Well, I happen to live in that half or so of the globe where it is illegal.
You are correct! And yes, it does feel kinda “deliciously illegal.”
Well, the poll question and the thread title are asking two different things. I voted yes, I do turn right on red, but do I ever* not *turn? Also yes. Poor visibility, pedestrians, bad road conditions… any number of factors can figure into the decision. You’re never required to turn on red. If there’s any reason to think it’s not safe to do so, heck, I’m not in that big a hurry that I can’t wait for the green.
And if you’re behind me and you honk, you can bet I’m gonna wait.
Honk all you like, if I can’t see that there’s no traffic coming, I’m not going to turn.
Gah, I live in New York City where the default is that it isn’t allowed. When I’m driving in other places (usually on vacation or when traveling for work), I forget that it’s okay to turn right. When I remember, I’ll turn (and often, it’s taken me long enough to remember that the light changes to green WHILE I am turning) and I feel awful about it and know that drivers behind me must hate me.
Oh man, here’s another one that I encounter a lot when visiting my mom. Her residential street is a right turn off of a major multilane road. There is a large intersection with a traffic light just before her street. So I will be driving to my mom’s house, and I need to be in the right lane to turn on to her street – the traffic is quite heavy and there isn’t time to get over to the right lane after passing through the intersection with the traffic light. But if I get caught at a red light, I know I am sitting there, not turning right, while traffic piles up behind me, all of whom would like to turn right on the major road. This always gives me anxiety.
Then there are places (Mexico, e.g.) where people get mad if you happen to be in the right lane, waiting at a red light, and plan to keep driving forward, but THEY (approaching you from behind) want to turn right!
Sure, as I approach a red light (and plan to go forward), I’ll usually do my best to scoot over to the left lane…or, if in the right lane, move forward enough (and a bit to the left) to right-turners can get by me. But sometimes, these options are just not safe or possible. Or maybe I just don’t feel like it sometimes.
In any case, don’t honk or glare at me. Like in the situation described above, that will REALLY make me continue to block you (if it’s a rare situation where I could nudge over, but just hadn’t, yet.)
Always make the right turn on red. Even when one of those signs is there prohibiting it. More often than not there is no rhyme or reason for those signs other than to delay traffic flow. More people need to do the same. Use reason.
Most people are too afraid of the signs… about 50% of them have hours posted too. And I usually get stuck behind the guy who at 9pm is waiting a full 5 minutes to make that right when it says no turn 4-6 or whatever.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. A lot of times I don’t remember it’s an option or I’m in an area, like by shopping centers, where there are haphazard NTOR signs. If someone behind me beeps I will almost never go until the light turns green. Sometimes I have something I need to do like look at a map and I use the opportunity like I would a regular stop light. Visibility has to be near perfect because I don’t want to waste a lot of gas having to floor it for the guy going 20 miles over the speed limit who appears out of nowhere 2 seconds after the turn.
Yep, traffic laws are just suggestions, really. People are too afraid of Stop signs, too, they’re only there to dalay your flow; and they’re too afraid of One-Way signs when there’s really plenty of room for a car coming the other way. Use reason.
But if the sign is there, I don’t have to think about whether I should turn right on red or not- that question has been answered for me. And I don’t want to think about my driving any more than I have to, since I don’t like driving- it’s either boring or scary. The signs mean I can be off in my own mental world until the light turns, and it’s more interesting there than at the wheel of my car. And the cops can’t arrest me for not turning right on red when there is a sign saying not to turn right on red.
Right-on-red isn’t allowed anywhere on the Island of Montreal, though it is allowed in the rest of the province unless otherwise indicated.
Consequently, since I do most of my driving in Montreal, there are times when I go outside the city and fail to turn right on red because I’m not in the habit of doing it. A reminder by a passenger or a honk from behind is usually all it takes to remind me that I am allowed to do so, and then I proceed (assuming it is safe). It usually only takes one or two reminders to get back into the habit of being allowed to turn on red, though I have never accidentally turned in Montreal when coming back from a trip. My default assumption is that it isn’t legal.
In Manitoba left turns on red lights are legal if it’s from the left lane of a one-way street to the left lane of a one-way street.
It’s the same here in Arizona. Right turns on red are legal except where it is marked otherwise. I always turn on red when it is safe to do so, always yielding to pedestrians, of course.
Some mention in the poll might be made of red light cameras. Normally, I happily turn right on red and if I’m going straight, attempt to move enough in the lane to allow someone to go past me on the right so they can turn. Heck, I’ve made left on red, when it’s a one way coming to a one way.
All that changes at an intersection with a camera. I’m not entering the intersection, or coming anywhere near the white line. I don’t trust the camera not to give me a $400+ ticket. Sorry.
I’m happy to turn right on red where it’s clearly allowed and easily navigated. There’s an intersection in the middle of my commute where …how to explain…
I’m approach it planning to make a right turn from an east /west street into southbound lanes of a north/south street. For reasons I haven’t been able to pin down a startling number of people approaching the same intersection coming north use that spot for a U turn. They don’t signal and they don’t look at where I’m waiting. I’ve almost been creamed twice, and made it my own personal policy to not turn right on red there.
In places where I’m not comfortable turning right in red I try my level best not to be the first car at the light in the right lane.
My understanding for Calgary that the conditions are the same, with the additional requirement that it is only the most far left lane that can turn left on red - if there is a dual turn, the further right lane is not allowed to turn.
We went around about turning right on reds a while ago, and there were a couple of people who insisted that turning on red is an option, and they won’t go if they just don’t feel like it, even if there is obviously no traffic and it is legal. That seems like a dickish thing to do, to me. All people are doing in their cars is trying to get somewhere; refusing to proceed when it is legal and safe to do so is not cool.
A better question would be to ask if you actually to bother to come to a complete stop (I am apparently the only driver around here who does, tho IIRC in some states you can legally do a rolling entry-but in others the red light cameras will nail ya).
It’s the same here - I fully expect to get rear-ended when I make a complete stop before turning right on a red or a stop sign here some day. And oh yes, it is illegal here to make a rolling stop - I got the $300 ticket for that a couple of years ago.
There are a lot of assholes around here who won’t turn right on red. I don’t know what their fucking problem is. Once I sat at this light for a really inordinate amount of time, probably at least three full minutes, and it never changed. I honked and honked and flashed my lights at the pickup truck in front of me (who had his right turn signal on) and the guy would not fucking go! To top it off, it was like 10 at night and nobody was even coming in the other direction. Eventually I just went around him.
At one particular intersection, the cross street curves, so you can’t really see far enough down it to be SURE that cross traffic isn’t on its way.
So, at that intersection, I don’t turn right on red.
One day, as I was stopped there, a police officer on a motorcycle drove up next to me, thumped on my car door with his fist, and shouted, “You can turn right on red.” Then he gunned his motor and drove away.
Shrug. I wanted to shout, “It isn’t safe” after him, but he wouldn’t have heard.