US pedestrian deaths are soaring. Is it time to ban right turns on red lights?

Nearly fifty years after the federal government pushed for looser rules, cities across the country are considering a change

For the past 50 years, red-blooded Americans have enjoyed a freedom the Founding Fathers hardly dreamed of: the ability to turn right on a red light. But with pedestrian fatalities at a four-decade high, a movement is afoot to change that.

This month, San Francisco supervisors unanimously voiced support for a ban on right-on-red. Last year, the practice was banned in Cambridge, Massachusetts. New York has long barred it, Denver could soon, and Washington DC has taken steps toward a ban. Seattle, meanwhile, has made no-right-on-red the city's default" policy at new traffic signals. A growing media chorus agrees it's time for change.