XKCD is one of my favorite webcomics, and this bit about avoiding a red light is totally me:
I’ve always figured the move is QUESTIONABLY legal, but is it ACTUALLY illegal? It seems to be a series of legal moves adding up to a questionable outcome…
I just scanned the California Vehicle Code and the provisions about U-Turns or Right Turns have nothing about intent to evade a red light or anything like that in them. I’d venture a WAG that it is legal in the state of California, but IANAL.
I regularly make a similar maneuver like at a particular location in Brentwood. (Not to avoid a red light, but to avoid a difficult left turn.) As long as it’s legal to make the U-turn (and where I do it, it is) I can’t see what’s wrong with this.
Going through a parking lot to avoid a red light is illegal.
According to what state’s traffic laws? We need a cite to a specific traffic law.
I have seen references that it is illegal in the state of New York through VTL 1225-A (avoiding an intersection through a sidewalk) but I can’t seel to find the actual text of VTL 1225-A to confirm. I do not think this is illegal in the state of california, but of course, any particular municipality is free to make it so if they so desire.
I used to work at a full service gas station that was a corner lot by a traffic light. Cars used to tear into our lot at road speed (30 mph) to avoid the light. Not hitting attendants seemed to be of secondary importance. So there is a good reason for this kind of maneuver to be illegal.
The problem here is that different states have (perhaps radically) different traffic laws, and I’d bet that this maneuver is legal in some and illegal in others. (The same goes for countries.)
That is why most left-hand lanes have no u-turn signs.
Most jurisdictions that I know of have a limit on how close to an intersection you can perform a u-turn. The limit can be large enough that it makes this trick either illegal or so long winded as to negative any benefit.
No cite other than an anecdote, my best friend in high school got a ticket for going through a parking lot to avoid a red light. He wanted to turn right at the light but it was red and there were a few cars in his way, so he turned into a gas station that had a police officer there.
It was years ago (and in Independence, Mo), so I don’t remember what the offense was, but my friend swears up and down it was running a red light.
I wouldn’t stake anything on his claim, but I have heard it from many people. Would be interesting to see if this is an urban legend though.
You do generally look like a total asshole when you do that, so I wouldn’t put it past it being general practice to write ‘ran the red light’ tickets for these sort of things automagically. Any of them that make it to court get thrown out, others get paid 
Similarly, There’s two intersections I can think of off the top of my head where it is very common (due to the lenght of the red arrow and shortness of the green arrow) where it is quite common to go straight (through the green straight ahead arrow) make a U Turn then make a right on red instead of waiting for the left point green arrow to cycle back. One of them is getting rather common and well known and I’m guessing we got about another year before a no u turn sign shows up.
Err, hit submit too soon. Now, a lot of anecdotes about something being illegal is fine, but the anecdotes better have at least one tier of court challenge. Technically speaking a police officer can write you up for anything, and they are not lawyers, nor are they judges. We trust them to know what is illegal and what is not, but they are human, so are not immune from misinformation, misunderstanding or bias.
Florida, for one. ss.316.074 “(2)No person shall drive any vehicle from a roadway to another roadway to avoid obeying the indicated traffic control indicated by [a] traffic control device”
I got a ticket for “cutting through a parking lot to evade a red light” once at 2am with no one out except me and apparently a cop. Quite silly since I wasn’t even intending to bypass the redlight but oh well.
Actually, this is not true much anymore. Many states have adopted most or all of the Uniform Traffic Code, and thus have traffic laws that are mostly identical. Some quirks do remain, but if it is illegal to make a turn into a parking lot, for example, to avoid a red light in one state, it’s likely to be illegal in most states because it’s been enshrined in the UTC.
Let’s see if we can get more citations to actual codes here. I’m betting that there is a similar statute in most states.
Sorry, in New Mexico. I don’t know how to easily find and reference traffic laws, or I’d get you a cite for it.
Sorry, I don’t have any anecdotes or law cites to add. I just wanted to say I like this typo (if indeed it is a typo.)
I can confirm that VTL 1225 forbids this. The actual text forbids avoiding a traffic control device, not an intersection.
I once received a ticket in New York for 1225 which I was successful in having dismissed by explaining to the judge that I was not avoiding the stoplight, but a flagman. The road had been torn up for a sewer project and I cut through an alley to avoid the delay.
Technically a person is not a device, which was the basis of my defense, but I think if the judge had not been inconvenienced on a daily basis by the project I’d have ended up paying the fine.