by Brad Anderson
- New blue lights are quietly appearing at select intersections.
- The lights activate only during certain moments in traffic cycles.
- Red light violations remain a major safety problem nationwide.
Many motorists seem to treat traffic lights as optional, barreling through red lights without a care in the world. In a bid to clamp down on red light runners, authorities in Florida have started adding new blue lights to certain intersections across the state.
Fortunately, this update won’t require anyone to relearn the rules of the road. These new lights are for law enforcement use only.
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The new blue lights, referred to as ‘confirmation lights’ by police, are mounted on poles above the standard red, yellow, and green signals Importantly, these blue lights are only activated when the signal they’re attached to has a red light.
What Do They Actually Do?
So, if a police officer is stationed on the opposite side of an intersection and can’t clearly see whether the light is red, they just need to glance up at the confirmation light. If it’s blue and a vehicle has passed through the intersection, it means the driver likely ran a red light.
These lights are currently in use in Gainesville, Fort Myers, Orlando, and across Collier County, and they’ve already appeared in other parts of the US over the years. States like Colorado, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Kansas have also adopted the system.
While they be a little confusing to some local drivers, and especially visitors, the blue confirmation lights aren’t something regular motorists need to pay attention to.
According to WUFT, the confirmation lights are making intersections safer for both drivers and officers. Florida law enforcement says they’re also proving effective at catching more red light violators.
Running red lights is far from a rare offense. In fact, it’s responsible for a troubling number of crashes across the country. Jalopnik reports that in 2023 alone, 1,086 people were killed in red light-related accidents.
That same year, an additional 136,000 people were injured in similar incidents, underscoring how dangerous, and common, this behavior remains.
