Why is it considered a taboo to go on red lights but...

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but other driving offences are viewed by society as less serious? If you treat a red light like a stop sign, I would say it is pretty safe if it is not a busy intersection.

Think about it, it is common to see (or perhaps you do these while driving) the following...
-Driving over speed limit
-Rolling stop signs
-Changing lanes or turning without signaling
-Driving in wrong direction in a parking lot

Out of all these offenses, why is it that I (and probably many people) have this gut feeling that it is so wrong to go on a red light? Perhaps society tells us that it is so wrong but why? I agree that things like drinking and driving is way more dangerous than these stuff, but going on a red light doesn't seem exceptionally dangerous.

I try not to go over the speed limit. If I see I am, I slow down.
I do a complete stop.
I don't find it necessary if I am the only car on the road
I am guilty of this, it's that I am not paying attention to the arrows on the ground and I am fully aware of the direction just by the way parking spaces are angled.


People do get speeding tickets for speeding, people do get pulled over for doing a rolling stop. I mean people look both ways as they stop and then they keep going without doing a complete stop when they saw no cars coming.

It's dangerous to drive through a red light because you could cause an accident and even be involved in it. Even if it's at night and the light is red and there are hardly any cars, it's still dangerous to go through a red light because you never know there could be a car coming.

Ya, obvious I knew that. Running through a red light without slowing down is plain stupid. I mean if you treat the red light like a stop sign. If you stop at the red light and see no cars coming on the street with green lights. It happens all the time especially at night time but you never (or rarely) see a driver treat a red light like a stop sign. They always wait unitl light turns green.

Yeah, I have noticed this. Red lights, I'll admit, could be treated like stop signs and there wouldn't be many problems. That is, if you're sitting alone at a red light it wouldn't hurt to go through it if there is no cross traffic. Though, not wanting to wait seems immaturely impatient for no real gain. The other laws, however should be heeded.

A couple months ago I got hit by a car at an intersection when I was on my bike. Instead of stopping behind the sign and crosswalk area, the driver of the car thought it would be a good idea to run me the f**k over. Ok, there was no real damage except for that to my bike and a weak/sore thumb joint for a few weeks. Still... if I had had a stop sign for me, on my bike, I would have stopped because I'm not, well, a complete ignoramus.

what's so hard to understand; you get a ticket if you're caught, or that someone can T-bone you into oblivion?...

Someone can also T-bone you if you don't treat a stop sign properly either. My point was I don't see how it is too dangerous to treat a red light like a stop sign for a not-so-busy intersection.

The thing you're mentioning is common in the area that I live.
There are some people that treating red lights like stop signs.
But, those people also pass the red light without looking around.
For example, you wait on a redlight in front of a roundabout, then when your light turns into green, you try to go, but it's not so easy.
Some people come and pass their red lights without waiting a second, and you also wait for them after your time in front o red light.
So it's like getting everone else's rights.

People must be wait in red lights.

I used to drive a cab at night, and I was often the only car anywhere in sight at a traffic light. Nevertheless, and just like I had observed even police officers always doing unless they had sirens and their own lights blazing, I always "obeyed" the red light.

Yes, that occasionally seemed quite silly, but a red light and a stop sign do not present the same circumstances. At a red light, cross-traffic *always* has the right-of-way and I *never* have a right to cross that path (even though I can enter onto it by turning right if the way is clear). At a stop sign, however, I *can* cross that path as long as other factors are first considered. So then, all of this is about a specific "theory of mind" for traffic movement and safety, and to violate it can only threaten the "life, liberty or property" of everyone involved, including myself. Remember, cars really can "come out of nowhere" at any time of day or night, and especially at a red light!