Effective today (Dec 1), motorcycle riders in North Carolina will be able to proceed through a red light, if they have waited for at least three minutes, and if it's safe to do so.

The new law is intended to deal with some traffic lights that have trouble detecting motorcycles. This is basically the same law I've been asking for here on BNO, for California.

According to the Burlington Times...

"Something needed to be done," said state Sen. Austin Allran, R-Catawba, who sponsored the bill. "It made no sense to force someone on a motorcycle to have to turn around and go back or run a red light and commit a crime."

Kudos to Sen. Allran.

Interestingly, the writer for the Burlington Times has some sort of bug up his butt about this new law, providing extra coverage on why it's going to be tougher to bust bikers who run red lights, because cops won't know if they've waited the full 3 minutes. But this new law only allows riders to pass through a red light if it's safe to do so.

A cop should be able to judge that.

Though I'm curious to know how this will work on intersections with cameras.

Labels: North Carolina Motorcycle Laws, Traffic Signals