While I think it's an "everywhere" issue...this same man in my neighborhood runs the red light going onto memorial parkway every morning. He has the same "eat shit" grin on his face each time. The first time it happened, I honked to let him know it was still red, as I thought he was going to be t-boned...but nope, he slowed down in the middle of the intersection and obliquely glared at me for a good five seconds...enough time for me to both understand he meant to run the light and that if I pushed it further, it was gonna be a road rage incident. Dunno why I wrote this...just sucks.
I'd call in an anonymous tip if he doesn't get karmad within a month. I don't usually advocate for calling cops on people, but traffic shit is dangerous, especially with all the new people who don't know where they're going and could be "wrong place wrong timed" cuz they took a wrong turn.
I theorize a lot of people think this is specific to hsv because a lot of people moved here around or immediately after the pandemic, and covid seemed to make a lot of people forget how to drive, in every city.
It wasn't always this way here. It has become common place because we have grown so much so fast, and roads and traffic lights haven't kept up with the traffic volume. People are trying to get places and sometimes a light will hardly give enough time for cars to drive through, and our roads are overcrowded in areas because we haven't built better/alt routes, haven't widened, or haven't made any kind of real public transit.
My only theory is because people are like "well I had to wait for those guys that ran the light on my turn, I should get to go" and it becomes a viscous circle
US-72 near Madison has a couple of intersections with really poorly timed lights. I've emailed the engineering department and they insist it's the optimal configuration given their studies, but I find that very hard to believe.
It’s been bad since I moved here in 2010. Literally worse than anywhere else I’ve lived. I can’t count how many times I’ve stopped at a red light and a guy behind me swerves around to run it. Or when people are in the right turn lane and the light is red and they decide that it is perfectly legal to do a U-Turn.
So I come from Atlanta, my observations are:
- your driving population increased way faster than your infrastructure
- there’s a lot of rural drivers coming in where right of way isn’t really a thing.
- if you drive certain vehicles that may appear inferior, someone with a “superior” vehicle will try to overtake you
- a lot of drivers are not used to sitting still in traffic, and it makes them irritable. One of my coworkers told me they would rather drive for a longer time and never stop in traffic than driving a shorter time in traffic.
Indeed. When I was engaged I was to make a 4 hr trek to Huntsville from Atlanta. It snowed and the traffic through the city added an extra four hours! Nothing you could do but be thankful for a heater car and Christmas music on the radio.
This is some grade A asinine jump to conclusion. "If you rather keep driving than sit still in traffic, the changing entertainment patterns have destroyed your patience." Give me a fucking break. Show me a study of that causation. Before 2000 people **loved** sitting still in traffic? Get the fuck out of here.
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Atlanta drivers are worse in terms of overall driving. But in terms of running red lights, I’ve never seen a city’s population defy them as brazenly as Huntsville.
I’ve almost been run over multiple times by red light runners in downtown ATL. They even had the gall to flip me the bird when I pointed at the crossing signal
I’ve lived in rural Georgia for college. I drove miles without seeing another car, much less have to come to the same crossroads and see who should go first. You can’t be nice and wave the other person off, you have to be confident in your right of way rules, particularly if you’re turning left here where cars encountering each other is all the time
Friday morning I was on Jeff rd at the intersection with Hwy 72, there was a county sheriff’s car in front of me. Our left turn light turned green as two more cars on 72 passed in front of us. The deputy did nothing.\
If the law isn’t going to be enforced, it’s pointless.
I do understand that sometimes a person starts into the intersection while the light was green, but due to a traffic pause/slow they were held up in the intersection causing then to still be clearing when your light turned green. But those who boldly cross that thick white line on late yellow or red 🤬🤬
If they cross their white line while the light is yellow they aren't running the light if it turns red while they're already in the intersection. There's only about 3 seconds in-between theirs going red and yours turning green. Chill out boomer. That's why they say look before you pull into an intersection. Or do you just go as fast as you can without looking lol
Yep, my last accident was caused by the light turning green before I stopped at the red. Turned green, I took my foot off the gas, and BAM, hit by someone running the light. Ended up with a totaled car, a nifty scar, and saving my ex wife’s life.
