Drivers! Stop pointlessly racing ahead to red lights! Instead, race ahead to red lights with purpose!

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Background:

Many automobile drivers enjoy zipping around other cars and rushing ahead to a red light as fast as possible (Figure 1), then slamming on the brakes and waiting for other cars to catch up.

Fig. 1: The car shown here is recklessly zooming toward the red light. But even if it arrives at the stoplight before any other drivers, this effort remains tragically unacknowledged by society at large. It’s not like there’s a gold trophy (hypothetically illustrated at top left) waiting for the first car to make it to the red light.

It’s surprising that people are so motivated to drive like maniacs to reach a red light, since there’s no prize for doing so. Let’s solve that problem!

Proposal:

In order to ensure that a particularly zippy driver gets the accolades they deserve, let’s convert every stoplight into a finish line for an impromptu car race.

This could be implemented with the power of computer vision: a camera mounted on each stoplight could detect the first car to reach the red light and then display a congratulatory message on an attached screen (e.g. “FIRST PRIZE WINNER! 2019 Blue Ford Focus with Nevada license plate 55CAR123”). See a possible implementation in Figure 2.

Fig. 2: Here, the top three cars to reach the red light would receive some recognition. (The race standings would be cleared every time the light changed—approximately once every couple of minutes, for most lights—so recognition would be somewhat fleeting, as is all earthly glory).

Maybe the system could even keep track of the red light race winners on a more permanent basis, too. If a driver kept winning red light races, they could be eligible for special awards (like having their driver’s license auto-renew for another year) or discounts on insurance (Figure 3).

Fig. 3: A financial incentive to zoom up to red lights would help motivate drivers to be more competitive and situationally-aware.

Conclusion:

Look for this feature to be implemented in some sort of lawless Mad-Max-esque wasteland near you!

PROS: Should encourage drivers to maintain and tune up their cars for maximum performance in red light races.

CONS: Might slightly increase tire wear.

Originally published 2025-07-28.