Infirmary Road Tesco - are drivers targeting cyclists?

[onewheeldave]

oh dear, the one statement I do not want to hear from a cyclist .. I should be able to disregard the law because ...

No wonder the majority of motorists see the cyclist as unlawful.

As cyclists fighting a tough battle in trying to gain love and respect from other road users, we need to be seen cleaner than clean.

 

Fact remains, that in the judgement of many cyclists, in some circumstances it is safer to go through reds than wait while a bunch of impatient motorists build up behind.

[Cyclone]

It isn't many at all.

 

The majority of cyclists don't run lights.

 

A minority do. And of those, a further minority try to justify it by invoking "judgement".

 

IMO (from observation), all the cyclists that don't stop, do so for reasons of speed and effort. Ie they don't want to lose speed, they don't want to wait and they don't want to have to work harder to set off again.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Cyclone

[RootsBooster]

Fact remains, that in the judgement of many cyclists, in some circumstances it is safer to go through reds than wait while a bunch of impatient motorists build up behind.

 

It wasn't safer for the cyclist who went through a red light and hit me.

[mattleonard]

Fact remains, that in the judgement of many cyclists, in some circumstances it is safer to go through reds than wait while a bunch of impatient motorists build up behind.

 

Yeah, this is complete nonsense. As Cyclone's pointed out, there are excuses that cyclists might make for doing this, but safety holds no water at all. One of the more likely reasons why you might want to go through a red light would be impatience so it seems rather hypocritical to judge motorists who actually bother to stop at red lights for impatience.

 

Added to this you seem to be speculating that you will face more antagonism from "impatient" drivers who have to pass you when the lights change to green than you will do from the same drivers who pass you a few seconds/minutes later having just watched you ignore the Highway Code and go through a red light. You only need to spend about 2 minutes reading any cycling thread on here to realise how deluded that is.

[Cyclone]

Hell, it annoys me as another cyclists when I catch them and pass them, or even if I don't.

 

I've followed people and watched them run 4 red lights in a row, and every time I've caught them up, they are lazy and dangerous and giving other cyclists a bad name.

[hyper]

Hell, it annoys me as another cyclists when I catch them and pass them, or even if I don't.

 

I've followed people and watched them run 4 red lights in a row, and every time I've caught them up, they are lazy and dangerous and giving other cyclists a bad name.

yep, I'll drink to that

 

---------- Post added 02-10-2014 at 11:33 ----------

 

Fact remains, that in the judgement of many cyclists, in some circumstances it is safer to go through reds than wait while a bunch of impatient motorists build up behind.

what makes these cyclists able to judge whether it is safer? Some appear to have no road sense whatsoever.

 

Are timid car drivers in small cars allowed the same judgement call if they are surrounded by what they perceive to be dangerous juggernauts or impatient faster drivers?

 

What if a cyclist thought it was safer, proceeded through red and the cross-traffic on green had an accident, not knowing whether that cyclist is safe or careless. There are others' safety to consider too.

 

Sorry, but at this point in time, nobody is going to sell me the idea that cyclists (and I am one) should go on red (unless the lights had stopped working)

[onewheeldave]

It isn't many at all.

 

The majority of cyclists don't run lights.

 

A minority do. And of those, a further minority try to justify it by invoking "judgement".

 

IMO (from observation), all the cyclists that don't stop, do so for reasons of speed and effort. Ie they don't want to lose speed, they don't want to wait and they don't want to have to work harder to set off again.

 

No, it's often because it is safer. The arguments for that POV are well known and I've posted them elsewhere.

 

One reason it can seem that most cyclists don't ever go through reds, is that they tend to be really vocal and shout insistently that "no, no, no...there's never any justification for going through reds and any cyclist who just is just lazy, arrogant, evil etc, etc".

 

The vast majority of cyclist who die under cars, weren't running reds, they were killed by an ++shole in a metal box, and though drivers like that are in a minority, there are plenty out there.

 

If I can be 100 yards out of their way when they rev off in the impatient pack, then that's where I'll be, cos my safety is my priority when out riding

[RutlandFlyer]

The vast majority of cyclist who die under cars, weren't running reds, they were killed by an ++shole in a metal box, and though drivers like that are in a minority, there are plenty out there.

 

This is the argument in the nutshell. People get very wound up about cyclists running red lights, but truthfully it causes very, very few accidents. Motorists turning left without looking is more dangrous by an order of magnitude.

 

Red light jumping is just a red herring that lazy drivers like to use as an excuse to carry on driving lazily.

[RootsBooster]

This is the argument in the nutshell. People get very wound up about cyclists running red lights, but truthfully it causes very, very few accidents. Motorists turning left without looking is more dangrous by an order of magnitude.

 

Red light jumping is just a red herring that lazy drivers like to use as an excuse to carry on driving lazily.

 

We're talking about cyclists jumping red lights

 

---------- Post added 02-10-2014 at 13:13 ----------

 

The vast majority of cyclist who die under cars, weren't running reds, they were killed by an ++shole in a metal box, and though drivers like that are in a minority, there are plenty out there.

The guy who hit me could have easily been killed though, the cyclist who went through a red.

[RutlandFlyer]

Yes. I'm talking about how people talk about cyclists jumping red lights as if it's a massively dangerous thing in itself, so they can use it as an excuse to not drive properly around cyclists.

 

Red light jumping is not a good idea, but like almost all anti-cyclist arguments it very quickly boils down to an rationalisation for people who don't want to drive with due care and attention.