Rubber Bullets
Senior Member
- Location
- Torbay
Today's ride home, I'm behind another cyclist coming up to a red light here:
http://g.co/maps/gvv4m
He goes through the red light and stops leaning against the railings on the corner, I stay in the box.
Now this is a complex junction, and is often the cause of problems, and tonight was no exception. If you move the camera forwards (the weather improves bizarrely) and you will see that there are 6 roads in all coming into and/or out of this junction (one is one way out of it, and another is one way into it, the others are all 2 way). As we sit at the red light the road immediately to our left, Falkland Road,has a green light, but Walnut Road does too, and the amount of traffic, and the direction it is flowing in, means that the cars out of Falkland Road pile into the junction, but have no way out.
So as the lights change to green for us there are 3 cars backed up, the first of which is slap bang in the middle of the junction, and the two behind it are backed up towards Falkland Road, but all have crossed the white line. As the lights change my fellow rider sets off straight towards the cars in front of us, as do I but at a rather lower speed, the front 2 cars have managed to clear the junction, but the 3rd, a Land Rover Discovery, hasn't and the other cyclist rides across in front of him. He stands on his horn and starts making gestures etc. I was going slowly enough to let him across, as was the car behind me, but I was irritated by his attitude and so I did shout 'it's a red light' at him, to which he replied 'I'd already crossed the white line, you f*cking tw*t', and drove off.
Now to be fair he had a point, about the white line, not I hope the other bit, and I really shouldn't have got involved with other peoples arguments, but it does raise the question of whether he did have the right to move through the junction when his light was red.
At the point that the lights changed the front car had no choice, to have stayed where they were would have caused chaos, the one behind that may have been able to make the same claim, but it would have been pushing the point, the guy at the back, though probably 2 or 3 car lengths beyond the line, wasn't in anyone's way, and by the time he did pass in front of the traffic from our road it was well after our light had gone green.
I would love to hear people opinions on this, and to know what the law says. Is the biggest problem here the distance that all the stop lines are back from the junction?
RB
http://g.co/maps/gvv4m
He goes through the red light and stops leaning against the railings on the corner, I stay in the box.
Now this is a complex junction, and is often the cause of problems, and tonight was no exception. If you move the camera forwards (the weather improves bizarrely) and you will see that there are 6 roads in all coming into and/or out of this junction (one is one way out of it, and another is one way into it, the others are all 2 way). As we sit at the red light the road immediately to our left, Falkland Road,has a green light, but Walnut Road does too, and the amount of traffic, and the direction it is flowing in, means that the cars out of Falkland Road pile into the junction, but have no way out.
So as the lights change to green for us there are 3 cars backed up, the first of which is slap bang in the middle of the junction, and the two behind it are backed up towards Falkland Road, but all have crossed the white line. As the lights change my fellow rider sets off straight towards the cars in front of us, as do I but at a rather lower speed, the front 2 cars have managed to clear the junction, but the 3rd, a Land Rover Discovery, hasn't and the other cyclist rides across in front of him. He stands on his horn and starts making gestures etc. I was going slowly enough to let him across, as was the car behind me, but I was irritated by his attitude and so I did shout 'it's a red light' at him, to which he replied 'I'd already crossed the white line, you f*cking tw*t', and drove off.
Now to be fair he had a point, about the white line, not I hope the other bit, and I really shouldn't have got involved with other peoples arguments, but it does raise the question of whether he did have the right to move through the junction when his light was red.
At the point that the lights changed the front car had no choice, to have stayed where they were would have caused chaos, the one behind that may have been able to make the same claim, but it would have been pushing the point, the guy at the back, though probably 2 or 3 car lengths beyond the line, wasn't in anyone's way, and by the time he did pass in front of the traffic from our road it was well after our light had gone green.
I would love to hear people opinions on this, and to know what the law says. Is the biggest problem here the distance that all the stop lines are back from the junction?
RB
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