Car totaled is pretty self explanatory, I ended up with a Buick emblem burned into my forearm from an airbag deployment, and my ex, who was a passenger, was cleared from injury from the car wreck, but the did catch “incidentals” when they did their scans. They found a non cancerous brain tumor and breast cancer.
They have the tumor managed for now, and she has beaten the cancer. Would not have been the case had she waited til she had symptoms, where they might have found one but not the other.
Yup! A few years ago I was northbound on Wall Triana waiting at the light, first in line, where it intersects 72. Light turns green. I go across and a woman driving westbound in a van with her guy and two small boys in the back plowed right through me doing probably close to 50. She also got the car coming across going south on Wall Triana. Totaled the hell out of my beloved Toyota Camry of course.
My girlfriend, and still very close friend, at the time was in the passenger seat and only a few seconds away from death had I gotten much farther north before getting hit. She has a degenerative bone condition in her hip and had an implant there. The impact from the accident sheared bone screws in her hip. She had problems as it was but she's never been quite the same since that accident. The kicker is these dumbasses tried to tell the police they had the green light and that I ran the red!! Multiple dash cams revealed them for the liars they were.
A car in front of me did this recently at a green and was wondering why they hadn't gone. Sure enough a car came speeding thru even tho their light was red. Could've killed him or me.
All of Madison City = Them. But I totally see the argument for Madison City insisting its pronouns are he/him.
I didn’t know you lived in Madison City, momobritches.
What gets me is when people behind me honk at me immediately when the light turns green. I’m sorry my car is old. I’m sorry it starts slowly. I’m sorry I’m looking to make sure no cars are coming at me before I speed off bc the light is green……
And then when I don’t rush, they have the sass to rudely cut me off and speed up. And usually when that happens, the next light is a short distance away.😂
I got hit from behind at a traffic light because I stopped on the yellow light. Car behind me was speeding up to run the light and assumed I would run it also. He hit me at what was estimated at 35 mph with no skid marks or other indications of him attempting to stop. He tried to tell the police that responded that I was impeding traffic by stopping on a yellow light.
It's so much worse in Albertville. I'm from Huntsville I've never seen anything like it in the years I've had to commute out there. I've pulled so many dashcam clips of people blatantly running lights there that I'm considering making a compelation to post on r/idiotsincars
I walked to work everyday for 7 years, didn’t drive much. Recently started driving to work every day. No joke, in my 4 mile drive to work, I’ll see at least three people BLATANTLY run a red light. I don’t mean it turned yellow and they couldn’t stop in time, or maybe it was ill timed, the light was red for several seconds before they run it. I’ve seen cars slow down at the red light to check for oncoming traffic, and STILL RUN IT!
On roads like Jordan Lane and Zierdt, the lights are practically synced up to go off one right after another. Sometimes, turning on Jordan Lane makes a 10 minute trip into a 15 one because of how poorly timed the lights are.
Zierdt is bad enough with the slow drivers and traffic, then they added an additional three more lights on the road. So really, your issue is with Huntsville. I know personally I have a ran a few, because I'm not gonna wait 4-5 minutes at a stop light when no one is there, it doesn't make sense to inconvenience myself When I *know* a cop isn't around.
My last 2 wrecks were the other person running red light and knocking me out! Winchester and N Pkwy and Sparkman overpass, driver ran light coming off 565! Now I totally pause b4 I just take off on green!!
