Readers' Views: Running the red

Red light runners on the intersection of Grafton Bridge, Symonds St and Karangahape Rd. Picture / Greg Bowker

Readers have delivered a strong response to the Weekend Herald's "Running the Red" survey, which found 41 instances of motorists - plus two cyclists - ignoring red lights in one hour at a single Auckland intersection, of Karangahape Rd and Symonds St. They have voiced almost universal condemnation of the deadly practice, which many feel has risen to epidemic proportions because of inadequate penalties and weak enforcement.

What a joke, a $150 fine! Make the fools pay the price of running a red light, the value of a life. Then and only then will the idiots stop at red. Who cares if it is called revenue gathering? Every one of those vehicles has a brake pedal.
- Vernon Burgess

I drive all over Auckland daily and have done so since 1991. The red light issue is at epidemic proportions. Once the green light goes on, you've got to look right, look left and look right again - you dare not just drive off on a green light. Policing intersections and other minor traffic offences is non-existent.
- Steve Hogg

Congratulations for doing this survey. I have complained several times to the Auckland Regional Transport Authority about buses in particular running red lights. The situation is getting worse every year, and is not helped by the gridlock in the city. A bus driver can easily shave 10 to 15 minutes off a trip by ignoring the CBD's many intersection lights.
- Ian Chitty

I use the pedestrian crossing every day at the lights that intersect Khyber Pass and Grafton Rd. It is not uncommon for two or four cars to run a red light bumper to bumper. This makes for a hazardous journey across the pedestrian crossing. And motorists appear to think you are in the wrong crossing the road.
- Mitchell Green

Red light running in Auckland is nothing new. I used to regularly see it when cycling in the city in the 1970s. Often one saw council traffic officers sitting on their motorcycles watching buses, trucks and cars running red lights and doing nothing about it. Auckland City Council only seemed interested in enforcing offences that could be proved with a number read from a meter. Auckland has reaped what it has sown.
- Selwyn Chambers, Matamata

I have driven in many different countries around the world and NEVER have I known traffic lights take so long to change. Whilst I don't condone the red-light running, I can certainly understand it and have been sorely tempted to do so myself at times. The simple solution is to shorten the amount of time the lights take to change. If drivers know they will only have to wait a few seconds rather than the time it takes to knit a cosy for the Sky Tower, they will be more inclined to stop when they should.
- Chris Slade

Auckland is a scary place to drive around. If you don't check after getting a green that nothing is coming BEFORE you move off, you certainly run the risk of being mowed down by a red-light runner. It is scandalous that so many dangerous drivers get away with it.
- Jack C Maddox

I am living in The Hague in the Netherlands and one of the best ways I've noticed here, to reduce red light running, is to remove the traffic lights from the opposite side of the intersection. Because you don't have lights on the opposite side beckoning you, you tend to stay focused on the entrance to the intersection rather than the exit on the opposite side. This makes it easier (emotionally) to stop.
- Antoon Moonen

There are other really dangerous crossings. The crossing from TVNZ to Victoria St/Hobson St [casino side] has caused several people to be knocked over. Why can't parking wardens give these killers tickets? It would make more money than parking infringements.
- Nesta Goldstone

As I walk from Freemans Bay to the city and home again each day, I am constantly horrified by the red light running which occurs at every intersection. As a pedestrian, one learns very quickly never to step off the footpath as soon as the "green man" lights up. Fines should be $1500 rather than $150 and there should be some serious risk of being caught.
- Sue Haywood

Before April 1, 1981, drivers rarely ran the red light because the penalty was usually a loss of one's licence. On that date, driving through a red light was reduced to the "technical infringements" category with a $25 dollar fine, and nothing recorded against a driver's licence. Pretty well overnight that dangerous practice became commonplace, with the crash rate at intersections rising alarmingly.
- Beverley Blyth

One matter that isn't addressed in your item is the problem of phasing/co-ordination of traffic signals. Some routes and intersections are very good and others are terrible. The whole matter of phasing is complex, but there are examples where red-light running is a symptom of a systemic problem.
- Warren Fowlie