RLJ-ing: A Minority Pastime?

[dodd82]

In France many lights turn to flashing amber - proceed with caution. However for the speeding motorist approaching a green or amber flashing traffic light, it can strangely turn to red. Hidden just out of sight will be a couple of gendarmes waiting to nick the speeder if he/she fails to slow and jumps the red light.

Sounds about as fair as having a stretch of average speed cameras on das autobahn

 

[Scruffmonster]

You are claiming that there have been various studies to support your view so you provide evidence or links to them. Jeees ............

No. We're not talking in absolute terms. It's a change of conciousness, you either open yourself up to a different way of looking at something, or you don't. It's reasoned, intellectual, debate.

Switch it up this way, if traffic lights had never been invented, you'd never get them onto streets now. Not a chance.

EDIT::: This is the first google result worth a read. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7187165.stm - It doesn't cover everything, it's very lightweight, but it's somewhere to start if it piques your interest.

 

[J.Primus]

You are claiming that there have been various studies to support your view so you provide evidence or links to them. Jeees ............

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=removing-roads-and-traffic-lights

Another kind of anarchy could actually speed travel as well—namely, a counterintuitive traffic design strategy known as shared streets. The practice encourages driver anarchy by removing traffic lights, street markings, and boundaries between the street and sidewalk. Studies conducted in northern Europe, where shared streets are common, point to improved safety and traffic flow.

Also

http://thecityfix.com/blog/naked-streets-without-traffic-lights-improve-flow-and-safety/

 

[summerdays]

I've never really understood the argument I've heard many make that they are safer jumping lights and that they believe they are going to get rear ended if they ever stop, and suchlike.

If they really feel they are in so much danger continuously riding their bike on the road that they need to consistently flout the law to feel slightly safer, I wonder why they ride a bike on the road at all.

Whilst I don't do it, there are a number of times when I've stopped and the car behind me has gone through the red light, by going around me. Sometimes I do worry that they are going to assume that I'm going.

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

Not being flippant but last week I heard a chap on the radio talk about his daughter who has Asperger's, her condition was overlooked for years but eventually diagnosed. He said he was worried for her future because she has no sense of danger.

Maybe there's a low level autism with some people, that's more common than we realise, who take these risks and can't see any kind of consequence...

I get this.I spent hours walking through Bangkok today in the p1551ng rain looking for a railway station.In the end I got well lost and in desperation I hopped onto a moped,riding as pillion passenger with a heavy suitcase.I don't think I would ever do it again and if I was driving it i wouldn't ride at 50mph while my pillion passenger carried a suitcase.Madness,pure madness.Must admit it though I got a bit of a thrill from it.

 

[Jezston]

Three incidents entirely the motorists' faults. In no way related to my riding style, I was stationary for two of them. Ok I've been unfortunate to meet such a run of bad luck, but two out of these three meet your criteria for getting rear ended. So maybe your holier than thou attitude is protecting you from stuff like this but I'll take my chances where I get them.

I've no idea what you've just said has anything to do with what I said. Are you saying that if you had RLJ'd in those instances you wouldn't have been hit?

 

[nigelnorris]

I've no idea what you've just said has anything to do with what I said. Are you saying that if you had RLJ'd in those instances you wouldn't have been hit?

I'm saying that taking the gaps when they come reduces the chances of such things happening.

[You're just being obtuse trying to pin it down to individual instances but since you started it, one of those incidents was a collision when someone ran into the back of me when I stopped at a set of lights, so in fact, if I hadn't stopped but had sailed right through then yes you're right I wouldn't have been hit from behind.]

 

[Dan B]

I take it you are a RLJer? Watch out, if I don't get you then a bigger faster moving vehicle might.

Perhaps you'd like to address the question instead of making assumptions about the poster. What part of 'go if the way is clear' don't you understand?

 

[RedRider]

Any suggestions of a swift New Cross to Vauxhall Bridge route appreciated....

Peckham Rd continued into Camberwell New Rd, Vassall Rd then Caldwell onto Fentiman and South Lambeth Rds. The Vassall etc detour avoids Oval and gives you some respite from heavy traffic. Not sure if it's any quicker overall but it's more pleasant and you're not held up by so many cars. If you wanna get off Camberwell New rd sooner turn left at The Bear, right under the railway bridge and make your way past Myatts Field onto Vassall that way. Fewer red lights, little traffic and a bit more interesting.

 

[Dan B]

I suspect Jack the Ripper wouldn't start committing any other crimes either. What's your point? It is still people picking and choosing which laws they want to obey and you wouldn't want other people to do that would you?

Personally I really wouldn't mind that much unless in doing so they were acting dangerously or antisocially in matters that would still be dangerous or antisocial even if the law did not exist. Theft and murder, for example, are held to be wrong in most circumstances by most ethical systems around, and you really don't need to have a law on the books to know not to do them. Ripping your own CDs onto mp3 so you can play then on the bus, on the other hand, I would find it hard to get aerated about.

 

[Dan B]

Does Martin235 just commute between those two places then?

I'm assuming not, given that he believes the journey could be made with only five traffic lights. No route that I can think of gets much further than Farringdon on five lights. But the point is not to argue about the specifics of Martin's commute, the point is to remind people that generalizing from their specific experience ("that's the reality of riding in cities" vs "that's bollocks", generalizations both) is not advancing the discussion when that experience is not universal. What if, just suppose, other people have different scenarios in mind when they make their distinctions between acceptable and unacceptable, and the reason they are coming to different answers from you is not because they're sociopaths with single digit IQs but because they started with a different question in mind?

That question not aimed personally at anyone in this discussion, btw, just a general observation about debates of this kind where posters apparently believe they get more points for sticking to an entrenched position and becoming more creative with insults than they might for looking at the other guys point of view.

 

[400bhp]

I only asked the question as you seemed to be questioning his personal experience - fair enough if you weren't, but that's a difficulty with communicating via words. People can get the wrong end of ths stick.

 

[Dan B]

[QUOTE 2117160, member: 45"]Seriously, this is an aspect that people often forget. In the same way that speeding down a street has a knock-on effect to the community it happens in, RLJing has more of an impact than people consider.[/quote]
Indeed, I've seen pedestrians look surprised and grateful when I stop at a crossing even when the light was in their favor, which must be because of bad previous experiences with rljing cyclists because there was nothing in my riding style (I was going at about walking pace) other than the fact I was on a bike to suggest that I might not give way to them.

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

On a separate note, I have long wondered why some sets of traffic lights are not switched off late at night.

There are some junctions where the control is unquestionably needed during the day, but outside of normal daylight hours, people would be perfectly capable of treating it as a junction without lights.

Not only would it be easier for traffic, but it'd save electricity

Although I disagree strongly with rljing I think possibly the signalling system needs to be re-thought out to a bit like what they have here.I have seen flashing red and flashing yellow signals and stuff like that.Yes I can get what those signals mean.

 

[veloevol]

Indeed, I've seen pedestrians look surprised and grateful when I stop at a crossing even when the light was in their favor, which must be because of bad previous experiences with rljing cyclists because there was nothing in my riding style (I was going at about walking pace) other than the fact I was on a bike to suggest that I might not give way to them.

I get this a lot, from a stunned look to complete bewilderment that I've stopped for them.