"David Hansen" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:44:42 +0100 someone who may be "Mortimer"
wrote this:-

Yeah, which work *so* well that surveys of red light jumping don't
even bother to count anyone going through on amber or in the first three
seconds of red, because "everyone does that"

It's quite right that they don't count vehicles going through on amber
because this is not actually an offence.

I note that you were unable or unwilling to deal with the "first
three seconds of red" bit of the posting.

I didn't mention it because I was taking it as read that going through a red
light, even in the first three seconds, is an offence - I wasn't diasgreeing
with you in that. What I was disagreeing with was your implication that
*all* cases of going through amber lights were offences: you didn't
distinguish between the case where a car has plenty of time to stop at the
amber light and the case where a car is too close to the lights to stop.

By the way, what's the situation with lights which are only for a pedestrian
crossing (ie not for a road junction)? I thought that these always had a
flashing amber phase between red and green, during which it was legal for
cars to set off or drive across providing the crossing was clear of
pedestrians. I was surprised the other day to find a pedestrian-only
crossing where the lights went to solid amber instead of flashing amber.