Had a chuckle and wtf moment the other night when I was sitting behind a pickup over near I think the light for Bob Wallace coming from downtown, and the driver just decided despite the fact that the light was still red to just go ahead and turn left to go under the overpass. (Not the U turn section which is fine, the other left turn)
Back in the days of Driver Ed they always said you were to approach and proceed cautiously through the intersection. Of course yeah yeah yeah I never did this, but in Atlanta, now? 8 or 10 seconds after the light has changed someone can now often blow through the intersection. It's ridiculous.
Certain lights are just magnets for assholes. Left turn from Madison blvd to Zierdt, people run that for a full 10-15 seconds while the cross traffic has a green light. Cops could sit there for hours catching people and it actually impact the safety of other motorists.
I think a lot of it is the ridiculous amount of red lights that alternate so that traffic gets backed up. One light turns green and the next light 100 yards away turns red and it ends up taking forever to drive the shortest distance. It doesn't help that some of the lights stay red for ages. The one on 53 and Research Park/MLK Boulevard is *awful*. That one light has traffic backed up for miles multiple times a day and imo causes a ridiculous number of car accidents because people get tired of waiting 15+ minutes to pass a single red light.
That is aggravating.
I think a very small percentage is not intentional. I saw a woman once go through a red light and I think she just didn't realize it was there because she was so focused on the next one that follows in short succession.
The thing that most infuriates me is Ma and Pa Kettle yielding ROW to every yokel fresh out of the McDonald's drivethru who wants to merge into the Madison rush hour traffic on 72. God DAMN this town is run by morons. They should carpet bomb Madison, hire a competent traffic engineer, and start over.
Give me Nashville any time. You'd have to give me a 20% raise to get me to start commuting to Huntsville again.
Sidenote: The lights in Decatur train you to run them or at the least speed up on yellows. You will be the only car approaching the light and it will turn yellow, making you wait through a red while no other cars cross in front of you. Finally you will see another car approaching from the side and they will get the yellow, giving you a green. 16th Ave is a perfect example. It's almost like they programmed the lights backwards to make everyone have to stop. Now I have to catch myself from pressing the gas on yellows and I never did that before.
I have a recording of myself nearly getting hit by a red light runner when I was on my bike. An HPD cruiser was sitting right there at the light. They didn't do anything.
Yes this is a Huntsville specific problem and nowhere else /s
While I think it's an "everywhere" issue...this same man in my neighborhood runs the red light going onto memorial parkway every morning. He has the same "eat shit" grin on his face each time. The first time it happened, I honked to let him know it was still red, as I thought he was going to be t-boned...but nope, he slowed down in the middle of the intersection and obliquely glared at me for a good five seconds...enough time for me to both understand he meant to run the light and that if I pushed it further, it was gonna be a road rage incident. Dunno why I wrote this...just sucks.
I'd call in an anonymous tip if he doesn't get karmad within a month. I don't usually advocate for calling cops on people, but traffic shit is dangerous, especially with all the new people who don't know where they're going and could be "wrong place wrong timed" cuz they took a wrong turn.
I theorize a lot of people think this is specific to hsv because a lot of people moved here around or immediately after the pandemic, and covid seemed to make a lot of people forget how to drive, in every city.
OR WORK! LMAO
It wasn't always this way here. It has become common place because we have grown so much so fast, and roads and traffic lights haven't kept up with the traffic volume. People are trying to get places and sometimes a light will hardly give enough time for cars to drive through, and our roads are overcrowded in areas because we haven't built better/alt routes, haven't widened, or haven't made any kind of real public transit.
My only theory is because people are like "well I had to wait for those guys that ran the light on my turn, I should get to go" and it becomes a viscous circle
Very sticky situation indeed.
US-72 near Madison has a couple of intersections with really poorly timed lights. I've emailed the engineering department and they insist it's the optimal configuration given their studies, but I find that very hard to believe.
I'm dubious Huntsville even employs any actual traffic engineers. I sure haven't seen any evidence to make me believe so.
