Cyclists......tut tut tut

[darrsi]

[quote author=Buzz link=topic=12553.msg140949#msg140949 date=1397214543]
[quote author=fazersharp link=topic=12553.msg140946#msg140946 date=1397213821]
As for red lights, many years ago I used to commute to work on a push bike and I learnt that there were certain traffic lights that it was actually safer to go through the red light rather than be within the melay of trucks and busses

I cycle 7 miles through London every day and agree with this all the way.  Because of the 8 deaths last year Boris stationed police on all the dangerous junctions in London to "Educate" both cyclists and drivers, in other words "obey the Highway code to the letter or we'll fine you".  I argued pretty much daily with one officer or another on the wisdom and virtue of starting off next to a cement mixer or a left turning bus when I could easily and safely jump the lights and be out of danger.  No one listened to me or any of the other cyclists I saw making similar arguments.  The police are gone now and everyone's back to navigating those junctions in the safest way possible.


NOTE: - I do not condone cyclists on the pavement or going through pedestrian crossings when anyone is on them, those people are idiots!
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I'm on the other side of the fence on this. When on my pushbike I never jump red lights, and if there's a vehicle signalling left at the front I let them go. If they're not I position myself so they can see me so there's minimum danger of getting hit.
As a car driver I also once knocked a lad off his bike. I was turning right at a T junction at the end of a road (out of the side road onto the main) with my lights on green, when the lad shot the red lights and went straight in front of me, leaving me no time to react let alone brake. Broke his leg, scuffed my front bumper. He swore he was going to 'fuck me good and proper' in court until the witnesses said they saw him jump the red.


So forgive me if I don't understand how you can "[size=78%]easily and safely jump the lights and be out of danger" [/size] :rolleyes
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I'm gonna stick my neck out and say i agree with you.


If a car, bike, lorry, etc approaches a junction and sees a green light ahead of them then it's their right to proceed through it.
I'm always cautious anyway because of emergency service vehicles that may fly through but they at least will be lit up and as noisy as foc whilst doing it.
But i don't see how a cyclist can "safely" jump a red light, i just don't get it?
It's not as if they can realistically accelerate out of danger, but that aside, why should they even have to, and why should other drivers have to expect rogue cyclists not obeying the rules of the road cycling out in front of them when they have no right to do so?
And as we all know, a motorbike can look like it's far away but be on top of you in a split second as well.


When i worked in Oxford Street years ago i would generally see at least one push bike involved in some sort of accident, and that was just in my lunch break!!
I know it's probably 'the' most hectic place but it was down to cyclists not giving a shit, and it's always them that pays the price as well?  :rolleyes


You never see a cyclist flatten a lorry do you?