Yellow rule at road junctions making mainland drivers see red

A new traffic regulation came into effect on New Year's Day as part of efforts to improve shameful conditions on the road.

But the grumbling is just getting started. Members of the public complain that the new rule will almost certainly worsen already chronic traffic jams.

The rule makes yellow lights at a traffic junction functionally the same as red lights, so drivers get penalised with six demerit points if they cross the stop line after the yellow comes on.

Discussions online were heated, with furious drivers calling it "the strictest traffic regulation in history". Searches for "new traffic light rule" - now a buzz phrase circulating on the microblog service Sina Weibo - were among the most popular on the mainland's largest search engine, Baidu.

Three days after the rule was introduced, the China Daily said one key complaint was that it increased the likelihood of rear-end collisions because drivers would have to brake suddenly to avoid running yellow lights, which previously served as a signal of the imminent red lights.

Even the state-run Xinhua news agency was critical, saying on its weibo that while the intent of the regulation was to better respect life, "small loopholes in the rule are hurting the public".

The Jinan Daily, based in Shandong , said it was technically almost impossible to stop a vehicle before the stop line at a junction when the traffic lights turned to yellow. It quoted experts who said a car needed at least 15 metres to stop.