whats the fine if any

Adrian much like they were saying : I was about 100 metres beyond traffic lights, which I'd gone straight across about half way through the amber phase He said "you went through those lights on red". I said "I'm sure they were on amber" Whilst in retrospect I could have just about have stopped before the line had I braked very sharply I'm sure I was almost across the junction before the light changed to red. You seem to think that amber is "Go, but it's about to turn red, so be ready to stop when it does". It isn't.

No, its "The light is about to turn red. Do not cross the stop line unless you are too close to stop safely before it, in which case proceed as if it's Green".

Green is "Go, but be ready to stop."

Only in the same way that any other motion in a vehicle requires you to be "ready to stop". Green means there are no restrictions on crossing the stop line.

Amber is "Stop. Unless it's not safe to do so"

No. Amber means the same as Red unless you are too close to the stop line.

Red is "You're stationary. Don't go yet"

It buttumes you are stationary? Red means do not cross the stop line whilst red is showing.

Red and Amber is "You still can't go. But you'll be able to soon. Maybe"

Red and Amber means "This is a red light that is about to change to green".

You sound like you're treating Amber as how Green should be treated, and Green as a laissez-faire, which it isn't.

And you sound like someone who doesn't realise that traffic signals can be seen from quite a distance away.

I'm still not clear how quickly you must stop when the light changes to amber. Simple. You must stop before the line if it is safe to do so.

Correct, but not so simple imo. The decision whether to regard a changed to amber as a green or red depends on your speed, the proximity of following traffic and your distance from the line, so it's always going to be someone's subjective opinion. For example how do we define 'stop safely'? I would say if it requires an emergency stop then one shouldn't, although a traffic cop following might think otherwise. Perhaps a yardstick that could be applied is that if you are less than the HC stopping distance from the line you should treat the amber as green.

-- Rob