# Half your car across the line when the traffic light turns red **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2019, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314 "2019-04-10T03:19:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/1 "2019-04-10T03:19:00Z")
Wonder if this is akin to illegal-forward-pass in football: If your car is halfway across the line when the intersection light goes from yellow to red, are you guilty of running the red light or not? (Asking because I’m habitually prone to trying to run yellow lights at the last possible moment) ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/2 "2019-04-10T03:24:05Z")
I would say no to the charge of running a red light. If you accelerated aggressively to get halfway across the line before the light turned red then that could get you a reckless driving charge. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/3 "2019-04-10T03:27:00Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > If you accelerated aggressively to get halfway across the line before the light turned red then that could get you a reckless driving charge. Well, yes, that’s what I often do - charge the gas pedal when it’s a yellow light and cross the intersection line halfway just when the light turns red. Wondered how the traffic cameras would assess that. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/4 "2019-04-10T03:30:50Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Wondered how the traffic cameras would assess that. It probably depends on how the officials in your specific jurisdiction choose to respond to such incidents. Keep trying it. Let us know what the court summons says when it shows up. Or ask your friendly neighborhood police officer. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/5 "2019-04-10T03:37:39Z")
It will vary by state. [See here](https://www.motorists.org/blog/basics-on-red-light-violations/). In Chicago, I do not believe the situation in the OP would constitute a ticket. As long as you have entered the intersection before the light turns red (actually, you get 3/10 second grace here), you’re fine. I cannot find an exact definition for “entering the intersection,” but I believe it is the same one as in the article above, basically breaking the plane of the intersection. Else I’d have a lot more tickets, as I’ve quite often only had half or a little more of my car across the stop line before the light turned red. (Somehow, in all my time driving here in Chicago, I’ve only managed to get two red light violations, and one of them I won on appeal. Plus I won another on appeal for my wife, and one for my father. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/6 "2019-04-10T03:40:50Z")
The whole point of the yellow light is so this doesn’t happen. ---
**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:** [April 10, 2019, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/7 "2019-04-10T03:51:09Z")
It depends on what state you are in. In some states, you may not enter an intersection on a red light, so as long as at least part of your vehicle is already in the intersection, you’re good. It’s not a violation unless your vehicle was completely outside of the intersection at the moment the light turned red. In other states, if you can’t clear the intersection before the light turns red, it’s a violation. What state are you in? Personally, I’d be less concerned about traffic cameras and more concerned about getting seriously injured or dying. I was in downtown Baltimore when a yellow light accelerator and a green light anticipator both tried to occupy the same space simultaneously. It did not end well for either vehicle. Hollywood crashes have vehicles flipping over and all kinds of exciting things happening. Real crashes aren’t that exciting. Except this one. The yellow light accelerator was a pickup truck, and it literally ramped over the green light anticipator’s hood, did a 360 roll plus another 90 degrees or so (spraying tools from a toolbox in the bed out in all directions), slammed down on the ground on its side, and skidded to a halt about 3 feet from my car door. I did not think a flip like that was even possible without some sort of Hollywood ramping device to flip the truck over. Lots of cuts and bruises, but thankfully, no serious injuries. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/8 "2019-04-10T04:08:18Z")
If I remember fight from my driver’s training class decades ago, if any part of your car is in the intersection when the light turns red you can be sighted. California ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/9 "2019-04-10T04:57:50Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > If I remember fight from my driver’s training class decades ago, if any part of your car is in the intersection when the light turns red you can be sighted. > California This does not seem to be the case. I could not find any law saying this. It just says, if you cannot stop safely when the light turns yellow, proceed across the intersection cautiously. It does not say anything about being cited if you don’t finish crossing before it turns red (I was once told, however, that this was the law in Montreal, or maybe all of Quebec province, or maybe all of Canada). > [@David Jon Pullman](#): > > The law is that you must stop at a red light if you are not already in the intersection when it turns red. You can read this opinion and others plus a citation of the actual law [here](https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/what-is-the-law-title-about-running-a-yellow-light-799727.html). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/10 "2019-04-10T06:47:31Z")
Either way, if you’re blocking the crosswalk while pedestrians are trying to cross, you’re a dick. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/11 "2019-04-10T07:40:32Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > … Personally, I’d be less concerned about traffic cameras and more concerned about getting seriously injured or dying. I was in downtown Baltimore when a yellow light accelerator and a green light anticipator both tried to occupy the same space simultaneously. It did not end well for either vehicle. Different countries have different cultures. France IIRC is full of anticipators. If you’re an American accelerator be careful there! Where I live, on some of the lights, the light remains red for another second or so after the opposite-way light has changed from yellow to red. I remember once driving at night through the almost-deserted streets of Reno, Nevada. I came to a green light so I slowed down and almost stopped! Wise move as it turned out; a car went speeding by on red right where I would have been. :eek: No idea what premonition made me slow to a crawl. Thinking on it now, it reaffirms my faith in [quantum immortality](https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/quantum-immortality-5a74caaa0f64). ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/12 "2019-04-10T07:46:12Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Either way, if you’re blocking the crosswalk while pedestrians are trying to cross, you’re a dick. and a fine that starts at 250$ ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/13 "2019-04-10T09:31:05Z")
