By Joe Walker
“Should you get your eyes checked if you’re not seeing red?”
I was approaching the intersection of Saginaw and Abbott, driving from Okemos to Lansing. I was a reasonable distance away as the traffic light changed from green to yellow. It was about 5:30PM on Friday. Traffic was still fairly heavy. I was in the right lane with four cars between the intersection and mine, and several cars were beside me in the left lane. Anticipating the red light I began to slow down. Several of the cars I trailed did not. As the light changed from yellow to red, two cars in the left lane kept driving while those behind them stopped. All four cars directly ahead of me ran the red light. Of the six total cars, two crept through during color change. The remaining four blatantly ran the red.
I’ve been to several major cities in this country, even NYC, and I’ve never seen traffic lights so deliberately disobeyed to the likes of which it happens in the Lansing area. In my native Lakeshore hometown I saw people run reds … when chased by police. Here, tense feelings and clinched teeth chase them. I know I’m not the only person who anticipates a stupidly provoked accidental crash in this situation.
Either these people don’t realize how dangerous it is to run a red light or they just don’t care. I would have to assume they don’t care. It happens too often. I watched someone do it my first night living here. I was stopped at a corner; there was a car in the right lane next to me. No one was coming, so this car just drove off through the red light. “*EXPLATIVE*,” I thought to myself. When I mentioned what I saw to people living here before me, they all responded as if it was as common as seeing MSU football teams blunder bowl opportunities.
I can’t understand why this occurs so frequently. Traffic laws are in place for a reason – safety in one of them. “Go Green” is a common phrase in this town, but apparently, when is comes to traffic lights, “Red” means “Go”.
New Resolution #22: Wait for it …Wait for it …
