Recently I moved up to Salt Lake City. This is the first
summer I’ve spent in Utah since the summer after my high school graduation. It’s
awesome not having to uproot and go somewhere new. Last summer I got to live in
AZ. Which some of you might be thinking “Arizona? That’s such a great place, I’m
sure jealous!” I’m here to tell you that you’re right. Late September thru May,
you’re absolutely right. The summers are way too hot. Unless you are literally
in the pool, it’s too hot to do just about anything outdoors except between the
hours of midnight at 6am. But I digress.
Arizona is a great place to live and there are a lot
of interesting things to do and see there. If you’ve ever been to Arizona you
know that they have decided to use cameras as policemen at intersections and on
the freeway. Utah is not this way. For that reason alone, Utah is superior.
In Arizona, anyone crossing an intersection when the light is red, will be caught. There is no
grace period.
Last week I was riding in the car with my buddy Drew, and he
was coming up on a yellow light. Odds are the light would’ve been red before we
got thru the intersection. But it would have been barely red. I asked him why
he didn’t try to make the light he defended it by saying “That light was TOO
red.” This was an interesting idea. Apparently there are shades of red on a
stop light. I’ve been guilty of using the “it’s ok, it was pink” justification
when going thru a red light. So my point is this. When is a red light TOO red
to get thru? Obviously yellow is cool to plow thru, and green means go. But red
generally means STOP! But what about Light Red? Does it even exist on a
stoplight? If so, what about Light Cherry Red No. 5? Is Orange ok but we cross
the line at Orange Red No. 6? When does a light become “too red?” Technically
passing a red light is against the law. But then again, so is driving over the
speed limit. So again I ask, what is "too red?"
Driving a car is cool, you can literally break the law every
single day and not even feel guilty. Just be careful, because it doesn’t carry over into other
aspects of life. Cops might give warnings for 5 over, or running a red light, but you
can't just kill someone a little bit, or just barely steal. So don’t do that.