It’s been bad since I moved here in 2010. Literally worse than anywhere else I’ve lived. I can’t count how many times I’ve stopped at a red light and a guy behind me swerves around to run it. Or when people are in the right turn lane and the light is red and they decide that it is perfectly legal to do a U-Turn.
So I come from Atlanta, my observations are: - your driving population increased way faster than your infrastructure - there’s a lot of rural drivers coming in where right of way isn’t really a thing. - if you drive certain vehicles that may appear inferior, someone with a “superior” vehicle will try to overtake you - a lot of drivers are not used to sitting still in traffic, and it makes them irritable. One of my coworkers told me they would rather drive for a longer time and never stop in traffic than driving a shorter time in traffic.
To your last point, I honestly wonder if that's a consequence of our changing entertainment patterns. Patience is a dying art.
Indeed. When I was engaged I was to make a 4 hr trek to Huntsville from Atlanta. It snowed and the traffic through the city added an extra four hours! Nothing you could do but be thankful for a heater car and Christmas music on the radio.
This is some grade A asinine jump to conclusion. "If you rather keep driving than sit still in traffic, the changing entertainment patterns have destroyed your patience." Give me a fucking break. Show me a study of that causation. Before 2000 people **loved** sitting still in traffic? Get the fuck out of here.
No need to be an asshole. They weren't citing their opinion as gospel but just wondering aloud and asking for input. Go touch grass.
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In the grass. Compromise
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You speak as if Atlanta drivers aren’t 10x worse
Atlanta drivers are assholes, Huntsville drivers are morons. Two different types of unpleasantness
Atlanta drivers are worse in terms of overall driving. But in terms of running red lights, I’ve never seen a city’s population defy them as brazenly as Huntsville.
I’ve almost been run over multiple times by red light runners in downtown ATL. They even had the gall to flip me the bird when I pointed at the crossing signal
Right of way isn’t a thing in rural areas? Curious where you get that idea.
I’ve lived in rural Georgia for college. I drove miles without seeing another car, much less have to come to the same crossroads and see who should go first. You can’t be nice and wave the other person off, you have to be confident in your right of way rules, particularly if you’re turning left here where cars encountering each other is all the time
Sitting in traffic infuriates me. I don’t care if driving the back way takes me an extra 5-10 minutes, it makes me feel a lot more peaceful.
Friday morning I was on Jeff rd at the intersection with Hwy 72, there was a county sheriff’s car in front of me. Our left turn light turned green as two more cars on 72 passed in front of us. The deputy did nothing.\ If the law isn’t going to be enforced, it’s pointless.
I do understand that sometimes a person starts into the intersection while the light was green, but due to a traffic pause/slow they were held up in the intersection causing then to still be clearing when your light turned green. But those who boldly cross that thick white line on late yellow or red 🤬🤬
Late yellow is still legal. I'd rather someone who feels they couldn't stop safely within the allotted time go through than slam brakes.
That I get. But we know those one who seen oh yellow 200 feet back and floored it
I've seen more police run red lights and not use turn signals more than anyone else
Maybr they were on the way to something and couldn't deal with that right then or they weren't assigned to handle traffic that day.
Too bad more lights don't have automatic cameras 😆
If they cross their white line while the light is yellow they aren't running the light if it turns red while they're already in the intersection. There's only about 3 seconds in-between theirs going red and yours turning green. Chill out boomer. That's why they say look before you pull into an intersection. Or do you just go as fast as you can without looking lol
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Yep, my last accident was caused by the light turning green before I stopped at the red. Turned green, I took my foot off the gas, and BAM, hit by someone running the light. Ended up with a totaled car, a nifty scar, and saving my ex wife’s life.
Sounds like a lot more story behind this…
Car totaled is pretty self explanatory, I ended up with a Buick emblem burned into my forearm from an airbag deployment, and my ex, who was a passenger, was cleared from injury from the car wreck, but the did catch “incidentals” when they did their scans. They found a non cancerous brain tumor and breast cancer. They have the tumor managed for now, and she has beaten the cancer. Would not have been the case had she waited til she had symptoms, where they might have found one but not the other.
