RLJing

[thomas]

I have some sympathy with this view - except that 1am on an empty road is exactly when a drunk pedestrian is likely to try wandering across without looking.

If the road isn't clear, even at 1oclock, you shouldn't go. The other night I turned left on a red, at 1 oclock in the morning. I made sure that no one was either crossing or had priority at the traffic lights. However, when I took the same route today I stopped.

My point was more a system of "flashing ambers" like they have in some parts of the states and Europe. It basically means proceed with caution. This system wouldn't be appropriate everywhere, but certainly around me there are road junctions with lights (good for the day and in the busy hours) which are possible to go through slowly and safely when no one is around at night.

Therefore, at 1 in the morning (or late at night/very early in the morning) when road users get to junctions they would have to slow down, but not stop (and waste a couple of minutes) to proceed through the junction.

I don't really feel bad doing it, as I rarely am cycling late at night anyway, and I don't do it when there are people around as I don't like the idea of being "just another RLJing cyclist"...if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it still make a sound

 

[purplepolly]

cars tend to do it late, using the lag between lights

cyclists tend to blow through them in cold blood at any time

not the same thing

Try using pelican crossings - it's normal practice for drivers to hit the accelerator when they see a waiting pedestrian (you can hear them speeding up) and are then going to fast to stop when the lights change. It's also not unusual for them to go through well after the lights have changed simply because they haven't noticed the lights.

I'll agree there is a difference though between this and what cyclists do. Certainly from the pedestrians point of view, they're far more likely to die. Only yesterday I saw an elderly lady with a white stick being hauled back out of the path of an idiot car driver who went through the lights several seconds after everyone else had stopped, and he ceratinly wasn't sticking to the speed limit while he did it. I'm not going to repeat what the hauler shouted after him.

 

[purplepolly]

People round here comment on cyclists RLJing. They do it because people in the media bang on about London constantly and assume everywhere else is the same. Once they are aware of this behaviour they look out for this very uncommon behaviour and start exaggerating. It is unlikely that many of the people complaining have seen that much cyclist RLJing if even at all. .

Quite. I hardly ever see a cyclist RLJ, and those that do are mostly doing about 6mph and look like they haven't got a clue, but according to one of my colleauges the roads are practically nose to rear wheel with RLJing cyclists.

 

[skrx]

I've seen maybe 1 or 2 cyclists "blow through without looking". That's suicidal! But that's exactly what car RLJers always do, except for them it's not as risky.

Almost all cyclist RLJers are turning left (or similar, depending on the junction), or going over empty pedestrian crossings. The rest treat the red light as "give way".

In the USA, a flashing amber light means "caution", and is on the priority road. A flashing red light means the same as a "stop" sign -- halt, and proceed when safe. That's typically on the joining road. (And red-amber-green lights in the daytime.)

 

[srw]

I've seen maybe 1 or 2 cyclists "blow through without looking". That's suicidal! But that's exactly what car RLJers always do, except for them it's not as risky.

At your average central London traffic light, one car at most pops through after the light has turned amber. Two or three cyclists dash through after the lights have changed - usually apparently without looking. A disabled/elderly pedestrian is just as vulnerable to a fast cyclist as to a car.

 

[Bromptonaut]

At your average central London traffic light, one car at most pops through after the light has turned amber.

You must ride in a different London to me. In the one where I work amber means go faster and cars, trucks and the odd bus go on for half a second afer red.

 

[summerdays]

People round here comment on cyclists RLJing. They do it because people in the media bang on about London constantly and assume everywhere else is the same. Once they are aware of this behaviour they look out for this very uncommon behaviour and start exaggerating. It is unlikely that many of the people complaining have seen that much cyclist RLJing if even at all. The third most common complaint about cyclists ignoring no entry signs/wrong way down one way street/no right turn is particularly amusing as that one is routinely broken by motorists on a great many locations in this city.

I would like to agree that it was uncommon behaviour but I can't ... at least not in Bristol. Now I would say the majority wait, however I see RLJ'ing cyclists daily. There seems to be a number of different types:
-go ahead of the stop line and wait until there is a gap just before the lights change back to green
-going straight on at a junction with no left turn when traffic joins from the right (or turning left) as if the lights weren't there
-up onto the pavement as the red light apparently doesn't count if you go the wrong side of it
-blatantly just going for the gap (that one is the rarer one)