Why Are So Many People Running Red Lights?

Running red lights has become so normal that drivers now expect others to do it. Meanwhile, people staring at their phones don’t move when the light turns green. We’ve expanded both ends of the red light.

Sep 1, 2026

Seeing People Mindset

Why Are So Many People Running Red Lights?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Why Are So Many People Running Red Lights?

We Have Expanded Both Ends of the Red Light

What to Do at a Red Light

Why Are So Many People Running Red Lights?

Yesterday, I stopped at a yellow light that was about to turn red.

The car behind me nearly rear-ended me.

The driver wasn’t expecting me to stop. They were expecting me to run the light—and apparently planning to follow me through it.

That’s how normal running red lights has become.

I see it constantly here in Northern Virginia. The light turns red and one car keeps going. Then another follows because there is still a fraction of a second before cross traffic begins moving.

My family was hit by someone running a red light two years ago. The experience eventually led me to write my own commandments for safe driving. Now, when my light turns green, I pause and look both ways before entering the intersection.

Green no longer means go.

Green means make sure everyone else has finished running the red light first.

I assumed this might be another Northern Virginia problem—too many cars, too much traffic, too many people convinced that wherever they are going is more important than everyone else’s safety. Then we visited upstate New York this summer, and I watched drivers in Syracuse do the same thing.

It made me wonder: Why are so many people running red lights?

Maybe we have simply done it so often without consequences that we’ve decided it’s normal.

We Have Expanded Both Ends of the Red Light

The problem isn’t only the people who keep driving after the light turns red.

It’s also the people staring at their phones who don’t move when the light turns green.

We have expanded both ends of the light.

One driver steals a few seconds by continuing through the intersection. Another steals a few more because they’re checking a text. Everyone behind them becomes impatient and tries to make up the time at the next light.

The cycle keeps feeding itself.

We are either trying to beat the pause or distract ourselves during it.

What to Do at a Red Light

Stop.

You don’t have to look at your phone. You can listen to the music. Look around. Take a breath. Think about your day, your goals, or absolutely nothing.

You can just sit still.

Then, when the light turns green, put down the phone, look both ways, and go.

A red light isn’t an emergency or an injustice. It’s a request to stop so everyone gets home safely.

Stop at red lights.

Society is better off for it.

“Know what’s enough. Build what matters.”

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