Am I going to court ? Please help !

nej

BritBrat wrote: »

I have never read of a cyclist geting one of these notices but I have seen many going through red lights. Do they have a different highway code than the rest of us? I wonder if the police cameras record cyclists and if they choose to ignore sending them a letter or trying to with no evidence of ownership.

Maybe Cycles should have a sort of number plate too, then the goverment can get even more cash out of us.

I remember a while back the police staked-out a particular junction somewhere in London that had had loads of complaints about cyclists jumping the lights and nabbed loads of 'em.

nej

Lorian wrote: »

If a cyclist breaks the rules and gets hit, then the cyclist gets injured. If a motorist breaks the rules and hits a cyclist, then the cyclist gets injured.

If a cyclist breaks the rules and hits my car, I end up paying for the damage.
If I break the rules and hit a cyclist, I will suffer the consequences of the law, hence I don't drive through red lights.
If a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the pedestrian gets injured (yes, same goes for cars, but they are more easily seen and heard than bikes).

anewman

Some cars are pretty much silent these days so you can't always hear cars more than bikes.

There is a set of lights near my house on a 3 lane each way A road. The lights are just for a pedestrian crossing and not any kind of junction. As I cross here often I have seen how the lights behave with the traffic. The lights wait for a gap in the traffic and after the last car before the gap has gone through the amber light comes on (if the button has been pressed) giving drivers plenty of opporetunity to slow down and stop. However I have attempted to cross this crossing a number of times with the lights plainly on red and the pedestrian crossing man on green, and had some arrogant w****r in an audi or BMW (you know the type, although I am sure nice people drive these cars too) go straight through and I've had to step back to avoid stepping into their path. I think they think "well it's not a junction, what have I got to stop for not like I'm gonna hit a car - and I've got to cut 50 seconds off my journey and speed, oh and slow down for that speed camera further up the road."

I have also crossed at this crossing green man red light etc, and some old guy was flashing his headlights beeping his horn and revving, and I'm thinking "what's up with him". I get past his lane and off he goes through the red light, with the two cars either side of him obeying the lights. I personally think people like that should be getting £400 fines and 6 penalty points - but what can you do about it.

Complained to local MP about cars running the red lights and the issue was briefly mentioned in a local political newsletter, but not seen that anything's been done about it. Maybe the light timing has been changed.