# Are pilots supposed to look both ways before crossing the runway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828 "2025-02-26T13:48:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/41 "2025-02-28T23:19:14Z")
> [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > I know that I have watched some of the lights change here in Sacramento, and saw one light turn green at the same moment that the other light turned red. No delay. I have seen this and taken notice of it, multiple times. Not disputing your personal experience, but that sounds like 1960s infrastructure, not 2020s infrastructure. In a medium-sized city I might expect a minor intersection with 1 lane in each direction to have older less capable signalling than that where two major boulevards cross with multiple lefet turn bays, etc. It’s a decent bet there’s some variation in all the equipment that makes up a city’s entire traffic control facility. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/42 "2025-03-01T01:11:02Z")
@Bob_Blaylock and I do not exactly live in a high-end part of town, as the roads and other infrastructure can testify if you compare our part of town to the higher-priority (read: richer or politician-infested) areas. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/43 "2025-03-01T01:11:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > > > I know that I have watched some of the lights change here in Sacramento, and saw one light turn green at the same moment that the other light turned red… > > Not disputing your personal experience, but that sounds like 1960s infrastructure, not 2020s infrastructure.   Perhaps some of the money that would have gone into upgrading those lights is among that which instead has gone Gavin Newsom’s two mansions, and other personal luxuries.  We have what must the most corrupt, kleptocratic state government in the entire nation, and very visibly, much of that is most visible in the form of roads and related infrastructure for which we are paying an extraordinary amount of taxes explicitly designated therefore, but which are every obviously going elsewhere; much of it, surely into Gavin Newsom’s pockets. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/44 "2025-03-01T01:15:19Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > @Bob_Blaylock and I do not exactly live in a high-end part of town, as the roads and other infrastructure can testify if you compare our part of town to the higher-priority (read: richer or politician-infested) areas.   You don’t drive nearly as much as I do out of our neighborhood, out of the Sacramento area.  The condition of the roads and related infrastructure is pretty much the same just about everywhere that I’ve been in the past decade or two.  I think I’ve only seen it otherwise the few times we’ve ventured out of state, into Nevada or Oregon.   It’s almost obvious, just as you cross the state line, that the roads suddenly become better on the not-California side of the line.   Which now has me realizing that I don’t think we’ve taken the current Jeep out of California.  The first Jeep, before it [sank](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tying-up-loose-ends-in-the-mmp/1011700/239), had been to Nevada at least two or three times, and once into Oregon. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/45 "2025-03-01T01:17:13Z")
I’m sure you’ve noticed that near the Capitol or Sac State, or in the higher-end neighborhoods east of Alhambra, that conditions are better than in our more plebian part of town. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/46 "2025-03-01T01:20:55Z")
  Not really.  The roads, there, are solid digestive waste just as the roads our in our own neighborhood; just as the roads are pretty much everywhere we’ve been in this state.   At least I now have a vehicle that is fit for California roads. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/47 "2025-03-02T00:43:24Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > Perhaps some of the money that would have gone into upgrading those lights is among that which instead has gone Gavin Newsom’s two mansions, and other personal luxuries… Let’s keep the politics out of FQ, please. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/48 "2025-03-02T00:50:09Z")
**Moderator Note** Note to all: We’re getting a bit too far out of FQ territory, and also we’re straying a bit too far from the topic in the OP. It’s ok for topics in FQ to drift a bit once the question has been addressed factually, but the desired workings of stop lights and the infrastructure of California don’t really have anything at all to do with the OP. A comparison of how someone should behave at a road intersection to how a pilot should behave at a runway crossing is perfectly fine and on topic, but let’s not go too far off topic with the whole stop light discussion. ---
**Author:** ![ZurBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71e660/32.png) [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/49 "2025-03-02T15:23:52Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > a commercial airline drops out of the sky and lands at speeds up to 160 MPH, Lots of shoulda, coulda, woulda on this topic. As noted, seems to me it would be a miracle to observe an object approaching at that angle, distance, and speed. Cut the pilot on the ground a little slack. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828/50 "2025-03-06T03:13:34Z")
> [@ZurBob](#): > > Cut the pilot on the ground a little slack. From an “everybody makes mistakes” angle that’s a nice thought but crossing the runway was more than one mistake. The runway was marked so that it could be identified before crossing, and the pilots did not look when crossing. If the crossing was 5 seconds later it would have been really ugly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-pilots-supposed-to-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-runway/1014828.md?page=2)