Right Turn On Red

For those who learned to drive more recently, you may not remember the days when a red light meant stop-and-wait for all cars.  The idea behind right-turn-on-red was that it allowed cars that were making the turns of lowest conflict to make those turns in spite of a red light IF THE INTERSECTION CLEARED.  So if there wasn't anyone coming, you could turn right on a red light.

The problem now is, many drivers consider the right-on-red to be equal to the right-of way for traffic with a green light, pulling out in front of on-coming traffic or expecting a 1:1 merge if traffic is slow.  This creates a much greater potential for car crashes and needs to be corrected in driver-training.

Right-on-Red is the lowest priority traffic move at an intersection - even below U-turns unless signage indicates that the conflicting U-turn is prohibited or that it has to yield to cars turning right on red.  If the right-turn-on-red maneuver will bring the car into the path of cars with a higher right-of-way value, then it is illegal at that point: right turn on red is only legal when traffic is clear.