# Highway onramp traffic lights: Who obeys them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2002, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398 "2002-06-04T23:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/21 "2002-06-06T21:27:23Z")
Steven Wright (the comic) says his driveway is one. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/22 "2002-06-06T23:14:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pendgwen \* > \*\* > > A couple of people have mentioned this point. Funny. As previously mentioned I always obey the lights and I have no trouble getting up to speed before merging. Nor does getting up to speed require anything akin to a drag racing start. How long are the on-ramps where you live? \*\* well, like i said, i only encounter these things about ever 5-6 years. i would say the nearest one is over 500 miles away. i also run the stop sign on my street that dumps onto the highway. it is a perfectly straight section of road from horizon to horizon, and you can see traffic for _literally miles and miles_ and i see no reason under the sun to lose precious momentum just because a red piece of hexogonal aluminum is hanging on a pole. ---
**Author:** ![SouprChckn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@SouprChckn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouprChckn)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/23 "2002-06-06T23:48:10Z")
I’d just like to point out that there are no carpool lanes where I live so it’s all one lane onramps. I’m not saying its right but I’ve never had to deal with this one particular aspect. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/24 "2002-06-07T01:06:50Z")
Another Los Angeleno checking in. You’d _better_ obey the meters here! I see motorcycle cops (and the occasional car cop) lurking very frequently where they can monitor who does and doesn’t obey the signals. And people who run the lights _do_ get pulled over and their drivers ticketed. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/25 "2002-06-07T05:58:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gatopescado \* > \*\*i also run the stop sign on my street that dumps onto the highway. it is a perfectly straight section of road from horizon to horizon, and you can see traffic for _literally miles and miles_ and i see no reason under the sun to lose precious momentum just because a red piece of hexogonal aluminum is hanging on a pole. \*\* Of course, I wouldn’t do anything about a red bit of hexagonal aluminum either. However, if you do that for red bits of aluminum in the shape of an octagon, that makes you an asshole. I’m an asshole too; I run a specific stop sign every once in a while because it’s in a stupid place and not visible until you get to the intersection. I don’t drive that way often, so I forget about it. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/26 "2002-06-07T07:03:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pendgwen \* > \*\* > > A couple of people have mentioned this point. Funny. As previously mentioned I always obey the lights and I have no trouble getting up to speed before merging. Nor does getting up to speed require anything akin to a drag racing start. How long are the on-ramps where you live? \*\* Not very long - definitely not long enough for my car to get anywhere close to appropriate speed before merging… Not that it matters, because at the ones that I tend to get stuck at there’s still clumping. So you drive, you stop in the middle of the onramp to wait for the light to change, and then you slow down a lot (if not stop entirely) at the end of the onramp to wait for your chance to merge into the clump of cars trying to merge. They don’t seem to have solved any problems at all, and are incredibly annoying. Still, I’ve never seen anyone just drive through one (I’ve seen people pretend to be a carpool, but the people in the appropriate lane stop to wait for the light to change), nor have I done that myself. ---
**Author:** ![VDarlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e56c9b/32.png) [@VDarlin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VDarlin)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/27 "2002-06-07T07:13:48Z")
Most of our onramps are three lanes, one carpool, and two regular, and all _three_(yes, even the carpool lane, damn bastages!) of them have these lights. Depending on where you are, it will designate one or two cars per green. I have never blown through one, nor have I ever seen anybody do so. I think I’d be more worried about the other people waiting getting pissed at me, than being caught by a cop. ~V ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/28 "2002-06-07T23:36:54Z")
It never occurred to me that anyone could be so impatient as to run one of those lights. Maybe they exist, but I’ve never seen one that (a) didn’t have a long stretch of offramp to properly accelerate on, or (b) wasn’t being used at a time when freeway traffic was considerably less than the speed limit anyway. Still, it’s the law and I find few things more infuriating than those drivers out there who consider themselves so smart/“well-informed”/special that they don’t have to obey the rules the rest of us do. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398/29 "2002-06-08T19:18:05Z")
Seems to me that if you are at one of these things at rush hour, and you decide to ‘blow through’ the red, you are missing, tops, ONE CYCLE of the light. You just saved ten to twenty seconds, and gave yourself an extra **25 feet** (one car length, plus buffer space) to get up to highway speed (which, at rush hour is often, what, 50mph?) Wow, what a difference! (mind you, I’m assuming that you are in a line to get on the highway, right?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highway-onramp-traffic-lights-who-obeys-them/112398.md?page=1)