Red light offence 5415

Brimstone

Not necessarily. As SimonJ pointed out:

Sadly, in the real world, a lot of people don't obey the rules for their own selfish purposes. If you're on a busy road filled with traffic lights that are poorly co-ordinated -- something our local authorities here in Cambridge has blessed us with repeatedly in recent months -- then quite simply you either exercise common sense and break the rules as well to maintain traffic flow, or you can literally wait (and force those behind you to wait) for several cycles of lights before being able to go anywhere, while dozens of law-breaking drivers from other entries to the junction manage to get through and the drivers behind you become increasingly irritable.

For example, the junction complex right outside my office has been like this since they arranged the traffic light timings in a particularly daft way: there are sets of lights with only space for 2-3 cars between them, changing out of sync, with a time interval that lets only 1-2 cars through legally, with "cycle-friendly" lanes and advances stop lines that completely screw the traffic flow for larger vehicles just for good measure. Personally, I go another way now to avoid the hbuttle, but during busy periods I see people caught as Harry describes all the time on that particular junction complex.

Cheers, Chris