U.S. cities consider banning "right on red" laws amid rise in pedestrian deaths
U.S. cities consider banning "right on red" laws amid rise in pedestrian deaths
Almost every major city in the United States generally allows drivers to turn right at red lights, but that could be changing.
Sophee Langerman was on her way to a bicycle safety rally in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood in June when a car turning right rolled through a red light and slammed into her bike, which she was walking off the curb and into the crosswalk.
The car was moving slowly enough that Langerman escaped serious injury, but the bicycle required extensive repairs. To Langerman, it's another argument for ending a practice that almost all U.S. cities have embraced for decades: the legal prerogative for a driver to turn right after stopping at a red light.
A dramatic rise in accidents killing or injuring pedestrians and bicyclists has led to a myriad of policy and infrastructure changes, but moves to ban right on red have drawn some of the most intense sentiments on both sides.
Washington, D.C.'s City Council last year approved a right-on-red ban that takes effect in 2025. New Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's transition plan called for "restricting right turns on red," but his administration hasn't provided specifics. The college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, now prohibits right turns at red lights in the downtown area.
I live in one of these cities (Denver) and in my city’s case this push is part of a ton of other provisions including a push to set a maximum speed limit citywide of 25 mph.
About 80% of my trips out of the house are walking or on a bike, but it seems clear to me that policies like this don’t improve safety. It’s just lazy policy making. For example, if you set a 25 mph speed limit on a road designed to support 45 mph traffic, most drivers will still drive 45+ mph and you instead get a wild mismatch of driving speeds. This just slows traffic with an arguably negative benefit to safety. Similarly, if you ban turn on red in the city many drivers will still turn on red, but now whether or not a car will turn on red becomes unpredictable.
What our cities need is more dedicated bike and pedestrian infrastructure that is separated altogether from the roads, as well as greatly improved public transit.
See, the thing is, those roads that were 45mph have more than enough room for both cars and bike/ped infrastructure. The issue is that, generally, the lanes for higher speed roads are wider. Narrow the lanes and people feel they have to go slower to stay in the lines (which is true for a lot of drivers, bless their hearts). It's an unconscious response to narrowing roadways that can be used to actually make people slow down, rather than just telling them not to. And when you narrow the lanes, that leaves more room in the same space for stuff like bike lanes and sidewalks.
Yup and I’d LOVE to see some of those four lane roads get turned into two or three lane roads with protected bike lanes
However, in a city that’s primarily optimized for cars and lacking in other forms of infrastructure, the main impact of traffic calming measures is to make it really hard to get anywhere in an efficient manner. I don’t believe it significantly improves safety, but it will undoubtedly make a lot of people who rely on their cars absolutely miserable.
The root of the problem is that we simply have too many cars on the roads to begin with. However, we can’t reasonably ask people to stop driving until the alternatives are as safe and convenient as a car. The primary focus should be on urban planning that makes walking, biking, or taking light rail an attractive alternative. In the case of walking and cycling, this overwhelmingly means dedicated infrastructure.
Proper mass transit. Then pedestrian and bike paths are more useful.
After that, cars can go fuck themselves.
What my city is doing is removing car lanes to replace with bike lanes, lowering the speed and also policing it and it worked to turn a 4 lane, 45mph area into a 2+turn lane, 25mph road and improved bike safety. Lowering the speed limit is the cheapest and easiest method. It will probably take a bit to claw that land from the driver's and build something for pedestrians with it.
In NYC, right on red is illegal and I'd venture a guess that >98% of drivers obey this. Obviously each city will need to handle it differently, but they can't make it illegal and then call it a day. Enforcement and change infrastructure to match the new rules of the road are necessary. In the case of lowering speed limits, traffic calming measures should be put in place with the reduction in speed limit, so that going 45mph in a 25mph zone is difficult.
Enforcement is the big issue. I'll be taking pedestrian safety to my city task force next month and addressing a number of systemic issues, the biggest one of which there is zero pedestrian safety enforcement.any states and cities have absolutely great pedestrian safety laws, they are just not enforced at all. The article has some nice data points I can mention.
In Oregon, any interestion, marled or unmarked is a crosswalk and drivers must stop. Of course they don't and get aggressive or just drive past you when you try to cross in 30+ roads. If we enforced pedestrian safety for existing laws with 10% of the effort we put into enforcement of other crimes the culture could change.
When you add cycle paths turnijg right on red needs to be gone. If the cars can't turn it is usually time for cyclists to cross.
