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Traffic Lights Violations

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Abstract

Traffic light running is a violation of Highway Code that endangers the offender as well as other road users. The consequences of crash risk induced by this reckless behavior can be interpreted as a social cost and call for public intervention. Several tools are available for policy makers to enforce traffic light obedience. However, the cost of public intervention must be in line with the social cost of violations.

Although there is a sizable literature dealing with traffic light running, researchers generally focus on the predictors of such behavior and the impact of the countermeasures. This entry presents a literature overview from an economic perspective and proposes an economic analysis of traffic light violations and their regulation.

The author thanks E. Kemel for comments and suggestions on a previous version. The usual caveat applies.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Paris Est and IFSTTAR, Noisy-le-Grand, France

    Laurent Carnis

Authors
  1. Laurent Carnis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laurent Carnis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Carnis, L. (2019). Traffic Lights Violations. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_588

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