As someone who drives, bicycles and walks Portland’s streets every day, I am appalled by the blatant disregard for public safety demonstrated by drivers who ignore traffic lights. One need only watch a busy intersection for a few minutes to observe drivers speeding up to enter an intersection after the light has turned from yellow to red.

My understanding is that the yellow light is timed so that a car driving at the speed limit has more than adequate time to come to a complete stop before the light changes to red. When driving, I have frequently come to a stop in time, only to have a car in the next lane charge past me.

I have yet to see someone stopped by the police for such an infraction. I understand that for a patrolling officer to do so, she or he would have to be in the perfect position (behind the offending vehicle, or stopped by the light in the crossing direction) in order to safely pull the driver over and issue a citation, and that this would only happen very infrequently.

However, if local police instituted an occasional “wait and watch” policy at dangerous intersections, and were seen to ticket offenders, that could have a deterrent effect.

We know that speeds are increasing on all our streets and roads, and that bicycle/pedestrian accidents involving cars are also going up markedly. It’s only a matter of time before we learn of a fatal accident in Portland caused by someone running a light. I ask our police department to institute a “no tolerance” policy for this infraction, and take steps to enforce it.

Malcolm Burson

Portland