This week I went on a three-hour driver education course, mandated as I had run a red light a while back. I had to do the same course about five and a half years ago and for the same reason, for running a red light. The course is excellent, as it focuses on giving participants time to reflect on their actions as a driver and to learn.
Clearly, though, I had failed to learn sufficiently the last time I did this course, as I committed the same offence a few years later.
Now, drivers in different countries may have a different traffic light sequence than the one above, this is the one for the UK.
What was it I still had to learn then? Simply, to get past my “what’s worked” bias whereby I would occasionally go through a traffic light when it turns to amber, and to remember that the highway code, the law, says that amber actually means STOP. It does not mean “I can go through as long as I get through before it turns to red”.
Ultimately the course is designed to have us focussed on self-responsibility, not blaming others.
In my case, I accept responsibility for the fact that I did not stop on amber.