Comment by SoftTalker 5 days ago
Here's how I handle right on red: When I have the walk signal, I look to my left for cars that might be turning right. If there are any, I look at whether the driver sees me. Try to make eye contact. If they are moving and apparently don't see me or are going to turn anyway, I wait. I may have the right of way, but I'm not going to win that battle.
I think a pretty large percentage of drivers don’t actually know that they’re supposed to yield to pedestrians when turning at lights.
I’ve had multiple close calls where the driver looks at me angrily, I point at the white ‘walk’ symbol, and then their anger turns to confusion. They had no idea that they’re supposed to wait.
I live in seattle where people are pretty good about yielding. It's confusing as eff which lights and what times the peds are going to get a walk signal when I'm taking a right and when they're not. Some also go walk at the same time they go green for right turns. Some slightly delayed. It's hard to watch both lights as a driver and the oncomming traffic.
Rights on red are an inherently dangerous design flaw of North American traffic laws. It's not allowed in NYC and soon won't be allowed in DC and Atlanta.
Any time you grant vehicles a shared path with pedestrians is dangerous.
I was in the middle of a long line of cars taking a left from a left turn lane. The green arrow light turned to a yellow arrow light for a brief second before turning full green. I was at the front of the line at the time so I slowed down and waited for the car in front of me to clear the intersection before I turned so that I could see that there if was oncoming traffic who light just turned green. No oncoming traffic, start turning, notice when I'm way to far into the intersection that a pedestrian is trying to cross the 90 feet of crosswalk as well. I violate their right of way and get myself out of oncoming traffic lanes. In the rear view mirror I see the pedestrian waiting in the middle of the crosswalk for the rest of the line of traffic behind me to finish their left turns. The corner is a 120 degree turn, definitely my fault for not being aware of my surroundings but also... 120 degree turn on two 4 lane 40mph roads... the pedestrian needs a dedicated time to cross free of vehicles.
I make it clear with body language and eye contact that yes I see them and no I'm not meekly yielding my right of way. However, I leave just enough space to avoid being hit, for those situations when the True Assholes knowingly cut me off anyway. Or maybe they're not assholes by intent, but instead in the 90th percentile for inattentiveness and bad driving habits, which may even be the same thing. I don't know, I'm not a driver psychologist.