It would've saved her time had she been as fast at peddling as you. Still, you're right- my mate is an rlj-er and I pointed out the increased risk of death thing as I passed him on a hill. He's stopped now!
I've never understood the safety claim though. Fair enough if you squeeze and barge your way to the front of the traffic and want to be away before everyone else, then there's a chance it may be safer but it would have been much safer to have held your place in the traffic queue. Then I got one today, I was sat in a completely clear ASL when a guy on a mountain bike comes past me and sits as far out into the junction as he can get without being hit. The lights change, he sets off at oh .5 of a mile per hour and cuts right across my path!!!! I don't understand what he gained apart from a very large, swearing cyclist behind him.
There are without doubt junctions where it is safer to jump a red light than to take your chances in the traffic. Anyone who doubts this should check out the East India Dock Road/Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach in Poplar.
Got to admire her articulate responces tho, I would have ignored you and ridden on. she sopund pretty witty and smart, odd then that she chooses to ignore the logic
We don't have a reputation. We're the out-group in a public space that is conceived, designed, maintained, populated, monitored and brokered by and for car drivers. We'll only be accepted when we're driving cars. "You all jump red lights" has about as much relevance and justification as tropes such as "They're all lazy" or "They all smell" do when talking about people with black skin, and modifying our behaviour in response to it is futile. If I need to RLJ to stay safe, I will. My priority is getting home to my family safely, not what some drivers might think about some cyclists.
Let's hope you don't jump the light in front of the muppet that thinks "Why should I give them any consideration when they don't obey the law?" and knocks you under the wheels of a passing truck as he/she speeds past too close then. It's pure laziness/selfishness that makes people RLJ, nothing else. There are a miniscule number of junctions where RLJing could possibly be deemed to be safer, but I would argue that hanging back a couple of cars in these instances would be safer still. There may also be a few instances when an idiot behind you "forces" you to jump due to them gunning it in their car, but this cannot (IMO) be used as a valid excuse for regularly and blatantly ignoring the laws for your own benefit. Each to their own though it seems.
Well as a never RLJ, I have become in 3 weeks and regular RLJ cyclist. My reason is my own safety. Here in Naples, the traffic light discipline is very poor. If you stop at the front of a light, you find yourself in Wacky Races as soon as the lights change. Drivers do not keep to lane discipline, so a driver in the middle lane will turn left or right and vice versa. So,I find myself either holding back a couple of cars and keeping myself in the middle of the lane or if I am at the front, slowly crossing the light when on red. It works and no one is upset or toots a horn. But, having spent most of my cycling time in UK, and I acknowledge the road discipline is completely different, I support sticking to the law in UK.
I get a lot of that from cyclists who cut me up badly. I find it completely infuriating - pretending they haven't done anything and they haven't heard me being cross about it. I know I shouldn't have but one time someone did that to me, I just caught up with him and did to him what he'd done to me. I wouldn't have minded if he could have acknowledged what he'd done.
Well the bad news is that it's only going to get worse. The annual 2 wheeled migration is well underway around here. I guess it's worse this year due to fuel prices. While i welcome the sight of more cyclists, there is an inevitable rise in pavement cycling, RLJing and undertaking. Cycling's a bit unusual in that the common perception is that if you can ride a bike then you are a competent cyclist; that there is no roadcraft involved. So it is something that everybody, including children can do, but not many can do well, or safely.
RLJing is purely about selfishness, not safety. The rest of your point about being an unaccepted out group is fair though.
