s a cop in the bushes. :wink:

As for the “quick flick from green to red,” I believe the idea is that you can simply start going once it’s green for you. The return-to-red is for the next person behind you.

5

They are always clearly marked “One Car per Green” or “Three Cars per Green”.

The lights are definitely not “advice”. They are real traffic signals and you can run them at your own peril of getting a ticket.

6

I remember hearing somewhere (perhaps on Discovery?) that these lights are there to present “clumping”. This is where a whole bunch of vehicles enters the freeway at the same time (due to traffic signal synchronization on surface streets) and ends up forming a “clump” on the freeway, causing traffic slowdowns.

And yes, impatient type A that I am, I still obey them.

7

I dunno about other states, but in California, you run the risk of a mighty big fine (over $200, IIRC) for running one of these. If you’re in the habit of running the same light around the same time of day - say, on your way to work every morning - your fellow commuters have been known to call the CHP to report your license plate as they watch you blow through the light. If the CHP gets enough complaints about your car, they’ll do one of two things: Send you a letter telling you that the law applies to you, too; or station a motor officer to watch the light and wait for you to blow it one more time.

8

Here in Seattle I’ve never seen anyone ignore these lights. If you did, you’d severely piss off everyone who’s waiting in line like you’re supposed to. Considering the number of people who have cell phones I wouldn’t try it even if I were inclined to jump the line. Here the lights have an added wrinkle - if the on-ramp is big enough to have a carpool lane, the light applies only to the single occupancy lane and not the carpool lane.

9

I always obeyed 'em in L.A. even when they took a hideously long time to change to green. I mean, really, how much good are you going to do with the 10 seconds or so that running the light ostensibly saves you?

10

I’ve never seen anyone go through one here in Northern CA. Our freeways are a serious and ugly business.

11

If people had just used their noggins in the first place and entered our freeways with a sensible amount of space between them and any car in front, these effing contraptions wouldn’t have been necessary. I hate the damn things as I was always taught to build up to freeway speed before entering and sticking a freaking stoplight on the ramp complicates that effort.

Yes, if nobody’s in front of me and the damn thing’s red I will blow through it and merge safely with the traffic flow, braking to give exiting traffic the right of way.

There’s no telling how much extra gas is wasted across the US daily as cars come to an additional stop and then are forced to quickly accelerate to freeway speed over a much shorter distance. Preventing accidents is worth that cost but using just a modicum of common sense would have accomplished the same thing.

Because a few people didn’t have the decency to respect the space of the car in front, we’ve got one more instance where we’re told what we can or can’t do. I hate 'em… can you tell?

12

I don’t know where you live, but here in The Los Angeles, I don’t think the purpose of the lights is to “time” your merge - I think the point is just to reduce the rate of cars getting on the freeway. In other words, not so much a safety issue as simply an attempt to control the flow of traffic. They mainly seem to be activated when the traffic on the freeway is at a crawl, so you wouldn’t want to be going 65 when you hit that line of cars going 5 mph anyway.

??? You’re supposed to stop at the red light, then proceed when it turns green. It’s designed to let one car through every few seconds. The green is your signal to proceed - it doesn’t need to STAY green.

Yes, you can get a ticket. I have heard that it doesn’t count as a moving violation, though, because the lights only regulate traffic, but I can’t substantiate this. In any case, you’d still have to pay the fine. I always stop if the light is red - hardly seems worth risking a ticket to gain only a few seconds.

What’s really fun are the ones where it’s a 2-lane onramp with a light in each lane. When it turns green, it’s like a drag race.

13

I obey them. They’re most definitely not suggestions out here.

I’m in the greater Los Angeles area, where as people have pointed out they’re all over the place. I agree with blowero as to the reason that they’re there - I’ve read somewhere myself that “clumping” of incoming traffic is what they’re intended to prevent. My own personal experience is that they work, too.

Many (but by no means all) on-ramps here have two lanes: one for “carpools” (generally, multiple-occupant vehicles), and one for others. There’s typically a sign reading “Carpool lane does not stop,” giving that line free blow-through of the signal light.

But, it seems, this is simply too tempting for the more self-important solo drivers out there. :slight_smile: It’s hardly rare for me to observe someone driving alone up the carpool lane so that they may skip the queue in the other lane.

Just the other day I was driving on the 605 freeway and I observed a CHP motorcycle officer sitting on the right shoulder, looking off to his right over the slope. I wondered what he was doing until I passed his location and realized that he was looking down at a light-controlled carpool/other onramp. I can only suppose that he was staking it out, waiting for someone driving alone to breeze through the carpool line. I doubt he had to wait long.

These things don’t operate like normal traffic lights. There is usually a sign saying “One car per lane each green,” or something similar (occasionally it’s two cars). When it flashes green, the front car in the line can go - the next guy has to wait. If you’re not off the line when it flashes back to red, you can still go if you were in front. No, the second guy can’t go if he tailgates the first dude and gets by the signal before it turns red again.

In keeping with this forum’s title: My Humble Opinion of those who feel these lights need not apply to them is rather low.

Full disclosure: I accidentally blew through one a few months ago. It was on the ramp I usually take to work, at an hour when the signal was usually not activated. It was also partially obscured by a bush, but I would have had time to react had I been paying attention rather than assuming it wouldn’t be on. I flashed by it, caught a bit of red in my peripheral vision, and thought, “Hey, was that thing on? Oooh…crap.” There were no flashing red & blue lights in my near future, so I decided luck was with me. I opted not to drive to the nearest CHP depot and turn myself in. :slight_smile:

14

you have it backwards, at least from my experience.

the biggest single bitch I have with traffic is people complete and total inability to MERGE at proper speeds. I cant tell you the number of times I am stuck behind some moron who happened to be first at the light and now is trying to merge with 60+mph traffic at 35-45mph with 10 cars piled up behind them on the onramp. grrrrrr I sense a traffic rant in my future.

15

I would be very surprised if a violation of a freeway meter light didn’t result in a moving violation. After all, you’re in your car about to enter a freeway. It’s not like you’re jaywalking. You’re toying with automobiles going 65 mph.

If anyone wishes to find out, someone here should get ticketed for a violation of this law and test it out in court.

We’ll all chip in for the fine, won’t we?

16

Did you just volunteer, BobT?:smiley:

17

who obeys them? not me! blow right thru them. you need to be up to speed to merge onto a freeway.

before you all get hot’n’bothered about this, don’t worry- i’m only in major cities where these stupid devices lurk about once every 5-6 years, so the odds of me inconvieniencing you are pretty damn slim!

(and, I don’t really care a flyer what you think, anyway! :smiley: )

Jesus was in a coma.

18

We have them here in Denver and I obey them.

19

Not me. But I usually carpool to work anyway and get to go past everybody!

[pause to feel morally superior]

Ahh, that’s better.
[/pause to feel morally superior]

20

A couple of people have mentioned this point. Funny. As previously mentioned I always obey the lights and I have no trouble getting up to speed before merging. Nor does getting up to speed require anything akin to a drag racing start. How long are the on-ramps where you live?