Rights Turns On Red Cause Tumult For Exchange Students

by ZHANG LINGXI - Guest columnist to LBTMs. Lingxi at work as a lab technician in the Chemistry Dept. of Santa Marino College.

I shall be straightforward about the subject.  Red means stop; green means go.  No?  We can all agree with this in harmony, yet so, so many drivers seem to want me to turn right when the light is red.  But red means…  Stop!

This is why right turns on red scare me so much, even if the rules say red means “go!” in this one time.  I think if the light is red, I should be stopping.  Other cars can be coming from other directions.  I cannot see them all when they are coming.  Sometimes it is hard to know that I should go right on red – because red means “stop!”  How can red ever mean “go” if it means “stop”?  Since I started studies my eyes not so good.

Sometimes when other drivers honk their horns at me, it makes me feel in conflict.  I cannot go because the light is red.  I cannot see if another car will be turning in front of me.  In my mind, red means “stop!”

Ms. Lingxi is an exchange student from Zhejiang Province, China attending Santa Marino College during the Spring semester.