Caught by the fuzz

[Jezston]

There are controlled pedestrian crossings continuously along the main street through Derby 'city' center. It's a bit annoying because often I end up hitting red on all of them and there's no pedestrians using them. I'd personally prefer it if they were all zebra crossings, but I would expect they are there more as traffic calming measures - plenty of people stepping out without looking, old folks tottering across at about 1 step per 3 seconds, and if traffic was tearing through there at a continuous 30mph+ I'd imagine it would be carnage. A particular road is supposed to be busses, taxis and bikes only but most of the traffic I observe on it during my commute isn't.

I still stop - why not? If you really find stopping, unclipping and starting again really pisses you off that much why are you riding a bike? Surely there are worse 'inconveniences' to riding a bike like hills and wind than having to stop and start again occasionally?

 

[karlos_the_jackal]

Wow,

it is a can of worms.

I think obviously there is a grading of people

Those that don't ever

Those that do on the off chance when reveiwing road conditions (ped crossings only) ( this was me) i'm now going back to my default position of don;t ever.

Those that do several times on ped crossings.

Those that do on ped crossings and rarley on junctions

Those that do all the time.

Even if you don;t look at it from a road offence prospective, if you were to hit somebody whilst RLJ'ing or was hit by somebody you would be found negligent or contributory negligence if hit.

 

[taxing]

I find that I don't hit enough red lights on my commute. I could do with more chances to stop and take my jacket off, or put my gloves on, or what have you.

 

[summerdays]

Someone will be along to make a more qualified reply, but I understand this is fine as technically the light is 'faulty'?

I wonder if it is worth reporting such lights? Not sure how they work, but there are sensor lights I use which work very well with bikes (especially on the bit of bike path around a major 4 lane a-road roundabout where it turns the lights RED for you to cross as you approach!) which appear to be indicated by odd diagonal black lines on the surface. Is it a big job to fix? I guess it's always worth asking - they certainly won't fix it if you don't.

I have reported a set that refuse to operate for me, but work fine for cars and a year on (reported more than once) they are still set the same. It's on a cross-roads and if there aren't any cars from this direction then they don't even turn green. Most of the time the road is sufficiently busy that it doesn't matter, but every now and again, I pull up at the lights, sit there, sit there etc and suddenly realise that the traffic coming from the opposite direction is turning right, which happens after my lights should have been green and turned back to red. I then jump the lights when safe.

 

[summerdays]

As for why the people who jump lights so, well some of them that tend to be the very slow ones, have probably got the bike set up incorrect - pedalling with their knees up near their ears, and aren't very fit, perhaps returned to cycling recently and they've noticed that other cyclists do it so why shouldn't they. For them the loss of momentum and getting going again is seen as huge affect on their travelling time/effort. There are other groups that jump the lights as well but that's probably the ones I have a bit of sympathy for.

 

[Jezston]

Jezston, on 24 September 2010 - 10:32:23, said:

There are controlled pedestrian crossings continuously along the main street through Derby 'city' center. It's a bit annoying because often I end up hitting red on all of them and there's no pedestrians using them. I'd personally prefer it if they were all zebra crossings, but I would expect they are there more as traffic calming measures - plenty of people stepping out without looking, old folks tottering across at about 1 step per 3 seconds, and if traffic was tearing through there at a continuous 30mph+ I'd imagine it would be carnage. A particular road is supposed to be busses, taxis and bikes only but most of the traffic I observe on it during my commute isn't.

I still stop - why not? If you really find stopping, unclipping and starting again really pisses you off that much why are you riding a bike? Surely there are worse 'inconveniences' to riding a bike like hills and wind than having to stop and start again occasionally?

[QUOTE 1189622"]
Those in bold you have no control over. RLJing you do.
[/quote]

(I thought multiquote was fixed?)

Not sure if I'm missing your point from a mistake in enbolding there - if you meant to just enbolden the 'hills and wind' bit, I could argue that you do have control over the negative affects they have - you could ride a scooter, or even drive a car.

I find stopping at lights a barely registerable inconvenience to my riding. Often it's nice to stop for a sec, drink some fluids or whatnot without having to pull over. Horizontal rain, wind and steep hills however are often a serious unpleasantness - but I keep doing them because I like riding and sometimes I enjoy the challenge of harsh conditions.

We deal with all that. We deal with being sweaty, with being out of breath and so on - how can you be happy to deal with all of that and not be happy about the almost insiginificant inconvenience of having to stop occasionally?

 

[benb]

[QUOTE 1189621"]
Haha, someone who thinks that they know what I think!

And I don't excuse it, more give a logical reason as to why people RLJ.
[/quote]

Lee, will you stop being deliverately obtuse? Every time you have this discussion you freely admit to being a RLJ, and offer many excuses as to why you/other people do it. Now what conclusion do you expect me to come to if not that you think it is acceptable.

So, a simple question. Do you think that jumping red lights on a bicycle is acceptable behaviour? Yes or no?

 

[dav1d]

I'm afraid I also broke the rules today: Saw a chav on a bike with my bike light that was stolen, apart from being exclusive to EBC, it had the marks in the right place (from dropping it a few times), so gave chase, and as he was a chav, he went down a pavement, so I followed suit as if I'd stayed on the road, I couldn't have caught him (I didn't anyway, due to him probably living at one of the houses in the side street), unfortunately I lost him down a side street.

 

[benb]

[QUOTE 1189628"]
We are having a discussion now on this thread are we not?

Have I admitted to being a RLJer - I think not.

Acceptable? Depends on the circumstances. Of those there are simply to many to list.
[/quote]

This is why I find you so infuriating. Do you really want me to look up your old posts and show you where you've admitted to RLJ?

But thankyou for letting us know that you think RLJ is acceptable.

 

[Piemaster]

Anyone noticed if their local pelican crossing light sequences have changed? Locally there seem to be a growing number with junction type sequence: green-amber-red, then red-red/amber green NOT the more traditional red-flashing amber-green, which makes a damm sight more sense to me. I'm quite capable of deciding if someone is still crossing or not and waiting for them, or pedalling over if they sprinted across.

Whats the problem with anticipating crossings a little and rolling up to them - its just down to observation. If there are peds obviously waiting to cross the lights changing shouldn't be a huge surprise. Stop pedalling, slow down, and if I get it right the lights will change before I get there so no need to stop and unclip.

I have RLJ has, as with Summerdays, is ones that don't seem to recognise bikes, with a heap of caution applied, and a couple of pelicans on minor streets where I've seen the ped get bored waiting and cross anyway. Locations where a zebra would be better allround and light controlled crossings seem a bit overkill.

 

[cygnet]

"Anyone noticed if their local pelican crossing light sequences have changed?"

They have converted a few pelican and zebra crossings on my route to puffin ones - these don't have the traditional flashing amber phase of pelican crossings.

 

[Firestorm]

My Motorbike says Bicycle on the tax disc does that mean i don't have to stop at red lights if i don't want to ?