What You Need to Know About Pennsylvania’s Ride on Red Law
Benefits of The Ride on Red Law
It is now legal to treat stop lights as stop signs in Pennsylvania – in certain instances.
Pennsylvania’s Ride on Red law allows for any vehicle (car, bicycle, motorcycle, even a horse and buggy) to proceed with caution at an intersection if the traffic signal is malfunctioning or if it’s vehicle-detection system fails to recognize you. In this scenario, the signal should be treated like a stop sign.
This common sense piece of legislation, made law on September 18, 2016, is designed to help smaller and lighter-weight vehicles that aren’t always able to trigger a traffic light, proceed safely through an intersection.
However there are several important factors you must keep in mind when obeying the Ride on Red law. Read on to learn what these are.
What Does Pennsylvania’s Ride on Red Law Mean For Me?
The Ride on Red law applies to all vehicles, but it is not an excuse to treat any red light like a stop sign. The red light must be deemed as malfunctioning.
The benefit to motorists is that you will no longer be stuck at a malfunctioning red light, unsure of how you may legally proceed. This law allows motorists to use common sense to safely and legally drive through a red light, if the situation applies.
The Ride on Red law does not specify how long a vehicle must be waiting at a red light before it’s considered to be malfunctioning. Rather, PennDOT and the Pennsylvania State Police simply encourage motorists to use common sense. For example, look for a signal that is completely dark, frozen or goes through several cycles without giving you a green light. In such instances, use your best judgement and proceed through the intersection as you would if the light was a stop sign.
How Does The Ride on Red Law Work?
To further explain how to safely and legally use the Ride on Red law, here are several steps to follow:
- Fully assess the situation and use common sense to determine if the stop light is malfunctioning and/or not recognizing the presence of your vehicle.
- Wait until all other cars who have the green light proceed through the intersection.
- Check the intersection for any other approaching vehicles or pedestrians who may be crossing the street.
If clear, cautiously proceed through the intersection.
Improvement to Traffic Laws in Pennsylvania
The Ride on Red law provides a practical solution for a problem many Pennsylvanians are running into. Though originally developed for motorcyclists who are often unable to trigger a signal’s vehicle-detection system, the law has expanded to benefit all vehicles, even horse-drawn buggies. The critical point to remember is to use common sense and good judgement when following the Ride on Red law.
As Pennsylvania continues to look for ways to improve the Commonwealth’s traffic laws, we can anticipate more changes to the law to occur. If you have a question or case related to traffic laws in Pennsylvania, please contact us today to further discuss your matter with our experienced traffic ticket lawyer.
In your second paragraph you said “if it’s vehicle detection system fails to recognize you.” Please change it’s to its otherwise your sentence reads “if it is vehicle detection system fails to recognize you.” A professional website should use proper grammar. Thank you
In response to the previous comment by Mel, you're (or if you prefer, you are) wrong. Please proofread your own comments and corrections more thoroughly in the future. That sentence is referring to the traffic signal and the associated malfunctioning vehicle detection system. So yes, "it's" is not correct as it is a contraction meaning "it is." We need to make "it" (the traffic signal) possessive, therefore the correct word is "its" (not it is and not it's).
"Pennsylvania’s Ride on Red law allows for any vehicle (car, bicycle, motorcycle, even a horse and buggy) to proceed with caution at an intersection if the traffic signal is malfunctioning or if it’s vehicle-detection system fails to recognize you. In this scenario, the signal should be treated like a stop sign."
You provided the correct arguement on "its" as possessive and then proceced to revert back to the incorrect form "it's) which is ONLY for the contraction. The possesive of it IS its without an apostrophe; so the writer (Mel) is correct.
By the way: This new law is very problematic. I appealeda fine for "failure to stop" (after I had waited and followed proper procedure) at an erratically functioning light and the judge ruled against me since he said "If it operates with long waits sometimes and you knew that, then that iIS its regular operation. (His interpretation). No evidence presented as to HOW that light triggered nor knowledge by officer as to how long I had sat at light. He had to speed up to get behind me to stop me.
Clients should be warned that this can happen.
Guess it's too late to appeal and I don't have that kind of money to hire further representation.
Always thought determination of operationality was up to driver if all else procededas per law.
So… Why hasn't this page been updated with the correct word by now?
When and how was the law officially expanded from cycles to cars?
Mel was correct the whole time. They still never fixed it lmao
Got a 100 dollar fine even i did not go through light