Restricting Right Turns on Red

[neonjoe]

I was stopped at a red light recently. Stopped behind the line, checked both directions. Crept forward into the pedestrian crossing and stopped again. Checked to my left and was ready to proceed when  I checked right one more time, just as a pedestrian stepped into the crossing inches from my bumper. I had not previously seen them. Luckily I’m a careful driver. A large number of drivers would not have been as cautious and most likely would have hit them.

Defensive driving is about looking constantly at your surroundings. This should be the norm, but unfortunately it is not. This is one of the reasons why I am in favour of the change (event though I am a car enthusiast, but I cycle too). Too many drivers are robots and only look at the light or do not look at their surroundings, too many are distracted and have no awareness of what is around them. At least training them to completely wait by a red light instead of blasting through it, turning right, may cut down on some incidents.
Nonetheless, it seems like about 30-40% of the time when I exit the highway at Fischer-Hallman from 7-8 WB the cars in the far right lane do not adhere to the no right on red sign, if it becomes universal perhaps the adherence may increase.