# Red means stop, Green means go **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 8, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668 "2005-07-08T22:05:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/41 "2005-07-11T14:07:33Z")
Err … “statutes”. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/42 "2005-07-11T14:15:41Z")
Hmm, can’t remember where I saw this (might have been my own driving manual from _ahem_ a little while ago), but it seems to me like I read that a yellow light means “stop if you can”. You know, without laying ten feet of rubber or sliding right through the intersection. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/43 "2005-07-11T16:46:01Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Hmm, can’t remember where I saw this (might have been my own driving manual from _ahem_ a little while ago), but it seems to me like I read that a yellow light means “stop if you can”. You know, without laying ten feet of rubber or sliding right through the intersection. From the Ontario Highway Traffic Act: **Amber light** ``` (15) Every driver approaching a traffic control signal showing a circular amber indication and facing the indication shall stop his or her vehicle if he or she can do so safely, otherwise he or she may proceed with caution. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 144 (15). ``` for **Featherlou** , Alberta’s Traffic Safety Act regulations say much the same thing: **Yellow traffic lights** 53(1) When, at an intersection, a yellow light is shown by a traffic control signal at the same time as or following the showing of a green light, a person driving a vehicle that is approaching the intersection and facing the yellow light shall stop the vehicle before entering ``` (a) the marked crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or (b) if there is not any marked crosswalk, the intersection, ``` unless the stopping of that vehicle cannot be made in safety. In other words, yellow means stop unless you can’t do so safely. (For Ontario, failure to stop at a yellow light has the same penalty as failure to stop at a red light.) This should be much the same throughout Canada due to provincial efforts to standardize traffic laws, and I would expect to be the same in most US states for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/44 "2005-07-11T16:59:23Z")
Colorado doesn’t appear to address what to do at a yellow: > [@](#): > > (I) Vehicular traffic facing a steady circular yellow or yellow arrow signal is thereby warned that the related green movement is being terminated or that a red indication will be exhibited immediately thereafter. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/45 "2005-07-11T18:54:26Z")
> [@The Asbestos Mango](#): > > I was once very nearly killed crossing a street by a driver that did this. This was before cell phones were cheap enough for the average person to be in possession of one. If it happened today, I could have dialled 911, and given the number of the police car that had just nearly run me over… I’m glad you were so lucky. My niece was killed, and my mother and brother pretty gravely injured in two separate accidents where the assholes who hit them didn’t stop at the stop sign. They’re not suggestions, people; please, please, please, always stop at the stop light or stop sign. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/46 "2005-07-12T03:29:57Z")
I am sorry to hear that, **Snickers**. I walk downtown quite often, and my head is going like it’s on a swivel, trying to keep an eye on all the idiots who aren’t watching for my fragile body. I would say I am in serious danger of getting hit about once a month. That is way too freaking high. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/47 "2005-07-12T04:44:45Z")
> [@Mr. Miskatonic](#): > > And who cares if you make one little miscalculation and strike the other car. You were saving seconds man, precious, precious seconds! Those seconds are worth a few human lives now and then! Jesus christ give me a little credit for being able to see a car that is right in front of me. :wally But if everybody took an extra five seconds to cross behind the car in front of them, and there were 50 cars in the line up (I’ve seen this) that is a bunch of extra wasted time for the last poor bastard in line. Furthermore I still maintain that the guy doing the crossing has a much better view of exactly how much clearance there is, when compared to the guy that is either A) looking over his/her shoulder or B) looking in the rearview mirror. What may appear to be a very near miss to the guy infront might be 10 or 15 feet IRL. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/48 "2005-07-12T04:58:01Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Jesus christ give me a little credit for being able to see a car that is right in front of me. :wally > But if everybody took an extra five seconds to cross behind the car in front of them, and there were 50 cars in the line up (I’ve seen this) that is a bunch of extra wasted time for the last poor bastard in line. > Furthermore I still maintain that the guy doing the crossing has a much better view of exactly how much clearance there is, when compared to the guy that is either A) looking over his/her shoulder or B) looking in the rearview mirror. What may appear to be a very near miss to the guy infront might be 10 or 15 feet IRL. Exactly. And this is hardly high-risk behavior. I don’t tolerate any clowning around when pedestrians are present or risking an auto-ped, but when it might result in a 5-10 MPH tap on someone’s bumper, the risk is frankly worth it. I mean, we could make all of the highways in American have a 30 MPH speed limit to save lives, but there are trade-offs. This is hardly an expensive trade-off and I say it’s better to have slightly more risk to some bumper at a four way stop and then use that time to make an intersection like a stop-light or the interstate safer. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668/49 "2005-07-12T10:31:18Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Jesus christ give me a little credit for being able to see a car that is right in front of me. :wally Sure. And with your new X-ray vision you can see through that car and see the pedestrian crossing. Oh wait, you didn’t. Just like that taxi driver who buzzed within inches of me a week ago. He was saving a few seconds too. > [@](#): > > But if everybody took an extra five seconds to cross behind the car in front of them, and there were 50 cars in the line up (I’ve seen this) that is a bunch of extra wasted time for the last poor bastard in line. Now there’s a good excuse to risk lives and property. > [@](#): > > Furthermore I still maintain that the guy doing the crossing has a much better view of exactly how much clearance there is, when compared to the guy that is either A) looking over his/her shoulder or B) looking in the rearview mirror. What may appear to be a very near miss to the guy infront might be 10 or 15 feet IRL. Its not the missing of the car that bugs me. Its the fact that you are blind to everything that is on the other side of that vehicle when you cut it so close. But who cares about the peds. You’re saving precious, precious seconds!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-means-stop-green-means-go/311668.md?page=2)