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Comment by jmnicolas | Hacker News Reader

Europe is not a country. In France a yellow gets you a fine. A red gets you a heftier fine and a penalty on your driving license points.

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I'm not sure if I misunderstand you, but that seems dangerous What if it changes to yellow just before you get to the line, are you supposed to slam on the breaks or risk getting a fine for going through on amber?

In the UK the amber means "prepare to stop" but only if you can do so safely. If you are too close to stop then you should carry on through (which should be safe as all other lights should be red at this point).

Yellow lights are in a gray area (pun intended ;-) You're supposed to stop safely but you're supposed to have "mastery of your vehicle" at all time.

So basically it all boils down to the mood of the cops. I would say it's not frequent to be fined for a yellow (never happened to me in more than 20 years of driving) but I'm pretty sure it would fail your driving license exam.

I think (but I'm not sure) that traffic light cameras only catch red lights.

Sorry I thought that the driving rules were the same all across the EU. We have the same fromat for licence permit even: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_driving_licence

Maybe the fines are different, not sure.

A moment's thought should show that's clearly wrong: they drive on the left in Ireland, Britain, Malta and Cyprus.

ainiriand said 'stop in safety conditions' which is also the law in France. The problem is proving you couldn't stop in safety conditions when you receive the fine.

> Article R412-31 du Code de la route. Vous devez obligatoirement vous arrêter au feu orange, sauf si cela doit vous conduire à un danger.

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