Left on Red

This isn't something I've been told all my life but something I'd heard a few times and believed most of my life. Supposedly it is okay to turn left on a red light when you're turning from a one way street onto a one way street. To me it's always made sense, I mean when you turn from one way to another one way it's just like making a right hand turn really... so long as there's no traffic you're not going to be getting in the way of any other traffic seeing as they're all coming from only one direction. As for right turns on red, that's never even been an issue, you are always allowed to turn right on a red light unless there is a sign stating otherwise.

This morning I was running late to work, mostly because people are idiots when they get behind the wheel of their car and someone T-boned another car... I wont call it an accident because it's not really, but that's a topic for another time. Anyhow, so I'm running late and manage to make it through downtown without having to stop at but one traffic light. The lady in front of me turned and then put on her signal to make a right turn just as I did and so I thought great the redlight won't make me late (you must note usually when I get to this light there is always someone in the far right lane going straight so I don't get to turn right on the red light I have to sit and wait for the green). But as it turns out the lady in front of me STOPS. And that's it. She sits there with her blinker on to turn right and just stops and sits at the red light. I'm thinking well maybe she doesn't quite realize it so I sit there for a minute. Then the roadrage in me starts to come out and I start going DUDE GO ALREADY... why I didn't honk my horn I have no idea, I guess I was trying not to be a jerk. So here I am sitting behind a woman who just sits through the entire red light just so she can turn right.

Fuming when I get to work I decide to look up some information. I wanted to know if it was okay to turn left on red. Okay, follow my thought process here so you're not lost... I've always known it's okay for a right on red but I'd only heard and never looked into it on my own that it was okay to turn left on red. So as I'm sitting behind this moron at a red light waiting to turn right the thought pops into my head that I should look up the laws on red light turning when I get to work. Turns out a LOT of people believe that you don't turn right on a red light either. I had no idea. That's so odd to me as that has always been a given in my mind. So I found on the N&O's website a Q&A with a trooper about turns at the light and what's okay. Mostly he says that you can always turn right on red unless there is a sign saying otherwise and that there is NO time at all that you are allowed to turn left on red, in North Carolina. So, I guess I'm glad I never tried to turn left on a red light.