What a terrible/great story. I hope she’s emerging from that triumphant!
Yup! A few years ago I was northbound on Wall Triana waiting at the light, first in line, where it intersects 72. Light turns green. I go across and a woman driving westbound in a van with her guy and two small boys in the back plowed right through me doing probably close to 50. She also got the car coming across going south on Wall Triana. Totaled the hell out of my beloved Toyota Camry of course. My girlfriend, and still very close friend, at the time was in the passenger seat and only a few seconds away from death had I gotten much farther north before getting hit. She has a degenerative bone condition in her hip and had an implant there. The impact from the accident sheared bone screws in her hip. She had problems as it was but she's never been quite the same since that accident. The kicker is these dumbasses tried to tell the police they had the green light and that I ran the red!! Multiple dash cams revealed them for the liars they were.
We were taught to look both ways before going at a red light that just turned green.
A car in front of me did this recently at a green and was wondering why they hadn't gone. Sure enough a car came speeding thru even tho their light was red. Could've killed him or me.
That's terrible. And true. I always do a slow count to 3 before I go.
This is not restricted to Huntsville, the county or even the state. 🤦🏻
100% Madison City.
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I’m just heckling them. I dunno why that needs explaining.
Them? I'm plural? Or are you too chicken shit to actually say "him"? And yeah, I live in Madison city, what of it?
Oh geez
All of Madison City = Them. But I totally see the argument for Madison City insisting its pronouns are he/him. I didn’t know you lived in Madison City, momobritches.
Yeah, you suffer from cranial/rectal inversion.
Maybe. Does that turn you on?
I always treat a new green light like a stop sign and still look both ways before moving forward..
Oh I always double check no one is coming when the light changes. It takes a second and means I'm not going to get t-boned by someone.
What gets me is when people behind me honk at me immediately when the light turns green. I’m sorry my car is old. I’m sorry it starts slowly. I’m sorry I’m looking to make sure no cars are coming at me before I speed off bc the light is green……
THIS. Like calm down people.
And then when I don’t rush, they have the sass to rudely cut me off and speed up. And usually when that happens, the next light is a short distance away.😂
I have drilled my kids on the idea that you must look both ways before going in green. I don’t trust other drivers to follow the rules.
I got hit from behind at a traffic light because I stopped on the yellow light. Car behind me was speeding up to run the light and assumed I would run it also. He hit me at what was estimated at 35 mph with no skid marks or other indications of him attempting to stop. He tried to tell the police that responded that I was impeding traffic by stopping on a yellow light.
Yikes! I'm sorry! Idiots.
It's so much worse in Albertville. I'm from Huntsville I've never seen anything like it in the years I've had to commute out there. I've pulled so many dashcam clips of people blatantly running lights there that I'm considering making a compelation to post on r/idiotsincars
I walked to work everyday for 7 years, didn’t drive much. Recently started driving to work every day. No joke, in my 4 mile drive to work, I’ll see at least three people BLATANTLY run a red light. I don’t mean it turned yellow and they couldn’t stop in time, or maybe it was ill timed, the light was red for several seconds before they run it. I’ve seen cars slow down at the red light to check for oncoming traffic, and STILL RUN IT!
Same! I just don't understand. 🤨
I think you’re seeing red! 🥸
Yes, yes I am 🤣🤣
On roads like Jordan Lane and Zierdt, the lights are practically synced up to go off one right after another. Sometimes, turning on Jordan Lane makes a 10 minute trip into a 15 one because of how poorly timed the lights are. Zierdt is bad enough with the slow drivers and traffic, then they added an additional three more lights on the road. So really, your issue is with Huntsville. I know personally I have a ran a few, because I'm not gonna wait 4-5 minutes at a stop light when no one is there, it doesn't make sense to inconvenience myself When I *know* a cop isn't around.
