Mitch Terrusa

Skill # 4  The Point of No Return

 

The most dangerous place on the road is in the intersection.  Nearly half of all accidents happen at intersections and over half of those  involve a left turn.  The most common accident involves a left hand turn at an intersection. 

 

When is the most dangerous time at an intersection? 

 

When the light is changing, of course. 

 

Why?  Because people waiting to make a left hand turn are trying to clear the intersection because they will soon be in the path of the cars with the new green light.  This is a time when there is a real “On-your-mark, get-set, GO!” attitude for the left-turn drivers. 

 

The comic Gallagher used to joke that, “If I am waiting to turn left, when the light turns yellow, it’s MINE:  I paid for it with my GREEN!” 

 

At the same time there is the same “Can I make it through the light before I get stuck at the red” attitude going on in the minds of the drivers who are approaching a ‘stale’ green light. A stale green light is a green light that has been green long enough to change to yellow at any moment.

 

So what do some people do?  That’s right -- they hit the gas to make the green or yellow light. 

 

They speed up in the most dangerous place at the most dangerous time with a foot on the gas!

 

Guilty?  Yeah, well most of us are, occasionally.  The average driver makes one ticketable mistake a mile.  The odds of a bad habit catching up to you increase with the frequency of its exercise.   Some people always do it.   THIS is an accident waiting to happen. 

 

You see it often – people hit the gas because they don’t know if they have enough time to get through the light.  Some drivers are indecisive and slam on their brakes when they discover they will not make it – sometimes skidding into the intersection.  It’s a wild world out there! 

 

You do not control anyone but yourself, so how do you keep yourself protected going through an intersection? 

First some things you need to know to understand:

 

-At 30 miles per hour you are traveling at 44 feet per second.

-A normal yellow light will stay yellow for at least 3 seconds

-In that time you will travel 132 feet.

 

Understanding that, if you pick a point that is about 100 feet (that’s one normal light pole or two houses each on 50 foot lots) from the intersection and make that the “Point of No Return” you accomplish several things:

 

1. You eliminate indecision.  At that point you commit to going through the intersection safely.

 

2. You can do so safely without hitting the gas because you know that you can cover the brake and look left and right and coast through the intersection and be well into the intersection (132’ – 100’ = 32’ into the intersection) and have plenty of time to go through safely by the time the light turn red.

 

3. Safety is increased and stress is reduced.

 

Described precisely, The Point of No Return is the point you must reach before the light turns yellow or you will stop – but once reached you have plenty of time to go through the intersection safely covering you brake and looking left and right. 

 

It’s a peaceful thing once mastered.  The Point of No Return is 100 feet from the intersection limit line at 30 miles per hour. If you are going faster,  your Point of No Return has to be further from the intersection.  At 40 miles per hour the Point of No Return is 132 feet. Roughly 30 feet more per 10 miles per hour increase. 

 

I like to make a game of it.  At 30 miles per hour, unless I get to The Point of No Return –100 feet from the intersection - by the time the light turns yellow - I’m going to stop. 

 

Sometimes I reverse it – If I get to The Point of No Return before the light turns yellow I’m going through.  Either way works fine – just don’t speed up to get to the Point of No Return.