honk horn = ok to run red light?!?!

At least 4 times this week i've been crossing the street and have witnessed cars barreling down honking their horns and speeding through a light about to turn red or blatantly red. Are people that stupid and self-involved...wait, I've answered my own question. Assholes.

Was that you? Sorry!

:oops:

Enforce existing laws, red light running for however much that is worth, and the horn honk is $350...

I hope you weren't crossing against the signal, that would make your case a little less compelling. I actually think red light cameras are a good idea, they certainly work in Australia for reducing the incidence of running red lights (they have speed cameras too), they're especially profitable now that they use digital cameras instead of film cameras. I am not sure how they'd stand up constitutionally here though.

daver wrote: Enforce existing laws, red light running for however much that is worth, and the horn honk is $350...

If stopped by a cop and given tickets for running the red and honking your horn, you could not be found guilty of both. Running the light would create a dangerous condition in which case you would be allowed to use your horn.

modsquad wrote: [quote=daver]Enforce existing laws, red light running for however much that is worth, and the horn honk is $350...

If stopped by a cop and given tickets for running the red and honking your horn, you could not be found guilty of both. Running the light would create a dangerous condition in which case you would be allowed to use your horn.
Lol. I was actually thinking about that. Do you get to honk the horn if _you_ are creating the dangerous condition by breaking the law? If so, it would seem that you could _always_ get out of a honking ticket. You could just use the excuse that you were about to go postal and go kill crazy rampage ramming your car into everything and wanted to warn everyone about the dangerous condition.

Subject: Re: honk horn = ok to run red light?!?!

GeorgeAppo wrote: At least 4 times this week i've been crossing the street and have witnessed cars barreling down honking their horns and speeding through a light about to turn red or blatantly red. Are people that stupid and self-involved...wait, I've answered my own question. Assholes.

You mean a CAR, not one of us reckless bikers, ran a red light?? Gasp!

I was crossing 4th Avenue at 8th Street a few weeks ago...the light was red on 4th so I had the right of way - and it hadn't just turned red. There was car on 4th approaching the corner...going slowly but I had a funny feeling about it so I stopped...yup, he went right through the red light totally oblivious to anything. Luckily, no cars were going down 8th Street - there was a truck driver there who just looked at me and shook his head.

bohuma wrote:
...I actually think red light cameras are a good idea, they certainly work in Australia for reducing the incidence of running red lights (they have speed cameras too), they're especially profitable now that they use digital cameras instead of film cameras. I am not sure how they'd stand up constitutionally here though.

NYC also has these cameras. Many in Manhattan and quite a few in Brooklyn (one near the BQE in Red Hook, I won't tell you how I know this.)

jh wrote: [quote=bohuma]
...I actually think red light cameras are a good idea, they certainly work in Australia for reducing the incidence of running red lights (they have speed cameras too), they're especially profitable now that they use digital cameras instead of film cameras. I am not sure how they'd stand up constitutionally here though.

NYC also has these cameras. Many in Manhattan and quite a few in Brooklyn (one near the BQE in Red Hook, I won't tell you how I know this.)
Yes, both red light and photo radar cameras are all over the US at this point. The ones that I find _really_ annoying are the mobile photo radar vans. They park them in a different spot everyday and generate tickets. I haven't seen any of those in NYC though. Yet.

OMFG this is one of the things I hate most. ok, run a light or cut someone off once in a while, it happens. Maybe it's an oops, maybe you're an asshole. Honk while you're doing it, though, you're a black-belt asshole.

Worst of these I ever ran across was one night, while I'm crossing with the light, a guy coming the opposite way starts to turn left (toward me) -- which has him going the wrong way on a one-way street. Yet, because I'm in his way, he honks AND makes the universal WTF sign. What a fucktard.

Speaking of red lights that drivers see more as "guidelines" than "absolutes", the light at 14th St & PPW is rarely obeyed prior to 7:00 in the morning. Whenever I'm walking to the subway and want to cross PPW, I definitely look because most drivers (not exaggerating) just run through that one and the one at the circle. After 7:00 or so, when there is more traffic, most cars stop, but before that time, I have seen all sorts of cars running it, including police cars. Most slow down, but many others speed up so they catch the green at the circle. I think that if NYC ever wanted to balance the budget, they could just set up a camera there to catch all the cars running that light between 1:00 am and 6:30 am.

Anybody that crosses that circle deserves to die. Only a tourist or newborn has an excuse.

Just to clarify in case there was any confusion...I wasn't talking about the circle...I was talking about the light the block before the circle. And nobody deserves to die just for crossing a street.

If there's crosswalk, then people don't deserve to die for crossing a street.

Do cops even issue tickets for moving violations in NYC? They seem to prefer nailing people for alternate side parking violations.

Only to bicyclists!

i saw this happen today twice, once on 15th st across 8th ave the other on eastern parkway at bedford. wtf? its like an epidemic

witch-king wrote: Do cops even issue tickets for moving violations in NYC? They seem to prefer nailing people for alternate side parking violations.

I've gotten a ticket for being a cell phone once. And my buddy was pulled over and ticketed for speeding in Harlem.