In the UK, many lights are fitted with cameras. Jumping an amber light risks a £100 fine and three points. > [@](#): > > If the amber light is illuminated, a vehicle must stop, unless it has already passed the white stop line or the vehicle is so close to the stop line, that coming to a halt might cause an accident. If the red light is showing, then you must stop behind the stop line in all circumstances. Drivers often try to use the _“coming to a halt might cause an accident”_ part to attempt to get out of it, especially if they already have nine points (12=ban), but it rarely works. I was taught to see green lights as dangerous, because they may change at any moment. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/14 "2019-04-10T11:11:40Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > If I remember fight from my driver’s training class decades ago, if any part of your car is in the intersection when the light turns red you can be sighted. > California You will definitely be sighted but you won’t be cited. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/15 "2019-04-10T11:18:40Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Wonder if this is akin to illegal-forward-pass in football: If your car is halfway across the line when the intersection light goes from yellow to red, are you guilty of running the red light or not? (Asking because I’m habitually prone to trying to run yellow lights at the last possible moment) If memory serves, in Virginia, you would not have “run the red light.” Once you cross the stop line, you are “in the intersection” (in fact, I think you can be cited for “entering” the intersection if you come to a stop over the line, but I’ve never actually seen that happen. I have seen it used to justify a police stop). That said, it sounds like you probably are guilty of violating the “traffic lights” statute with respect to yellow lights, which requires you to come to a stop (if safe) once the light turns yellow. I don’t think all (or even most) states have the same requirement to stop on yellow (and, around here, if you followed that law, you’d probably get rear-ended). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/16 "2019-04-10T12:12:52Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Well, yes, that’s what I often do - charge the gas pedal when it’s a yellow light and cross the intersection line halfway just when the light turns red. Wondered how the traffic cameras would assess that. If you’re cutting it that close, seems to me there’s a real danger of sometimes mistiming it and not making it into the intersection before the red. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > In other states, if you can’t clear the intersection before the light turns red, it’s a violation. In such states, what if the light turns red while you’re sitting in an intersection waiting to make a left turn? > [@](#): > > Personally, I’d be less concerned about traffic cameras and more concerned about getting seriously injured or dying. And/or injuring someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/17 "2019-04-10T12:31:12Z")
In Texas, I believe already being in the intersection when the light turns red won’t get ticketed. But there is also a provision that you should not enter an intersection, even if the light is green, if you cannot safely make it through the intersection. This is a case where being partially in the intersection wouldn’t be ok, e.g. waiting in the intersection during a green for the lane ahead to clear or waiting to make a left turn into a completely full lane. It’s also routinely violated. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/18 "2019-04-10T12:39:24Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Well, yes, that’s what I often do - charge the gas pedal when it’s a yellow light and cross the intersection line halfway just when the light turns red. Wondered how the traffic cameras would assess that. It all depends on the [calibration of the system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_light_camera). [QUOTE=wiki] A few red light camera systems allow a “grace period” of up to half a second for drivers who pass through the intersection just as the light turns red. [/QUOTE] There have been lawsuits over the timing and the duration of the yellow, so these things are variables in whatever system a city happens to install. That said, > [@Chronos](#): > > The whole point of the yellow light is so this doesn’t happen. This. I take a lot of risks when I drive but running yellows isn’t one of them. Intersections are dangerous and whether or not you can “get away with it,” it’s not worth charging into an intersection with limited information about what other actors are doing. Modern cars have good brakes, use them. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/19 "2019-04-10T13:16:40Z")
> [@Falchion](#): > > That said, it sounds like you probably are guilty of violating the “traffic lights” statute with respect to yellow lights, which requires you to come to a stop (if safe) once the light turns yellow. > > I don’t think all (or even most) states have the same requirement to stop on yellow (and, around here, if you followed that law, you’d probably get rear-ended). DC has a similar law, and I have been pulled over and warned for entering an intersection on a yellow light. The officer thought I had time to stop after the light turned yellow, I certainly didn’t think I was doing anything wrong (it was one of the whacky DC intersections where there’s no place to stop for the light that was turning yellow/red after making a left turn). So in the end I was scolded and let go. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314/20 "2019-04-10T13:23:43Z")
In New Jersey you certainly can be cited for trying to beat a yellow light. > [@](#): > > Under New Jersey law, a green light means that traffic has the permission to go, subject to the “safety of others.” Thus, a green light does not technically confer on a driver an unqualified right to proceed. According to New Jersey case law, this means that the driver may not disregard the ordinary precautions of maintaining a lookout and observing conditions on the street he is crossing simply because he is proceeding with a green light. Rekiec v. Zuzio, 132 N.J. Super. 71, 79 (1975). > > A red traffic signal pursuant to N.J.S.A. 39:4-105 means that traffic must stop before entering an intersection and must remain stopped until the signal turns green again. Thus, under New Jersey law, traffic must stop at a red light. Failing to do so – even if the signal had just turned red immediately before you entered the intersection – is grounds for a violation. > > Finally, N.J.S.A. 39:4-105 instructs that, if the signal is amber or yellow, traffic is required to stop before entering the intersection, unless when the yellow signal appears, the motor vehicle is so close to the intersection that it cannot be stopped safely. The statute specifically proscribes that a distance of 50 feet from the intersection is considered a “safe stopping distance” for a motor vehicle traveling at a speed of 20 miles per hour. > > Thus, if your motor vehicle is traveling at 20 miles per hour and is located less than 50 feet from the intersection at the time the light changes to yellow, you may proceed across the intersection and/or make a right or left hand turn if permitted. According to the statute, however, if your vehicle is 50 feet or more from the intersection at the time the light turns yellow, you are not only required to slow down and to stop, but you are also not technically allowed to speed up and go through the light. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-your-car-across-the-line-when-the-traffic-light-turns-red/832314.md?page=2)