Restricting Right Turns on Red

[bravado]

I believe it comes from the unspoken belief that a significant percentage of drivers are not competent to be behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

I don't think I understand the argument being made here. Do higher and further signals accommodate bad drivers?

Aside from near-side signals forcing drivers to stay behind the stop bar, are there other advantages? And wouldn't keeping your eyes focused on a point before the intersection be worse for context gathering than focusing on the far side which brings the entire intersection within your focus? Near side signals are also often still up high forcing you look up at an even further angle away from the road, or off to the side again forcing your eyes away from the full intersection.

I don't want to derail the whole thread - but in "Europe", the lights are much more likely to be physically positioned at the stop line. Drivers need to be looking very near their car to get instructions and are therefore more aware of pedestrians and cyclists physically nearby. Also, if the light is positioned at the stop line, you can't creep past the line and cover the crosswalk because the light will be behind you and you won't know when to go again. Our current light placement encourages people to creep forward and not pay attention to anything in the nearest crosswalk - because they're looking elsewhere (and not even looking at pedestrian-level).

Here's a few examples of European traffic lights that are positioned up close to the stop line. You really can't creep into the intersection if the light is physically behind you.