The red light we should be allowed to drive through: My gift to Australia
“I don’t want to move to a city where the cultural advantage is being able to turn right at a red light.” With Woody AllenFor the New York audience and its sensibilities, this was a shocking criticism. But for every native son of Southern California, it remains a source of chest-thumping pride: right turn on red.
I have just returned to Sydney after my first visit to my hometown (Long Beach, California) since becoming an Australian citizen last year. God willing, I pledged my loyalty to Australia and its people, and I meant it. Australia is now “home” and there were so many things I was dying to get back to while I was away (not least the way we treated each other). But to be loyal is to be constructive, and I have some good, constructive American critiques of my new homeland: we need to embrace the “right” turn toward red (which in our case is a left turn).
This is a sensational public freedom that every Australian should enjoy.
Picture this: You’re driving in the city, fighting traffic, and stress is mounting. Be prepared to turn left just as you approach an upcoming intersection – annoying! – amber and then red; Even though this side street is not crowded. You stop completely. But instead of staring blankly into the middle distance as your finite mortal seconds tick by, you look carefully to the right and notice no cross-traffic coming. You then responsibly check the pedestrian crossings in front of you and to your left and observe that all pedestrians are safely off the road.
Then, as the embodiment of grandeur, you are tasked by your society to make this safe left turn, entirely under the power of your own common sense, before the light ever turns green. Happiness!
Citizens of Australia, we need this freedom, and not just at a handful of messy intersections with a “left turn allowed on red after stopping” sign. No, in all of them! I offer this to Chris Minns, Jacinta Allan and their fellow PMs. minns Increased speed in tunnels; let’s move on to another great driving reform!
The advantages continue. First, although the turn to red is often thought of as a preservation of wide roads and mid-century grids (like Long Beach), it is perhaps even more useful on our narrow and congested roads. How often do our pre-modern streets fall one lane short of handling all three of left turns, right turns, and straight traffic? Sydney’s Cleveland Street and Eastern Distributor – need I say more? Allowing a left-turning car to make a responsible escape clears the way for oncoming traffic and, as an added environmental benefit, saves the trip by burning gas every time this happens.
The widespread return to red also says something important about our values as a culture; It is a matter of personal responsibility for developing securityism. Even in the automotive Shangri-La of Southern California (home to the 405 freeway, the world’s longest parking lot), some are trying to eliminate the turn to red in dense urban areas in the name of improving pedestrian safety. But this is not an argument for robbing all other intersections of the opportunity to make responsible decisions, but rather an argument in favor of the “no turn to red” sign, which is extremely effective where conditions require it.
There has been a lot of talk lately about restoring harmony and social trust. I think this is the best argument for a left turn on red. We should want to live in a society where we can trust each other with decisions that carry serious weight for them. This is just one small example of the fact that we don’t need nor should we want government guardrails to mediate Each interpersonal interaction. It’s much better to make the decision to trust each other and then act consistently to deserve it.
As an immigrant of this great nation, I present the fruits of my culture: the left is turning red. This is freedom. This is responsibility. This is a victory for the honor and judgment of any driver when he or she does it safely.
Antone Martinho-Truswell is an author, evolutionary biologist and cultural commentator at the University of Sydney.
Antone Martinho-Truswell is a zoologist and evolutionary biologist. He is a research fellow at the University of Sydney.
