Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Traffic folly

I was pulled over by a Revere police officer yesterday afternoon and reprimanded for going through a red light as I turned from Broadway left onto Central Ave. At first I tried to spit out a few words to make my case, but it was immediately clear that the cop didn't want to hear it and since he was warning me instead of giving me a moving violation I nodded and said, "Yes sir."

I was surprised to see the cruiser's lights in my rear-view mirror because I honestly didn't believe I had committed any infraction. I was heading south on Broadway and moved into the left lane in front of the firehouse. The light was green when I rolled into the intersection and waited for oncoming traffic to stop so I could turn. By the time I took the left the light had, in fact, turned red, but I couldn't sit in the intersection at that point, right?

The officer said to me, "You cannot enter the intersection if you can't make it out before the light turns red," and I understand what he means, but there is one hitch at this particular intersection that caused me to turn after the red. As I waited to turn I assumed that when my light turned yellow the cars heading north on Broadway would slow and stop so that I could move before the red light. What I didn't realize is that their light remains green longer, which means those cars kept moving past me even as my light was red.

I couldn't explain myself to the cop, but at least I told someone, and as the saying goes, "Many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request."

1 comment:

Adam Gaffin said...

Sad but true. My wife was in a similar situation on the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury - and got clipped by a woman who gunned it as soon as her light turned green. Wife was judged at fault for the same exact reason as you.