Modern Vespa

Ciao, fellow Vespisti!

Full disclosure, I have been summoned to traffic court for a red light violation. I figure I'll wind up paying the fine and am not trying to skirt the law, I just am now genuinely curious if I could have stopped in time. If I could have and I'm at fault, I will plead guilty. Also, if I couldn't, that will better inform my driving in the future because I think, either way, this is a lesson to pay more attention to 'can I stop in time' going forward.

What happened is that I was on a 35mph road going with the flow of traffic, clocked by the cam at 39mph. I was almost at the intersection when the light turned yellow (3.73 sec yellow light). I'm sure y'all know how it is, you have to make a split-second decision to slam on the brakes or not. Seems I was right at the crosswalk when the light turned red.

Based on my speed and proximity to the intersection, I judged that my speed was too dangerous to totally slam on the brakes and that braking more gently would land me in the intersection. Maybe I was wrong -- I'd love to know!

TIA! 🛵

At 39mph, you were traveling 57.2 ft/sec. So 3.73 sec would have put you 213 ft from the cross walk when the light turned yellow. Going 39mph, you could have stopped in half that distance safely without even having to panic stop. The math is not in your favor.

Heh.

Even with a 2-seconds delay for reaction time you could probably make that stop with just your rear brakes (though you may lock up). For sure you could do it with just the fronts.

Also, "emergency braking" is not a term I'd ever use for a stop light.

I'd suggest you go to a parking lot somewhere and practice just how fast you can slow down. You'll likely be very surprised.

Aren't they just gonna hit you with speeding as well if you make a fuss?
You should definitely make a fuss.

Is it a multi lane cross road? We've got a few here with stupidly short orange cycles (definitely can't get through on a push bike on the orange). Go and stake it out and see if running the red is happening a lot.

Was there anyone behind you that you were worried would smash into you? If so that's a decently legit argument.
If not you're screwed.

All right, sounds like I am in the wrong. Thanks, everyone!

nope

It created an imbalance of justice between rich and poor people.

nope