RLJ - Taxi Drivers' video

[benb]

Bank robbers and rapists give skiers a bad name.
Bloody balaclava-wearing idiots.

 

[glenn forger]

Lorry drivers have NEVER apologised for the Yorkshire Ripper. Sick bastards.

 

[HLaB]

No they're not. The argument that other cyclists' rule breaking means all of us are less deserving of respect or safe treatment is pernicious and idiotic.

Do all motorists have a bad name because some speed, jump reds and drive with mobiles? No. Arguments suggesting collective responsibility are wrong and stupid.

It shouldn't but it does

 

[martint235]

Bank robbers and rapists give skiers a bad name.
Bloody balaclava-wearing idiots.

Bank robbers who ski may give skiers a bad name. Personally I've never had someone come up to me and ask "Do you rob banks?".

This isn't a question about whether or not something should happen, we're in agreement there, it's whether it actually happens and I'm afraid it does and it won't change until we convince the pillocks to stop. To me , the exercise that is currently going on should actually be a zero tolerance exercise to all road users. Break the law, instant £200 fine. And we'll keep it up until people stop breaking the law. If it costs more than the money raised then we'll steadily increase the fine until we break even.

 

[campbellab]

Anyone that thinks a piece of circuit board is always better than human judgement is wrong.

Anyone that thinks human judgement is always better than a circuit board is also wrong.

I love sitting at red lights waiting to turn left. When traffic coming out of the junction at 90 degrees to me is turning left/right. Why no left filter? Stupid planners.

Why do we want to ALWAYS controlled by pretty basic timing mechanisms? I'm pretty sure most of the consensus towards not RLJ is because we are in a heavily car oriented society. Which enforces a mentality of sitting in neat queues waiting for traffic controls.

My experience of red light jumping was to go over a pedestrian crossing which was completely empty as the person who pressed the button crossed when it was clear. We don't begrudge pedestrians that, but its pretty stupid for a rational human being to be stopped at a red light when its obviously clear, just as it is for a pedestrian to just wait there for the lights if the road is clear. Imo these should be flashing amber or be a zebra crossing in most cases. The result was a driver winding down his window whilst traversing a roundabout, looking out passenger side and trying to give me an earful. My logical and informed decision gave way to stupid moronic emotion. This was about 7 years ago and I haven't done it since.

I am far more worried about drivers who amber gamble/red light jump at speed combined with those that gun it at Red/Amber. Traffic lights were designed because of large chunks of metal that cause lots of damage at speed.

I agree we shouldn't do it because it gives us a bad reputation. But I think that it giving us all a bad rep is equally stupid. Gogo unfurnished streets.

That said cyclists who don't stop for pedestrians at pedestrian crossings should be shot, especially in London and the like where it is the only safe provision for them to get over the road. And people doing it at busy junctions.

 

[uclown2002]

As far as I'm concerned, drivers deserve ZERO respect until they apologise for killing Diana.

My late mum told everyone that MFI was responsible for her death.

 

[benb]

It shouldn't but it does

... it's whether it actually happens and I'm afraid it does ...

You've got it the wrong way round. The sort of person who dislikes cyclists is looking for reasons to do so. RLJ is a convenient hook for them to hang their prejudices on.
If all cyclists stopped at reds, the cyclist-hater would simply find another excuse, legitimate or not.

I agree that cyclists shouldn't RLJ, but it won't make people who currently dislike us suddenly become our best mates.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

No they're not. The argument that other cyclists' rule breaking means all of us are less deserving of respect or safe treatment is pernicious and idiotic.

I agree with your second sentence above, disagree with the first.

As I posted in another thread :

People will limit criticism of motorists to certain subsets, such as cabbies, private hires, WVM etc, tarring them with the same brush of bad driving behaviours but never generalise it to all drivers.

And this is where we do get bad name in general because people who see poorly behaved cyclists can't identify them as a smaller subset, so tar us all with the same brush. I know some people on here will argue that it doesn't but look at any newspaper's cycling story where public comments are allowed and you'll see it at work.

It shouldn't be this way. Unfortunately it is.

GC

 

[HLaB]

You've got it the wrong way round. The sort of person who dislikes cyclists is looking for reasons to do so. RLJ is a convenient hook for them to hang their prejudices on.
If all cyclists stopped at reds, the cyclist-hater would simply find another excuse, legitimate or not.

I agree that cyclists shouldn't RLJ, but it won't make people who currently dislike us suddenly become our best mates.

True of some people (they will always hate no matter what), but there are a large amount of people I've come accross don't particularly dislike cyclists but use the RLJ as their strawman.

 

[simon.r]

Can I ask what relevance this is? would you decide to drive your car through a red light if the junction was quiet?

Alan...

I suspect more cyclists will cycle through a red light at a quiet junction than at a busy junction.

Not sure what relevance my car driving has to this? FWIW I have been known to very occasionally cycle through a red light, having considered my safety, that of others and the impression I'm giving to anyone else around.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Drivers will hate us regardless simply because we are different, fitter, better looking, more intelligent, and have bigger ....anyway...it's still stupid to jump red lights.

 

[B164D]

Quite a few folk seem to want to make grey out of black and white. I won't be jumping a red anytime soon and have only contempt for those that do. However, I won't be wasting my time trying to explain this further!

 

[subaqua]

Without reading the OP linked story, my first thought is how sad you have to be to sit there for hours doing that. Not excusing things but I bet its been filmed at one notorius junction where signal timings are lengthy and its layout encourages RLJ, not a particularly representative junction.

its not a horrible junction ( Hackney road) . I ride it the other way on my way home. looks like it was a camera on the railings not in a vehicle. there are a huge amount of vehicles using it daily. the signal timings are very very good too.

what shocked me was the amount of vehicles going into the ASL when the light was clearly red.

 

[markharry66]

Last week magnetron was on BBC breakfast news over the recent uk cyclist deaths. Used as justification for recent spate of deaths red light jumping. The fact that you can justify the number of deaths and use red light jumping as justification for the deaths speaks volumes for idiots drivers, media etc. Any death on the road is one to many. Until we all wake up to the fact what we do on the road effects others drivers, cyclists etc there can never be any change. Easy to sit in your ivory tower and use sterotypes to justifiy your shitty arguments.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I suspect more cyclists will cycle through a red light at a quiet junction than at a busy junction.

Not sure what relevance my car driving has to this? FWIW I have been known to very occasionally cycle through a red light, having considered my safety, that of others and the impression I'm giving to anyone else around.

The relevance is it's illegal to go through a red light whether you are on your bike or in your car, but some how you have managed to convince yourself that it is acceptable to do it on a bike, therefore why would you not do it in a car.

Alan...