Disagree. I spent all of my 20s living the no car lifestyle and cycling 100-200 miles a week on city streets. I have had countless negative interactions with cars but not a single one had anything to do with right turns on red.
I just don’t see any meaningful safety improvement from it but significant downsides in terms of traffic flow.
I live in Seattle. We implemented the 25mph rule and it does seem to actually be helping. This is after a lot of attempts at improving pedestrian safety failed to have any effect. It's irritating because it seems like it takes forever to drive anywhere in this city, and there are definitely a lot of corners cut in infrastructure that could improve safety—including very simple things like adding more marked crosswalks and stop signs at uncontrolled intersections—so I consider it a mixed bag overall.
I agree for the most part. It’s better to design streets so that drivers feel uncomfortable at higher speeds. Street narrowing, bollards, trees, smaller set backs can all slow cars down.
That said, as a counterpoint, despite similar street design, the speed limit in most of Canada is 50kmh (30 mph) and many urban residential streets are down to 30km (18.6 mph). Some people speed, but driving 45 mph (72 km/h!) down most city streets is pretty rare. Pedestrian and cycling accidents involving cars in Canada are close to half the rate of the US. Which is to say, I don’t think the Denver mayor’s proposal is crazy. It works in Canada, but it will take time for the culture to change.
I think the focus here really needs to be on supporting alternative forms of transport.
We have a city that’s already filled with gridlock almost 24/7, even at 2am in the evening. The city planning is such that it’s hard to go significant distances without a car without spending hours in transit. If the primary lever for change is to institute slower speed limits and traffic calming measures, it simply makes things miserable for everyone involved.
IMO the root of the issue is we have way too many cars and not enough alternative infrastructure to make going without a car especially practical.
Denverites love to walk and bike when it’s convenient and they feel safe. I firmly believe that dedicated infrastructure would dramatically reduce the number of car trips as well as give structural safety measures walkers and cyclists. This would reduce deaths while making the city a more pleasant and healthy place to be. Thats why it should be the primary focus in terms of change.
I live in Denver too and couldn’t agree more.
Similarly, if you ban turn on red in the city many drivers will still turn on red, but now whether or not a car will turn on red becomes unpredictable.
Put up traffic cameras and ban those ignoring the red light light from driving for a month. You know, just like it's done in other countries already.
I think all that would accomplish is getting a lot of working class people fired who are living paycheck to paycheck. Other countries have much better public transit.
Yeah just like Oklahoma tried to ban driving through a yellow light they had to repeal that shit fast.
Cities cant suddenly change the turn on red when we were all taught we can. And if any city made the entire city 25mph I would avoid it like the plague and most companies that deliver good like truck drivers would either ignore it or boycott your town. Good luck with your supply chain issues.
I'm totally down for this. Right turn on red is optional, but people behind me seem to think it's required and lay on their horns if I stop for more than a second. Like come on, I need a moment to make sure someone isn't trying to cross!
I'm in favor of prioritizing safety, but if right on red is permitted, then it's not optional. Just like going on green is not optional. Once you determine that you have the right of way you are expected to take it. This makes you predictable and safe.
Other drivers should be giving you a reasonable amount of time to determine your right of way though. You are also supposed to come to a full stop which should technically take about 3 seconds.
Right on red is most definitely optional. No need to be "predictable" in this situation - you're coming to a full stop no matter what. How is not moving again unpredictable?
You're framing this as if the people behind you are in any way involved in your decision to make a right on a red. You're also saying its not optional, which is just blatantly incorrect.
When turning right on red, you get to decide when is safe, not the people behind you. You are not required to turn because that would be a massive safety hazard because people would feel rushed into prevailing traffic, and objectively deciding when a turn was safe to execute is hard when you feel rushed. Being rushed makes everyone less safe, especially pedestrians, because you are distracted. Distracted.
You do not know how responsive their car is, you do not know how comfortable they are full sending it, and you probably cannot see the road as well as they do. This is why when they go is not your decision.
What a beyond stupid take, you are lucky you live somewhere where you are allowed to have your license even though you clearly cannot drive.
Hoonnnkk honnnnkk hooonnnk you go as the person in front of you has a ped crossing in front of them you can't see.
Hoooonnnkk honnnkk honnnnkk you go as there's a small gap, but the person in front of you is driving with their mom recovering from surgery, in pain and feeling carsick.
Hooonnkkk honnnkk honnnk you go as a mother is being screamed at by her kids and is trying to get a small moment of rest at the red light, slightly delaying their turn.
