KEY POINTS:
If you've lived in Auckland for any time, you'll have a red-light, lucky-escape story. My brush with death came just after midnight when my Irishman was collecting me after my shift at NewsTalk ZB.
We were sitting at the lights, on the corner of Cook and Nelson Sts, catching up on our respective evenings and I became aware that the lights had turned green. "It's green," I said helpfully. (Don't drivers LOVE it when their passengers help with the driving?)
So, my Irishman put the car into gear, took off the handbrake and we began to go through the lights. Just as the wheels went over the line, a pocket-rocket screamed through the red light - probably going 80km/h.
As I hope I've made clear, our light had been green for some time. Accordingly, his must have been red for a while, too. As we made our way home, we wondered how on Earth a driver could get it so wrong. Did he just not see the red? Did he drive the road often and assume there'd be no traffic around so he could ignore reds? What makes a driver take a risk like that? Because although I would have been munted, there wouldn't have been a lot left of my little friend either.
Clearly, there are quite a few like him around because the Auckland City Council and the police have announced a fatwa on red-light runners. After months of fine-tuning the equipment, little grey boxes will be installed on traffic lights at Auckland's worst intersections to capture offenders.
Those caught running red lights will be fined $150 and it's hoped that will curb bad behaviour. Unlikely. In a 20-day trial period, cameras installed at 30 locations around the city captured a staggering 340,000 cars running red lights. Perhaps that's because the traffic lights aren't following the alternative road code.
I don't work normal hours. I'm a creature of the night, so I don't get to negotiate roads, lights and roundabouts with my fellow motorists. Consequently, I was unaware of the other road code; that code by which drivers get from A to B.
According to the other code, the lights don't work. You have to sit for far too long in queues, especially if you're trying to turn right without the aid of an arrow. So when the lights turn red, that's not a signal for you to stop. Not if you've sat your other road code. No.
A red light means that two or three cars will take the opportunity to drive in whichever direction they want to go and, it appears, everybody knows this and will delay setting off from the lights when they turn green to avoid accidents.
"Really?" I asked incredulously as caller after caller relayed their version of the other code.
"What happens if someone like me is driving during peak hour and I don't know that this version of the road rules applies. What happens then?"
"Well," said one of my callers accusingly, "that's when accidents happen."
What a wonderfully twisted piece of logic. Go when it's green and you're to blame because everybody else is operating in an alternative universe.
Hopefully, the cameras and the fines can bring about a little bit of attitude readjustment because in five years, red-light runners and the crashes they cause have cost the city and the country in excess of $12 million. Not to mention the agony and misery that goes with injury crashes.
I know when you're in your car you feel like you're the King of Tonga. You're the ruler of your own little realm where things are done your way and people bend to your will. But there's only one King of Tonga and outside your steel bubble you have to abide by the rules like the rest of us. That means when the light goes red, you stop - even when you don't feel like it. Otherwise you should pay the price - not the rest of us.
