"Telewest (PH)" wrote:
>
>
> Yellow means 'stop unless unsafe to do so'. Red means 'stop in any event'.
>
Strangely enough, this discussion shows that strange driving habits are
universal. How do these things spread (must be all the American TV
shows :-)
BTW our 'middle' lights are 'amber' here - I wonder which is more visible?
I remember when I first moved from Perth (Western Australia - pop. 1
million) to the Big Smoke, Sydney (east coast - New South Wales - pop. 3
million) and was heading towards traffic light. They would turn amber
and I would lift my foot from the accelerator and casually go for the
brakes... plenty of time to stop.
As you do (and should do) I would glance in my mirrors and be horrified
to see the bonnet lift on the car approaching too rapidly behind me,
meaning they had obviously put the foot down to get through the
intersection on the amber. Of course I wasn't going to brake in front
of such a maniac so I would go through and look behind to see a stream
of cars coming through with me right up to (and often beyond) the red light.
It happened all the time until I, too, was trained that the amber light
now meant "put the foot down" - in my case because I didn't want to get
rear-ended by a string of maniacs following me.
I guess it went with the 'pace of life' in the big city. The same as
you learned to walk quickly on the footpaths/sidewalks in the city even
if you weren't in a hurry otherwise you would get knocked down in the crush.
But I hate to say it... I have now moved to another 'small' city and
that practice exists here. Nowhere near the traffic but a horrible rate
of red-light running accidents.
Why?
--
Eric
'68MGB MkII
Adelaide, South Australia
"Nothing overshadows truth so completely as authority"
ALBERTI
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