there's a gray area...well...it's actually kinda red

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.