Stopping red lights

The important bit is about waiting for people to move, which generally, they don't. Most cars star moving in order to hurry the pedestrians along.

What I also tend to see is cars and vehicles on DC crossings going when their lane is free rather than waiting for the whole crossing to be clear.
 
Fair enough edging forwards to hurry them is a bit off, but I can't find anywhere that says the whole crossing has to be clear before you set off? It says you must give way, not that they must be completely clear.
 
You don't need them to have left the crossing before moving off. As long as they have passed you and you won't hit them it is legal. Whether it is rude or not is another question.

edit- thought this was about zebra crossings.
 
Because they can get away with it, they don;t have number plates, license or registration documents.
It's a nightmare in Bristol and it's not just pedestrians they ignore, but they fly through junctions when green lights are on for opposite direction.
Police really should pick some hotspots and give the £20 on the spot fine out.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Police really should pick some hotspots and give the £20 on the spot fine out.
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Totally agree. And that's coming from a cyclist who quite happily will jump a red light when safe to do so. When it's unsafe then any cyclist who takes the risk deserves to be penalised.
 
The police do. On Friday they picked out four or five busy commuter routes and targeted cyclists jumping red lights in London, whilst completely ignoring motorcyclists in advance stopping reservoirs. I want to see the law enforced and those that break it fined, but that goes for all road users.
 
They do get fined in London, every couple of weeks they do the same, with police posted at major junctions that are known to be jumped and potentially dangerous. The fine isn't massively steep but they will also take down your details. No idea what repeat offenders get though. I've seen people get pulled when doing a safe light jump as in no traffic, no pedestrians and they just got a telling off.
 
Dogbreath said:
Would you also keep going through a red in your car or motorcycle if it looked safe?
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I just use some common sense. I don't do anything that causes any danger to myself or anyone else. If I was being reckless and expected everyone to get out of my way regardless of what position I had put them in then I would expect nothing less than to be punished if caught and it would be well deserved. If i get punished for doing what I do while being safe, then I'd have to accept it even though I wouldn't agree with it. That's the risk you take, whether it's running a red in the middle of the night on 6ft of roadworks on a straight road you can clearly see or doing 60 on an empty 50 limit piece of dual carriageway.
 
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I have jumped a number of red lights in my time but never when there was ever the tiniest chance of hitting someone or getting hit.

There are certain road systems that make moving with the traffic rather dangerous, especially when you have people driving like idiots. So many drivers treat every cyclist like the average 5mph pootler.

I have nearly been knocked off my bike dozens of times because of people deciding that they can overtake before I turn right into a road. Just yesterday, I was coming up to a turn and was going straight ahead and 1 car in front indicated, the car behind him didn't so I checked my speed to allow the 1st car to cut across to the left and kept going as the second car wasn't indicating, that car suddenly turns left as well nearly knocking me off my bike. Getting past that crossing when there is no traffic from either side and my light is red is a damn site safer than waiting.

Roundabouts are great too, the number of people in cars who think they can nip out in front of you when you are already on the roundabout is amazing.

Being in a car is a lot safer than being on a push bike which is why I go through red lights.

The road system is designed for cars, not bikes, try riding in certain places safely and you will soon realise that the only way to do it is break the rules a bit to avoid dangerous situations. If there were not so many idiots in cars then this wouldn't be an issue.

There are plenty of cyclists that just ride plain stupidly, the majority are safe though.
 
Draeger said:
Totally agree. And that's coming from a cyclist who quite happily will jump a red light when safe to do so. When it's unsafe then any cyclist who takes the risk deserves to be penalised.
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There's no safe time. You never know what is flying along a road.

You wouldn't do it in your car so don't do it on your bike. You are no better than anyone else who does this.
 
hit a granny last week.. was GREEN for me.. of course i wasn't going fast or anything and a car in front of me has just passed the same crossing.. so as i was pedaling there was this guy and the granny at the crossing the guy saw me after the car passed and stepped back.. the granny tho.. looking at the WRONG Direction to the traffic stepped out right in front me when i was half a meter away from her.. hit her.. she slammed on the road.. so did my bike i was standing no idea how..

so she stood up and said nice and clear "im sorry it was my fault" that seriously calmed me down.. i was not gunna leave it like that if she was to shout at me or something.. she should be glad it wasn't a car..
 
Hellsmk2 said:
There's no safe time. You never know what is flying along a road.

You wouldn't do it in your car so don't do it on your bike. You are no better than anyone else who does this.
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You can see if a road is clear if you have eyes? If you can't see whether its clear or not then you don't go.

If you can't see the difference between someone on a thin piece of metal and someone in a big car with a roll cage then you need to think about things a little more.

Its safer for cyclists to go before cars sometimes and sometimes it is not. There are so many times when I have nearly been hit by some idiot in a car who thinks that they own the roads and that cyclists should just get out of their way.

You have a better field of vision on a bike and can take evasive action better than a car with a well maintained bike.

Have you never walked across a road without being at a traffic light that is set to red. I assume that you haven't otherwise you wouldn't be so idiotic as to say that cars are the same as bikes and should act identically. Never gone above 70 in your car?
 
Hellsmk2 said:
There's no safe time. You never know what is flying along a road.

You wouldn't do it in your car so don't do it on your bike. You are no better than anyone else who does this.
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No safe time, ever? So you're aware of every possible situation in all of the infinite possibilities that have happened or will ever happen and you've come to that conclusion all by yourself? Well, I bow down at the hooves of your megahorse.

:rolleyes:
 
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fez said:
Have you never walked across a road without being at a traffic light that is set to red. I assume that you haven't otherwise you wouldn't be so idiotic as to say that cars are the same as bikes and should act identically. Never gone above 70 in your car?
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What on earth has that got to do with anything? As a pedestrian you can quite legally cross a road without having to wait for a red traffic light. We aren't even talking about crossing the road anyhow, if you run a red light you are typically entering a junction where other traffic has right of way and won't be expecting some berk to appear from the wrong direction.

You post is just a long list of excuses, you know running red lights on a push bike is illegal and stupid, but you are trying to justify it anyway.
 
Dogbreath said:
What on earth has that got to do with anything? As a pedestrian you can quite legally cross a road without having to wait for a red traffic light. We aren't even talking about crossing the road anyhow, if you run a red light you are typically entering a junction where other traffic has right of way and won't be expecting some berk to appear from the wrong direction.

You post is just a long list of excuses, you know running red lights on a push bike is illegal and stupid, but you are trying to justify it anyway.
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But you're not always entering a busy junction. So why are you basing your argument entirely on that?

and kids... don't do drugs, because they're also illegal, stupid and will kill you to death by even looking at them. Don't try and think for yourselves because someone else has already done it for you.
 
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As a motorcyclist, i've never had a problem with cyclists. Well one did smash into my bike when it parked, but i was in a good mood so i let him off. He's buckled both wheels and broken his leavers. My new (2nd hand bike) had a scratch, but whatever.

As a pedestrian, I was almost hit by a mature female cyclist while i was at a pedestrian crossing. The light was red, cars were parked up and she just carried on.

On a side note. Throughout Europe the traffic lights have visible timers on them. Why don't ours?
 
Mr-White said:
What's annoying me atm is cyclists on busy single roads causing massive queues :mad:

MW
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As a cyclist I'm never annoyed by stationary queues of cars who almost deliberately position themselves nott allow filtering because cars are never involved in traffic jams and are always the fastest way of getting from A to B....
 
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