Flashing Red, Faded Paint, Rolling Cross Traffic
It is 9:40 p.m. and raining steadily as you head north on a two-lane street through Charlotte Amalie. A power dip an hour ago left the intersection ahead on backup power: your approach shows a single red light flashing, and the streetlight over the corner is out. The paint is worn - the stop bar is a ghost, the crosswalk lines are gone, and you cannot tell what the cross street's signal is showing. A sedan on the cross street is rolling toward the intersection at perhaps 8 mph, not stopping. On the near corner a person in dark clothing stands at the curb under the dead streetlight, facing the roadway. Your wipers are on high and the windshield is fogging at the edges.
1. What does a flashing red require of you, and exactly where do you stop when the stop bar and crosswalk have worn away?
Read the worked answer
A flashing red is a stop sign that never changes: a full stop, then proceed only when the way is clear. Flashing yellow, by contrast, means slow down and proceed with caution - it does not require a stop.
When the paint is gone, fall back on the purpose of the stop rather than the paint. Work through this order:
- Stop at the stop bar if you can find it (look for the scar in the asphalt where it was).
- Otherwise stop before the crosswalk area, marked or not.
- Otherwise stop at the corner, before your bumper enters the intersection.
Then creep forward until you can actually see down the cross street, and stop again if needed. Faded markings change where you stop, not whether you stop.
2. The sedan on the cross street is creeping. Do you take the gap?
Read the worked answer
No. A slow roll is not a yield, and you cannot see what signal the cross street is showing. Two possibilities:
- They have a flashing yellow. Then they have no legal obligation to stop, and their 8 mph means they are deciding whether to go - not that they are giving you the right of way.
- They also have a flashing red. Then the question is arrival order, not creeping speed. A rolling vehicle is often trying to manufacture priority; do not accept the trade.
Either way, the safe resolution looks the same: wait until the sedan has clearly committed - either stopped behind its own line or cleared the intersection. Eye contact and a hand signal are useful confirmation, never proof. If both of you hesitate, wave them through rather than risk a simultaneous lunge.
3. What is your plan for the pedestrian on the corner?
Read the worked answer
Assume they will cross. Dark clothing under a dead streetlight is nearly invisible until roughly 50 feet in low beam, which is well inside your stopping distance at any normal approach speed.
- Slow before the stop, not at it, so you are already at walking pace when you reach the corner.
- Stop short of the corner, leaving the crosswalk area clear.
- Keep low beams, not high. High beams in a pedestrian's eyes at close range destroy their night vision and can freeze them in place.
- Watch for the second person - pedestrians at night frequently travel in pairs, and the one behind the first is the one you never see.
Treat them as a pedestrian who has already stepped off the curb, and you will be right about half the time and safe all of it.