• ricecake
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    5 months ago

    I’ve driven in places where a few seconds was just how long people sat at the green light. I didn’t get it until I was there long enough to notice how insanely often cross traffic was definitely successfully sneaking through that yellow at the last moment.

    I don’t do it to that extent, but I do now give it a few beats to account for other drivers insanity.

    I try to assume positive things, so if someone hasn’t gone after a few I tend to assume that they’ve done what I know I’ve done, which is to pull up to the light and rather than intently watch the light, to keep looking at the road and cross traffic and just not notice the light change in my upper periphery.
    Way more common if there’s a protected turn at the intersection or it’s otherwise not symmetrical.

    • ji17br@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      This is usually accounted for by the traffic light pattern. Where I’m from both sides will be red for about ~2 seconds before it changes to green. Obviously it’s never a bad thing to be watching for cars running the red light but waiting 3 seconds AFTER a green would annoy the hell out of me lol

      • ricecake
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        5 months ago

        In some places that “lemme just squeeze through” can be pretty egregious.
        Whether the system accounts for it or not doesn’t change the fact that I’ve driven in places where you’d be foolish not to pause.

        I didn’t bring the habit home, at least not to the extent I saw, but it made me a lot more forgiving of people who pause and a lot more aware of how often I actually see people run a red just as it turns green for me.

        I’ve had to drive places where time mattered, and even then five seconds just did not matter.

      • ricecake
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        5 months ago

        Ah, when you said you assumed they were on their phone I figured that meant you assumed they were on their phone, not that you could see them using their phones.

        Seeing someone using their phone at a green light is different from just getting mad at someone for not moving within three seconds.