I was seeing red on Friday and Saturday, even if it seemed a lot of other people weren’t.
I was out and about on the roads a fair bit both days, and counted at least a half-dozen vehicles which went through lights which were obviously fully red by the time they entered the intersection.
Or, to put it another way, if a driver on the other street at the intersection had figured on jumping the green a bit, anticipating it changing before he got to the intersection, there would have been some collisions.
I suspect many of the drivers who went through the red lights were planning to use the excuse of poor road conditions if there were any problems, and yes, the conditions on many of the streets were not great. The snow on top of what was already pretty icy roads at some intersections created some bad situations.
Unfortunately for the people figuring on using bad road conditions as their excuse for going through a red light, there is a section of the Motor Vehicle Act which basically says driving too fast for road conditions is against the law.
So if you were doing 70 on Highway 97 (which is also speeding by the way, but hey, if you’re not worried about red lights, you’re probably not worried about the speed limit), and went through a red light at 15th Avenue and ran into something, claiming that you couldn’t stop because of the road conditions isn’t going to cut it.
I’ll put it this way: After the last big storm in the region, I was talking to someone who had come into the city on Highway 97 from the south. He said the traffic was basically going between 65 and 70, well below the posted speed limit, and everyone stuck to that.
They were being smart, driving to road conditions.
So the next time we get snow, leave a few minutes early, drive a little slower, relax a bit (because you’re not running late), and make it where you’re going with no problems.