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Cambridge to consider joining New York in banning right turns on red
By adamg on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 9:58am
The Crimson reports Cambridge officials will take a look at banning right-on-red as a way to reduce crashes both with pedestrians and other vehicles. Right turns on red are generally banned in New York, except at some intersections on Staten Island, the city's most suburban borough.
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Comments
Where are these 25 to 30% of
Where are these 25 to 30% of Cambridge intersections that allow right on red? I thought they already posted No Turn on Red at every single intersection.
Of course the Feds might have something to say about this, since they require turns on red to be allowed. NYC has a specific exception in the federal law, since it would be cheaper to post signs at the few intersections where it's allowed, rather than the vast majority where it doesn't make sense. And there are "Right on red after stop" signs in all five boroughs, though it's most common on Staten Island.
Fantastic
If this is enforced as well as red lights and crosswalks are currently, the extra ticket revenue could add $45 to the city's coffers every decade
if this happened in Boston...
...you'd be able to see the steam coming out people's ears from space. I don't know how you'd go about instituting a rule change like this in a place where drivers have zero expectation of traffic enforcement.
How about they install those
How about they install those "severe tire damage" devices that the rental car places use, activated when the light is red?
Yeah
Nothing could possibly ever go wrong with that plan!
/s
How about they install
Some red light cameras like many other cities.
Happened to me on Brighton Ave. recently
I was in the bus lane, stopped at the red with the clear "No Right On Red" signage and yet a driver squeezed by to illegally make the turn and gave me a dirty look in the process!
So puzzling how this continues to happen, I've been told licensing and registration prevent issues like this.
Re: NYC
Re: NYC
Thank you for getting its more correct than WBZ, Adam.
The NYC law is actually that right on red is permitted only where specifically posted.
You can take the boy out of New York but ...
I admit, I had to check first to see if one of the memories of my youth was still right (there's a scene in "Annie Hall" where Woodie Allen says he doesn't want to move to LA because its only cultural advantage is you can turn right on red).
Could have asked me (girl from NYC)
I grew up in Manhattan never heard of right turn on red until I came up here for college. Just the thought of allowing right turn on red all over Manhattan is enough to give me apocalyptic nightmares.
This might generate so much
This might generate so much outrage that the Right to Right on Red will make it to the ballot, and voters across the Commonwealth will overwhelmingly pass it, just to spite Cambridge.
The Right is for the Right to Right on Red,
Right?
Hmmm
How about:
Ah, the classic move
"This doesn't affect me in any way, but if the other side wants it, then I'm against it, dagnabbit!"
Four way stops and roundabouts
This would be a great opportunity to eliminate signals all together at some intersections. Roundabouts and four way stops would be a better solution to calming traffic, and slowing speeds than a light. There is always the temptation to speed through a green or yellow light.
They speed up to drive through recently-turned RED lights now.
It's absolute anarchy on Boston city streets since covid.
Roundabouts?
The trend seems to be to eliminate rotaries in favor of collections of light-controlled intersections. Apparently, the frequent rear-enders at rotaries are "proof" that we can't handle them.
As a frequent pedestrian
I'd eliminate them on the grounds that they really really stink for pedestrians. Either there's no lights and you're racing across hoping no one takes advantage of the momentary opening to gun it into you, there are crosswalk lights in the rotary and you have to hope that people actually stop (and potentially deal with honking/abuse from those in the rotary who don't want to be impeded), or the crosswalks are all set outside the rotary so you have to walk an extra couple blocks just to get across the street.
And let's not even start with how bad they can be for cyclists - God help you if you're trying to cycle through and you need to take the second or third exit out of the rotary.
At this rate, by the year 2032...
We might see an initiative to use blinkers at turns and lane changes... scary thought
We can't have nice things because of the abusive few
Right on Red makes so much sense 90% of the time. Massachusetts wasn't that far behind NYC when it posted thousands of No Turn On Red signs in places where Right on Red would be sensible and totally safe. Abolishing it now would be like dropping the speed limit again...no one would obey it and respect for the rules would continue to erode.
Sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding but...
Which is it?
Multiple things happening at once
My original thought was that the idea to ban this is based on the belief that people are abusing the privilege. (I guess I never really said that.) I do think if you ban it altogether, things will get worse, not better.
We only want
left turns on blue here.