Re: Who crosses red lights?

Richard <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
safety rarely). Red-light running's benefit (a small decrease in
personal journey time) is loudly proclaimed, but the proponents are

I think you're not being entirely fair to lump all red-light runners
together: as is clear from the responses there is something of a
continuum. Check some or all of the following -

* cycle through anything, ignore the lights completely, and shout at
cross-traffic to get out of the way
* cycle through a light that's just turned red to avoid being rear-ended
* jump the red to get a head-start when you can see the lights change
on the other road (so you know yours are about to go green) and
want to get across the junction before the traffic overtakes you
* cycle through ped crossings when it's obvious the ped's crossed already
* cycle cautiously through reds when they have badly setup vehicle
detectors which can't be triggered by bicycles

For that matter, we should probably also consider "crossing the Stop
line then waiting at the junction ahead of traffic" which form of red
light jumping is practiced by many cyclists and offers none of the
"small decrease in journey time" that's the apparent justification.

All of these practices are illegal (except for the "faulty lights"
scenario, which probably isn't if you're sure the lights are in fact
broken). Any of them has the potential to annoy irrational people.
Some of them are arguably justifiable in some circumstances on safety
grounds.

Entering an ASL other than by the feeder lane is just as legal (i.e.
"not at all") as intimidating other road users into stopping for you
when they have right of way at an intersection, but who's going to
claim either that they're morally equivalent or have the same effect on
cyclists' standing in the eyes of Joe Public?

If the red-light runners could convincingly show that the benefits far
outweigh the disbenefits, I may be prepared to run red lights as
well. But so far they have failed to even come close to grasping this
particular nettle.

I'm not claiming that they do - _in general_. I'm claiming that the
situation is less clear-cut than it often seems to be portrayed, and
(I have no evidence for this, but what the hell) that the TotC effect
to which Simon refers is provoked less by cyclists doing things that
are illegal per se, and more by them doing things that are
inconsiderate (such as running down grannies on crossings) or that
motorists would like (reasonably or otherwise) to be illegal. "I
can't filter up the outside of that line, why should he be able to".


-dan

--
http://coruskate.blogspot.com/ # why skate when you can talk about it instead?
.

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