Sometimes it's amazing how people forget how to drive.
I'm not talking about actually forgetting the way a turn feels when you hit it at the right speed, or how to depress the brake pedal.
But when people just arbitrarily "forget" how to drive legally, or, at the very least, courteously.
However, there are some particular traffic laws that people seem to hold in especially low regard.
One of these is the inability to function at a four-way stop in Southern Arizona.
It should be a relatively painless procedure. When you get to the stop sign, you stop, just like at any other stop sign. Then, you take turns proceeding through the intersection, based on the order of arrival. If two cars get to the stop signs at the same time, the one on the right has the right of way.
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Another oft-ignored law is for the appropriate acceleration following a lighted crosswalk. Those HAWKs, or High-intensity Activated crossWalKs, aren't really that hard to handle. I promise.
It seems every time I am stopped at one, though, everyone around has no idea what to do. The flashing red lights must hypnotize drivers and make them forget the rules they dutifully memorized to take the licensing test.
A flashing red light should be treated like a stop sign. Stop, look around and make sure it's safe to go. If it is safe, then, for goodness' sake, get on your way! You should know this rule anyway, because sometimes when power is disrupted, traffic lights default to flashing red, to be treated as a stop sign.
A solid red light is just like all the red lights you stop at around town. Stop for a solid red light.
That means at a HAWK crossing, drivers should stop when the light is solid red. You cannot go through the crosswalk when the light is red — that's the same as running a red light at a major intersection.
When the red light starts flashing, the first person in line can go if there are no pedestrians, bicyclists or traffic hazards. All subsequent cars should pull forward to the stop line when it's their turn, make a complete stop, and then proceed if it is safe.
There should be none of this driving right on through because you feel like it, or stopping for five minutes because, well, that's just extra time to belt out your personal rendition of "I Can't Drive 55."
Road Q
Question: "At least once or twice a week, I get stopped at Prudence while driving westbound on Broadway. There have been several times that there was no traffic on Prudence at all to trigger the light — are these lights timed at certain points of the day? It's really kind of annoying," wrote Matt Danloe.
Answer: The signal is functioning correctly, according to the city of Tucson Department of Transportation. The signal has a detector embedded into the street about 200 feet before the intersection. When a car drives over the detector, it signals the light to change to allow Prudence Road traffic to cross East Broadway, said Michael Graham, city transportation spokesman.
If the light is changing and there's no one waiting at Prudence, it could be because the vehicle that triggered the signal turned left into a side street, or turned right at Broadway, he said. Those cars would trip the signal but be gone from the intersection by the time it changed. This is a likely case, since the signal is working correctly, he said.
