Running a red light will get you an invite by a local police officer to pull over and get a ticket. It probably is not the way you wanted to start or end your day.

Most red lights are very visible to the driver running them. Some of them can be blurred or not visible by a driver due to the sunshine that is right behind the lights. Its not easy to see and a guess on what it is is all you have.

When designing the lights the designer takes into consideration factors that affect it from the environment. To help block the effects of the sun shinning on the light the backdrop is coated in black to allow the light to be seen in bright sunlight. To make things uniform the lights are also assembled in the same order.

The color scheme of the lights run in the same order for several reasons. One is to make sure people who drive and are color blind can see the changes in the same order and understand what light is on or off. The sequence is also to divide the lights from light to dark to get your attention when it changes.

In some states special lights are erected for a number of different reasons and the purchase of these light is on an incident basis. There are also only 3 colors that are used and they are red, green and yellow. White used to be available to order and in special orders blue is available but only as a requested item.

When approaching an intersection that is governed by the signal lights it is important to keep in mind that they will change and the time it takes to slow down or stop will be affected by the light change. Most people waiting at a light would say it takes too long and you are waiting all day. The truth is that the light is set on timers and the usual time between light rotation is usually 1 minute at the most 1.5 minutes in some cases.

One type of judgment call when driving a car into an intersection is as the light is changing do you stop or continue driving right through the intersection. I could be that the light was green then it turned yellow as you entered the intersection. When you find yourself in a situation, were the light turned yellow then red an you are in middle, what do you do? The light is red after you entered the midway point then continue through if it is still safe, do not back up. If you are approaching a light at any time remember that the light is on a timer and it will soon change.

Most of us have experienced seeing drivers speed up right as the lights are turning and run through the yellow light only to be running the red light by the time they enter the intersection. If a police officer sees them they will decide then if the driver ran the red or ran through the yellow. Mounted on more and more lights in intersections are the cameras that monitor the intersection for drivers running a red light. So be careful what you see the cameras are watching.