# Funeral Processions and Red Lights **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231 "2002-06-15T15:56:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Iyamity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/96bed5/32.png) [@Iyamity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iyamity)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/21 "2002-06-17T10:58:28Z")
I grew up in rural Saskatchewan, Canada’s equivalent to pravnik’s SC. When there was a funeral procession there, we were taught to go all out, if we met one. We would pull over to the right, turn on our headlights, the men would remove their hats, and wait until the procession was gone. Of course, in my town, we usually knew the person who had died, and most of the cars on town were already in the procession. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/22 "2002-06-17T12:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tarpal \* > \*\*It’s a stupid custom. I lived in Columbia, the state capitol and, I think, the biggest city in the state (SC). Excuse me, but hundreds of people die in that city every frickin day. I don’t know them. Why on earth should I pull over and stop my car every time a funeral procession for someone I DON’T EVEN KNOW passes by going the opposite direction? Why? It’s not like by continuing to drive that I am interfering with the procession, they are in the other frickin lane. \*\* I’m with you on this. Stopping for funeral traffic going the OTHER way is ridiculous. Unless it’s the law, and I’m subject to a ticket for NOT doing it. In that case it’s still ridiculous, but I’d do it to avoid the ticket. If a dead person rises to object to my disrespect, I’ll reconsider. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/23 "2002-06-17T13:11:55Z")
A well-meant idea whose time has come and gone. The funeral procession was perfectly reasonable 100y ears ago, when there were no traffic lights, and there was a hell of a lot less traffic. But now they are simply dangerous. I live near a cemetery, and I frequently see pedestrians (myself indcluded) and other cars dodge out of the way at the last second because a line of cars is whzzing madly through a red light. There is never a police escort, and by the time the lead car has passed—two or three minutes ago—us newcomers are completely off-guard. Yes, sure, I feel sorry for people who have lost a loved one—but for chrissakes, pay your respects at the funeral, pay your respects at the grave—but in between, _drive carefully and safely._ ---
**Author:** ![tarpal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@tarpal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarpal)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/24 "2002-06-17T14:51:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Unless you have some very well-grounded objection to other people’s funeral customs, you should respect them I **do** have a well-grounded objection: pulling over for an oncoming funeral is STUPID and a waste of my time. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2002, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/25 "2002-06-18T12:38:00Z")
This takes up how much of your time? Thirty seconds? A minute, tops? Set that against your neighbour’s feelings. Set it against an opportunity to make a small show of support for a greiving stranger. An acknowledgment of what other people are going through right now. A recognition that death and grieving in the community affect us all, in our time, and that we feel for one another when it happens. The whole point about the gesture is that it’s _not_ done for the convenience of the oncoming funeral procession. In that sense, it has no practical value at all. It is purely symbolic, and it symbolises an acknowledgement of death, of grief and of the pain of separation that some stranger is suffering, and that you have suffered or will suffer in your time. It may not be an entirely rational symbol, but it’s the symbol adopted by the community in which you have chosen to live. But you reject it. You refuse to participate in it. I wonder what it is you do with the thirty seconds you save by zipping past the funeral procession. I’m sure, whatever it is, it’s much more important than making a small expression of support and sympathy for a greiving neighbour. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/26 "2002-06-21T07:22:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UDS \* > \*\*This takes up how much of your time? Thirty seconds? A minute, tops? > It may not be an entirely rational symbol, but it’s the symbol adopted by the community in which you have chosen to live. But you reject it. You refuse to participate in it. > > \*\* It is also entirely impractical in a metro area with more than a million people and streets choked with traffic, like Atlanta is. I’ll let them proceed through intersections, and I won’t cut through a procession, but I won’t pull over for them coming the other way. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/27 "2002-06-21T08:19:06Z")
According to Tarpal, the custom is observed in Columbia. He doesn’t say anything about Atlanta. Plainly, it’s not impractical in Columbia, becuase it is in practice observed. Tarpal’s account makes it clear that he was in the minority in not observing it. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/28 "2002-06-21T11:59:36Z")
Here in Maryland, stickers are put on each vehicle, and drivers are told to put on bright headlights and flashers. Once the hearse is through, all the other cars get to go through red lights as well. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/29 "2002-06-21T12:27:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UDS \* > \*\*According to Tarpal, the custom is observed in Columbia. He doesn’t say anything about Atlanta. Plainly, it’s not impractical in Columbia, becuase it is in practice observed. Tarpal’s account makes it clear that he was in the minority in not observing it. \*\* There is Law, and there is Custom. I am obliged to follow the law, I am NOT obliged to follow custom. And I couldn’t care less that I’m in the “minority” because of it. tarpal is right. There is no point to stopping in the circumstances described. Plus, I believe this “herd instinct”, the need to conform, is one of the evils of human nature. We get ourselves into all kinds of trouble because we too easily suspend our own judgement in favor of someone else’s. But I suppose that’s another thread. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/30 "2002-06-21T12:48:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yojimboguy \* > \*\* > > And I couldn’t care less that I’m in the “minority” because of it. tarpal is right. There is no point to stopping in the circumstances described. > \*\* The point to stopping, yojimboguy, is that you care enough about how other people feel to make this small gesture. If you _don’t_ care enough then, I agree, there is no point to stopping. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/31 "2002-06-21T13:05:10Z")
What about the fact that—in this day and age, with our heavy traffic and fast cars—funeral processions going through red lights is _dangerous_? As I said, I have had to duck out of the way of cars going through red lights, and I have seen cars swerve onto the sidewalk in my neighborhood. Once the lead car goes through, there is really no way of _telling_ that the last two or three cars are part of a procession. I repeat: a sweet custom whose time has passed. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/32 "2002-06-21T15:49:14Z")
Generally, if they go through red lights here, they have police motorcycle escorts. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231/33 "2002-06-21T20:16:59Z")
Thanks for all the responses. As I suspected, it seems to be more of a matter of local ordinance than any consistant law throughout the land. Once caveat please : whether one _should_ pull over for a procession in the absence on any law requiring it is a matter for IMHO, or possibly Great Debates. If there are any more comments, please keep them to discussion of the _legal_ ramifications. Or open up another thread for discussion of opinions or debate in one of the other forums. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funeral-processions-and-red-lights/114231.md?page=1)