Just anecdotally, I know an older man who was put in the hospital after being hit by a driver turning right on red at a forbidden intersection downtown. Driver was looking for oncoming traffic to the left and didn’t look at the crosswalk.
If nothing else the law may help put some teeth behind the resulting lawsuit. But I wish we could do better.
IMO right on red should only be selectively legal where there’s no crosswalk or bike lane, across the board. But I know that’s not realistic.
The problem downtown is for pedestrians that are moving in the opposite direction of the vehicle traffic on a one-way street. If you are jogging south on Person or north on Blount, cars on side streets or driveways pull up to turn out into traffic and don’t even look your direction.
Other cars, I mean. People of the Land. The common clay of the new west.
And I must say it’s not just traffic lights. It’s also at least a few of the four ways. Like don’t even stop. Or roll right through. I’m honestly surprised we don’t have more crashes because people aren’t paying attention.
That’s my point. Drivers often only look out for their own safety and give no consideration to those on the sidewalks and approaching the crosswalks. If a pedestrian is approaching from the side where the driver is not looking (which is often on both one-way and two-way streets), drivers often don’t even look to notice them.
Yeah. Maybe what I should’ve said is it’s stupid that it’s come to this. I know how to check for pedestrians when driving. I also know how to take a right on red when there’s no cars or pedestrians anywhere around. It’s not my common approach, but occasionally it does make sense for me. I also checked for cops in that case.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate that all are punished because some (actually many) can’t get their 
together and behave like an adult on the roads. Not stopping and rolling through intersections at either a red light or a stop sign is done by far too many drivers.
Speeding and running red lights are pretty cut and dry. How much due process do we need for this kind of stuff?
I also don’t really see the point of the no turn on red. Pretty unusual law imo and it is definitely never enforced. Generally not a fan of empty laws that just give cops random reasons to pull people over when they feel like it. If you can’t make a safe right turn you are likely not obeying the sign anyway.
I mean - It’s illegal pretty much everywhere in Europe and for good reason. Hardly a random reason to get pulled over.
There’s enforcement then there’s higher penalties when things go wrong. I expect if you hit a bystandard with vs without a no turn on red sign you’re much deeper in $h|+ than otherwise. The reason for putting them in is certainly to avoid innocent victims, not just enforce higher penalties.
Because of the building corners prevalent in the downtown areas the suburban sight triangles do not exist at the stop bars.
So every single car turning right on red creeps out into the pedestrian crosswalk to see to the left.
Not only do they then block the “Walk” signed crosswalk but also miss any pedestrians to the right that have the “Walk” sign early in the signal change sequence to establish position.
Better for the drivers to just wait their turn. You’re downtown. Exercise some patience.
I absolutely agree. Be aware of the pedestrians.