Driving You Crazy: It seems like nobody stops at a right-on-red sign anymore

Michael from Boulder County writes, “It seems like NOBODY stops at a right-on-red situation anymore. Just this morning, in the Broomfield and Louisville area, I counted 23 cars that rolled through a right-on-red situation without stopping or even slowing down. Doesn't anyone care about the law anymore? It makes me crazy and since I'm the only one in the area who does stop for a right-on-red, I usually get a honk from whoever is behind me. I would love it if you would discuss this in your excellent segment.”
  
It's not just stopping to make a right on red, Michael. It seems drivers are routinely comfortable speeding, not using their turn signals, driving aggressively and doing a multitude of other behaviors that would normally earn them a ticket.

In the first of two spots you mentioned, I went out to was westbound Dillon Road at 120^th St. on the edge of Broomfield. I watched as driver after driver did the very common slow roll while making a right turn on a red light. The unique feature here is there is no northbound conflicting traffic for those turning right, so they might have felt more comfortable making that rolling right than if there was traffic.

I then went to the other intersection you sent me — northbound 95^th St. at Arapahoe Road in Boulder County. This is a much busier intersection and again, I watched driver after driver do the slow roll right turn on red, but that is what they should be doing here. This right turn is a protected right. The way it should work is drivers going north on 95^th St. should slow down, look left but keep going as they complete the turn, and then merge left as traffic flow allows, before they get to Forrest Park Circle.

The reason this is a protected right is that drivers in the right lane for eastbound Arapahoe Road before 95^th St. must turn south on 95^th St. and shouldn’t continue east through the intersection. That movement is only allowed from the left lane. I don’t think most northbound to eastbound drivers know that, and that is why some stop and wait for eastbound traffic to clear before completing the turn.

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I talked to Commander Robyn VanDerLeest from the Boulder County Sheriff's Office about drivers rolling through the red lights.

“Rolling right turns on red lights is always dangerous," Commander VanDerLeest said. "The expectation is that a car comes to a complete stop before the indicated stop bar, then slowly rolls forward when safe to observe traffic before turning right on the red light, where it is lawful to do so. Failing to do that, most often, is a hazard to pedestrians and bicyclists trying to lawfully cross streets. However, sometimes cars do miss judge traffic and enter the roadway unsafely.”

Even so, 100% of the officers I have spoken to about this move told me this is one of those, unless a driver does something really unsafe, isn’t that big of a deal. They won’t pull offenders over for it. So even though this might be one of those moves other drivers do that bug some of us, it is also one of those moves that is up to the discretion of an officer who sees it happen to decide if it warrants making contact or not. More often than not, it doesn’t.

One of the excuses drivers might use to roll right on red is to save fuel. I have read on eco-drive blogs and talked to people who say they do a rolling stop instead of a full stop, especially if no other vehicles are around, to save fuel. According to the State of New York's ‘Drive More Efficiently’ webpage, “it can take 20 percent more fuel to accelerate from a full stop than from 5 miles per hour. Try to anticipate stops and coast as much as possible.”

To be fair, on that website, they were originally talking about driving in stop-and-go traffic, not promoting nor suggesting rolling through a stop sign. This argument is somewhat nullified if someone is driving a hybrid or electric vehicle since those cars are equipped with a regenerative braking system that recaptures some energy when stopping.

Commander VanDerLeest said if a driver was stopped for making a rolling red right, that person would get a ticket for failing to obey a traffic control signal and face a $123.50 fine that carries four points on their driver license.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.