3 Weekends Left Of Cdl School

Hi, my name is Shawn. I am at a private cdl school in NEPA. I am in the weekend program. I have completed 118 hours out of 160. Weather permitting, I will be finished in 3 more weekends. I am in my mid 40s & making a career change. The question I am asking is for the road test. So far I have only driven 3x's in an industrial park each lasting about 30min. I feel that is not enough driving time. So on the 3rd time I got to drive back to the school. I have the shifting down OK with the 10 speed transmission. I am stopped at an intersection with a red light waiting to make a right turn. I will be starting in 3rd, then shifting to 4th before the intersection. As soon as I shifted the light turned yellow. Way to fast. The instructor told me to go, so by the time I got to the light it was already red. This is bothering me. How does a person deal with a fast changing light, especially on a real road test that could fail you like in my situation ?

I was asking how to deal with a yellow light. If anyone has any input I would appreciate it. Just some tips on when your at a red light either going straight, left or right and you know that when it turns green for a short period what would you do to handle it? I was in 3rd to start.

That question may he better geared in the "general" area of the forum. Many more people read there than this area.

I like to look at the crosswalk signal (if it has one). Alot of them have a count down, otherwise take 8 to 10 seconds to change to yellow after the do not walk starts flashing. As far as knowing whether or not to go through the light as long as your front bumper is in the intersection when it changes to red you're technically not running a red light. If you have enough space, or going slow enough when it changes yellow then stop for red. As I approach an intersection I am thinking to myself where my "point of no return is" so I will know immediately whether I'm going on yellow or not. I've had a couple times I've planned on going through the yellow light but somebody turning right decided to turn on red and caused me to hard brake.

There are several things I do...

Above all else I am always prepared to stop. In traffic, roads that have lots of intersections I am 5mph under the speed limit at all times.

If possible gauge how "stale" the light is; if you are a 1/4 mile away and it's green, by the time you approach it might turn to yellow.

Many lights on busy urban and suburban highways are tripped by vehicles in the streets adjacent to the intersection. If there is no stopped traffic on either side street of the intersection, it's more likely to remain green as you approach.

Remember lights are timed from yellow to red based on the speed limit. The lower the limit, the quicker it turns from yellow to red.

If possible, always stop if you can do so safely. I would show much caution if you're doing a road test. Good rule of thumb to remember is that it takes greater than 20 seconds to make a turn and clear an intersection from a dead stop.