You're a self absorbed dumbass.
Sure, and it has nothing to do with the big ass vehicles being churned out due to loopholes in US law.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/the-loophole-that-made-cars-in-america
Just freaken yesterday I was walking with my kids and there was a sports utility bullshit parked ready to come out of the garage and as we passed I noted that not one of my kids is tall enough to be seen by the driver if they decide to move forward.
A sports utility truck is a truck not a car. Require a CDL to operate or better yet just buy a regular car.
"What's really behind this movement is part of the agenda to make driving as miserable and as difficult as possible so people don't drive so much," Beeber said.
This is an unbelievably idiotic statement, as if cars haven't been, and don't continue to be nearly the sole consideration for transportation in almost all American cities.
"What's really behind this movement is part of the agenda to make driving as miserable and as difficult as possible so people don't drive so much," Beeber said.
Shit. He figured my plan out.
But seriously people driving less would be a win. Cars are awful.
Permanently Deleted
Or better yet, give cyclists sperated spaces from cars and trucks to ride. Even if it's just letting them ride on sidewalks. (Although not applicable in this case)
I always thought pedestrian crossings should be further back from the intersection. With them being a part of the intersection itself you have to deal with traffic and pedestrians changing positions at the same time vs just traffic or just pedestrians crossing the street.
That, and also because NYC has already banned right on red.
As someone who went to the US recently and nearly got taken out by a driver rolling right through the crosswalk only looking to her left, get rid of right turn on red. We survive just fine without it (well, it would technically be a left turn here) in Japan.
In the Netherlands it wouldn't even work as yhere are usually cycle paths or pedestrian crossings that have a green light. Right turns have their own light whenever possible to make sure they are on their own cycle.
It's the size of the cars that's causing the increase.
Wow, you are totally right.
SUVs and pickup trucks do not have to follow the safety regulations of passenger cars.
Passenger cars have rounded pedestrian safe bumpers that are designed to scoop under a pedestrian in a collision, resulting in injuries that are likely to be survivable.
Modern pickup trucks have massive flat grills directly at chest height, which act as a battering ram, and will roll over a pedestrian in a collision, resulting in injuries that are unlikely to be survivable. Pickup trucks and SUVs have large front blind spots that make them more likely to cause collisions than normal cars.
The increasing numbers of pedestrian fatalities is caused by the increasing number and size of pickup trucks and SUVs. This will only change if the feds close the loopholes that allow SUVs to not follow the same regulations as cars.
The spike, which included all accidents — not just those involving right turns on red, was attributed in part to an increase in larger vehicles such as SUVs and pickup trucks on the road ... due to larger blind spots and the deadlier force associated with heavier models.
There it is, this is just one reason why 'no right turns' will be a useless half measure, politicians trying to make it look like they're doing something about the problem because the real solution would be too politically risky.
I mean, it's pretty easy to not hit someone while turning right on red if you look where you're going...
When I visited the US I was shocked that’s actually allowed. Seemed like a very easy way to kill someone
It's the "cars above all" mentality.
That said my city is doing this for bicycles which is way more reasonable.
I couldn't work out how you were supposed to negotiate it as a pedestrian, and assumed there must be some knack that locals learn. Guess the knack is just, don't be a pedestrian lol.
My own anecdotal evidence, walking several blocks and crossing a busy intersection everyday.
I take attempts to not get hit by looking at the driver and checking to see if they are paying attention. Often a driver will inch forward until they can time turning between cars coming from the opposite side of the intersection or will turn immediately when the light changes. I often have people who wait, but mostly people will just drive past me while I stand waiting to cross.
Car size doesn't seem to make any difference in how aware the driver is or if they are following driver safety, at least when I'm attempting to keep myself from being hit.
It less serious than this but on my drive home there is this spot with 4 car lengths between stop lights and people with trailers keep taking it as free right to get into the middle of 3 northbound lanes blocking off the far right lane for turning right at the next light
She wasn't killed because motor vehicles can't make 90deg turns with a city corner radius at 50mph. (Drivers would if physics allowed)
This is OK and we really need to update speed limits and enforcement with what we've learned about safety since the 60s
If there isn't other cross traffic, I'm going no matter what. In MA, we can even take a left on red onto a one way.
Huge majority of lighted intesections could be replaced with roundabouts/rotaries/traffic circles. Cars should not have to sit at idle if nothing is in the way.
So ... she didn't look both ways as a walking pedestrian?
More than likely this is about revenue.