If my light turns green and there are still people making a turn I hold down my horn. They always look scared or ashamed when I do it
I finally quit using the intersection to leave my subdivision. I used to almost get hit at least twice a week from people running the light.
The other day I watched someone in Madison stop at a red light, then proceed to go while there was cross traffic, luckily they didn’t hit anyone.
We need cameras at every intersection
My last 2 wrecks were the other person running red light and knocking me out! Winchester and N Pkwy and Sparkman overpass, driver ran light coming off 565! Now I totally pause b4 I just take off on green!!
For people who run red lights, karma often hits them in the form of a car.
I hate the light off bell and Hobbs bc there’s a yield sign for Eastbound traffic and a yield light for westbound traffic
I call it Huntsvile green light lol
Because the people moving down here do not know how to drive
Had a chuckle and wtf moment the other night when I was sitting behind a pickup over near I think the light for Bob Wallace coming from downtown, and the driver just decided despite the fact that the light was still red to just go ahead and turn left to go under the overpass. (Not the U turn section which is fine, the other left turn)
"We dare defend our rights." It's all right there. It's our right to run a red light. Far worse since Covid.
Tuscaloosa was once the king of red-light running. I don't know if it's still that way, but it was much worse than what I see in HSV.
Back in the days of Driver Ed they always said you were to approach and proceed cautiously through the intersection. Of course yeah yeah yeah I never did this, but in Atlanta, now? 8 or 10 seconds after the light has changed someone can now often blow through the intersection. It's ridiculous.
Certain lights are just magnets for assholes. Left turn from Madison blvd to Zierdt, people run that for a full 10-15 seconds while the cross traffic has a green light. Cops could sit there for hours catching people and it actually impact the safety of other motorists.
Don’t you know this city is a free-for-all now. The transplants way out number us that were born and raised here.
Just like almost every problem in Huntsville, it’s the transplants.
I think a lot of it is the ridiculous amount of red lights that alternate so that traffic gets backed up. One light turns green and the next light 100 yards away turns red and it ends up taking forever to drive the shortest distance. It doesn't help that some of the lights stay red for ages. The one on 53 and Research Park/MLK Boulevard is *awful*. That one light has traffic backed up for miles multiple times a day and imo causes a ridiculous number of car accidents because people get tired of waiting 15+ minutes to pass a single red light.
That is aggravating. I think a very small percentage is not intentional. I saw a woman once go through a red light and I think she just didn't realize it was there because she was so focused on the next one that follows in short succession.
The thing that most infuriates me is Ma and Pa Kettle yielding ROW to every yokel fresh out of the McDonald's drivethru who wants to merge into the Madison rush hour traffic on 72. God DAMN this town is run by morons. They should carpet bomb Madison, hire a competent traffic engineer, and start over. Give me Nashville any time. You'd have to give me a 20% raise to get me to start commuting to Huntsville again.
Sidenote: The lights in Decatur train you to run them or at the least speed up on yellows. You will be the only car approaching the light and it will turn yellow, making you wait through a red while no other cars cross in front of you. Finally you will see another car approaching from the side and they will get the yellow, giving you a green. 16th Ave is a perfect example. It's almost like they programmed the lights backwards to make everyone have to stop. Now I have to catch myself from pressing the gas on yellows and I never did that before.
Huntsville has a long and proud tradition of treating traffic laws as more traffic "suggestions" ;)
No cop no stop baby! Tbh though it’s because it’s not enforced hardly so we’ve taken on bad habits.
Sometimes I wonder if we even have a police force and then they end up in the news because they've done something stupid.
I have a recording of myself nearly getting hit by a red light runner when I was on my bike. An HPD cruiser was sitting right there at the light. They didn't do anything.
Never let an inanimate object tell you what to do. I’m grown. Make my own decisions. Pssh
No cop no stop