Red lights and some bikers grrrrrr!

[gavintc]

Well over here in Naples, red lights for cyclists are at best advisory. Most cyclists merely slow down, check the road and keep on going. Stopping for a red light is potentially more dangerous than not. When the light changes from red to green, the last place you want to be is on a bike near the front of the traffic queue. Even on a large club run without about 50 cyclists, at the weekend, we went through a couple of red lights. The motorised traffic acknowledges cyclists and allows them through without any horn tooting or complaint. Remarkably civilized and no one is in the slightest upset. They do love their cyclists.

 

[lpjr]

I commute about 28 miles to work once a week on my bike. On my morning trip which is between 5am and 6.45am I do not stop at many red lights. I treat them as a give way, if I stopped at all red lights my journey time would increase by 10 to 15 mins(Note, the only witnesses to my red light offences is early morning wild life). In a time when we should be cutting down on power usage I believe we could switch off 85% of all traffic lights between 9pm and 6am, reverting to give ways between these times. Through work I drive a lot at night and get fed up sitting a red lights in my car when there are no other vehicles on the road. Anyway, back to bikes and red lights. On my return journey when there is a lot more traffic I comply with red lights, but will still go through on red if there are no other vehicles in sight.

 

[potsy]

As I slowed for a red light yesterday a couple of 'the yoof' passed me on their MTB's and sailed straight through with hardly a glance.
Caught them up within 30 seconds or so, they then started to pull 'wheelies' down the middle of the road

This is through Stockport town centre which is fairly busy but not at rush hour.
Darwin will sort them out one day

 

[DrSquirrel]

As I slowed for a red light yesterday a couple of 'the yoof' passed me on their MTB's and sailed straight through with hardly a glance.
Caught them up within 30 seconds or so, they then started to pull 'wheelies' down the middle of the road

This is through Stockport town centre which is fairly busy but not at rush hour.
Darwin will sort them out one day

I think wheelies are probably another tactic to stop close passes from cars...

 

[Dan B]

I think that's what annoys and disappoints me, the fact that we cyclists won't be taken seriously if we don't take the rules of the road seriously.

You claim this as fact, but I doubt it very much. People who don't want to take cyclists seriously will find any excuse ("filtering", "don't pay road tax", "no insurance", "not keeping up with traffic", "going too fast") to do so and are not at all reliant on whether the cyclist jumps red lights.


It's just a stick to beat us with, but they have no shortage of other cudgels

 

[nasserblue]

but will still go through on red if there are no other vehicles in sight.

If no one saw you did you actually do it, or did you only imagine you did it.... doodoodoodoodoodoooooOOOOooooo

 

[Moodyman]

Why do some cyclists let the side down?

One day they'll let themselves down by not reading the road ahead properly and getting mowed down.

 

[Dan B]

Why do some cyclists let the side down?

Funny, I was asking myself the same question about motorists the other day. Car drivers will never be taken seriously until they start obeying the law.

 

[magnatom]

I posted this video in another thread, but it fits well in this one. Have a look at this and see if it adds to the debate.

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqg7WMR_YMU[/media]

 

[Fnaar]

i must say i do it from time to time, but only on pedestrian crossing where no pedestrian is crossing, i.e. when they finish or no one there.
Never do it on a vehicle crossing

Ditto for me

 

[summerdays]

Well last night I went down the A38 on the bus with my daughter (who insisted on sitting up stairs) and I was watching cyclists out of the front window, she commented on how many jump red lights so we started watching... we went through 21 sets of lights. At each set of lights there were normally 4-8 cyclists waiting going each direction and in all those sets of lights we saw 2 cyclists that jumped the lights - a very small percentage of the total number of cyclists seen. It wasn't the same set of cyclists either (going our direction) they were making better progress than the bus unfortunately. This was at 6pm and she conceded that most cyclists didn't jump the lights.

 

[benb]

I expect that Lee will be along shortly with some valuable insights.

 

[User482]

Are you trying to excuse cyclists who RLJ?

Motorists who go through red lights generally go through just after they have changed and not when pedestrians are already crossing.

RLJ cyclists regularly obstruct pedestrians; and the rest of us suffer for it.

Please don't create a strawman. I have never condoned RLJing.

But look at it this way - in a list of transport-related dangers to the public, how high would cyclist RLJing be? The whole thing gets far too much coverage, usually from motorists who wilfully engage in far more dangerous and stupid behaviour on a daily basis.

 

[Fish on a bike]

The original post was about cyclists not cars and the motorist versus cyclist debate is a non starter since many of us drive as well as bike. I think it's driving a car that's conditioned me from going through any red light! Further, I'd say car driving has made me a better biker as I know where drivers blind spots are and anticipate traffic conditions much further up the road.

A cyclist RLJ'ing can potentially cause just as much carnage as a car, it's just that he won't live to know about it afterwards.

Please don't create a strawman. I have never condoned RLJing.

But look at it this way - in a list of transport-related dangers to the public, how high would cyclist RLJing be? The whole thing gets far too much coverage, usually from motorists who wilfully engage in far more dangerous and stupid behaviour on a daily basis.

 

[Chutzpah]

@Chutzpah Sometimes at traffic lights there are red rectangles marked on the road for cyclists to line up ahead of the traffic, it's a pain when cyclists ahead of me don't use them and block me from reaching them. I admit if there's an artic or van I'll go past on the right if they're stationary and it's dual lane.

If I decide it's not safe to filter I will sit in the primary position. If anyone else decides for themselves that it is safe to filter they have plenty of room to go past me