Red lights and cyclists

jd87

I can decide whether to leave some extra room for them at the lights or to pull right up and watch another suicide attempt.

Suicide attempt???

Did I miss the announcement about the new Doctor Who style lasers that zap anyone who runs the red light?

mikey72

jd87 wrote: »

Suicide attempt???

Did I miss the announcement about the new Doctor Who style lasers that zap anyone who runs the red light?

That would be good.
Provided they could be cleared up automatically so as not to impede traffic though.

exil

Simple solution. Dismount and walk across!

VoucherMan

jd87 wrote: »

Did I miss the announcement about the new Doctor Who style lasers that zap anyone who runs the red light?

No - just the bit about the idiot crossing the junction with traffic approaching at up to 60mph

DaveF327

jd87 wrote: »

Do you keep waiting, because "the law says so",

Yes. Laws were made to be kept.

A car driver took exception to me the other day and shouted at me from his window (completely taking his concentration off the road). Who was right, me or him?

Legally, him. Morally, neither of you. Car drivers have no more right to shout abuse in the street than any other road user. It isn't necessary and it's not their job to enforce the law.

jd87 wrote: »

experts say it may be safer for bikes to get ahead of and away from car traffic in this situation.

Depends on the width of the road and the room available. Where this is necessary, a cycle box will be painted for that purpose. If not, you should keep well to the left away from any cars and stop on red. Most cars stop well before the stop line, so position slightly ahead if you want to, but no further than the line. Pedal gently away without exaggeratedly wobbling into cars' paths and you'll have nothing to worry about.

tomstickland

Do you ever drive through red lights at road works if you can see that nothing is coming the other way?

TiTheRev

tomstickland wrote: »

Do you ever drive through red lights at road works if you can see that nothing is coming the other way?

Yes. And that is definately not against the law. Those lights are only there as an advisary, but if you cannot definitively see that its clear dont procede, but a short stretch of road without traffic/pedestrians/cyclists around I always drive through them.

Idiophreak

Have to say, if you're in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around at all and a pedestrian crossing's on red, I wouldn't really view it as "wrong" just to drive across the thing, muchless to cycle across.

Quite often out here in the sticks the pedestrian crossings wait for the road to be clear, rather than stopping motorists - so a relatively savvy pedestrian can easily cross on a red man (is that as bad as cycling across a red light, I wonder...I've had pedestrians step out in front of me on a bike in the past - painful) - leaving motorists to sit and wait at a red light in 30 seconds time for no reason whatsoever.

In terms of the safety aspect, I always make sure to pull up to traffic lights in the middle of the lane. I (like all cyclists) can be a little bit wobbly when I set off from a standstill, so I'm not having any idiot pulling up alongside me and forcing me into the gutter. They can just wait a couple of seconds til I'm up to speed.

shuaibf

Hammyman wrote: »

Yet another typical law breaking cyclist. You'd be the first to whinge if you went past a red light and got wiped out by a car.Must be part of this mob:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=NyrmWhSDqqQ

bloody hell that makes me hate them even more.. i wouldn't be surprised if any of them are killed any times soon

Comstock

I always stop at red, but if I'm sure it's safe I sometimes go before they change to green. I only do this on junctions where I know all the sequences of lights and pelicans.