Drivers see but ignore red lights

The editorial in the March 4 Daily Herald says you are reluctant to support the use of red-light cameras. Many of your arguments suggest that the reason folks run red lights is that they don't see them.

Advance flashing lights. Pavement markings. Longer yellow lights. Reduced speed limits. All in an effort to make sure the driver sees the light.

But that isn't the problem. My observation is that running red lights is not due to failure to see the red light. It is rather that the driver doesn't want to spend the extra thirty seconds to two minutes that would be spent idling if he or she were to stop. When the light turns yellow and the driver speeds up rather than slowing down and stopping, that tells me that the light was plainly visible.

A longer yellow light would not solve the problem. Once the driver is familiar with the light and knows it is yellow for a longer time and sees the light turn yellow, that driver will step on the gas at an even greater distance from the intersection.

Drivers almost always do see the lights and see them in plenty of time. It is that strong urge to keep moving, to "beat the light" that is the problem. It is the same urge that causes a driver to pass another car and then pull into a driveway several hundred feet further down the road. Saved three seconds!

Louis Bowers

Mount Prospect