Late at night you come to a red traffic light and noones around for miles, what do you do?

Question

It's a general question based on what society thinks we should do and what we actually do do.

Answer 1

most go through but look around

Answer 2

Based on the area that this takes place in, I would only go through the light with full confidence that there is no camera taking pictures of violaters.

Answer 3

Happens to me all the time because we have really long red leaving my job. I treat it like a stop sign.

Answer 4

Mosey on through.

Answer 5

I will normally stop and wait for the traffic light to turn green. However, I'm guilty of going through one red traffic light late at night. The traffic light is down the road from my house. For some reason late at night the light will stay red forever and there is no traffic at all. I actually timed it one night. It stayed red for over five minutes. After that I finally went through the red traffic light.

Answer 6

Your instinct is to generally go if nobody is around.. i meen.. its pointless to stay there when nothing is comming..  but if there was a police officer stopped.. that you didnt see and you just went ahead threw the stop light.. then you just got yoursekf a ticket.. you would feel better in the end knowing that you obeyed the law.

Answer 7

Stop. Wait. Wait. Wait... ... Right hand turn, U-turn, another right hand turn.

Answer 8

I am totally trained when driving to obey the light at all times.  Now, if I'm sitting a loooong time and it appears the light isn't functioning properly, I'm gonna mosey through.  

(It's actually legal to do this!)

That said - Confession time - if I'm on a bike and no one is around, visibility is good... I might just bang on through.  I'll certainly wait a lot less time.  Same for stop signs - they become yeilds at night.

Part of this is certainly a safety issue.  I don't want to sit at a light too long at night - too vulnerbable.

Answer 9

Stop like you are supposed to. Most red lights have timings or sensors to detect when a vehicle comes up to change the light.

Answer 10

Most Lights around here are less than one minute long.  

I will wait the minute, and if it does not change, I assume the sensor or light is broken, then treat it like a Broken Light or "Flashing Red", and proceed after stopping and waiting one minute.