Blue light special for red light runners

You might have noticed small but bright blue lights popping up on the backs of traffic signals around Puget Sound.

They just went in near my neighborhood in Snohomish County.

At first, I thought they had something to do with timing the lights to meet traffic demands at the intersection, like some kind of sensor. Then I was told by a friend they were sensors that police and fire trucks could use to switch the lights so they could cruise through an intersection in an emergency.

It turns out they’re really used for catching red light runners.

The blue light on the back comes on the instant the light in front turns red. So officers can watch for the blue light and bust people coming from the opposite direction.

“It’s a way for us to enforce people that run red lights without having to have some of the other electronic measures that people have taken,” said Doug Hansen, a commander with the Mountlake Terrace Police. “It’s a direct visual of the light turning red from the opposite side.”

Mountlake Terrace was one of the first cities in Puget Sound to use these lights. Commander Hansen said officers have been nabbing red light runners for nearly a decade.

“In the past, we didn’t have any way of knowing whether that was a yellow light or whether it was just going to be turning or whatever, but now we know that person is actually running the light if they enter the intersection after the blue light has come on.”

He said people were amazed that they were getting caught, but over time, Commander Hansen said drivers have clued in and stopped running lights.

Gary Cooper is the Public Works Director in University Place. That city has had the blue lights for a few years too.

“I have never had a single complaint,” he said. “I’ve had questions about what they were, but I’ve never had a single complaint about them.”

Cooper said the signals can be ordered with the blue lights installed or they can be put on existing signals. When signals need to be replaced, the city just adds the blue lights to them.

The lights are affectionately referred-to as “rat” lights or “tattle-tale” lights.

They are not used in Seattle, but they are used in Everett and other Puget Sound cities.

The one complaint I have heard about these lights from drivers is that they are a little distracting. They are very bright and very blue.