Cars running red lights

[Jon Lucas]

I'm surprised nobody has discussed what seems to me the greatest problem for cyclists of motorists running red lights, and which often happens to me.

This is what to do as you cycle along a road and the lights turn to amber just as you are about to commit to going through or braking. If you brake and come to a stop as the amber turns to red, you are then relying on the driver behind you also stopping and not running the light.

What has often happened to me is that I come to a stop as the light goes red, only to find the driver behind overtaking me there, or in one case recently, undertaking. When this happens, they are usually driving at some speed and pass very close.

A couple of days ago, I had this happen not just with the first car behind me but with the second car (which crossed the red light probably 2 seconds after it had gone red). This was particularly frightening as I realised that that driver may well not have even seen me as the driver they were tailing would have obscured their view of me until they came very close.

[mjr]

Please also report the one-way streets as faulty, missing the "except cycles" plates that they should have now. We've started to finally get some in King's Lynn by repeatedly making the request and I think Cambridge's came about in a similar way.

I didn't know that one-way streets should have 'except cycles' plates. Is there somewhere I can find more information about this?

It's a combination of "Where one­-way systems are introduced, consideration should always be given to maintaining two­-way working for cycles..." from LTN 2/08 "Cycling Infrastructure Design" s7.6.1 and "English local authorities will be able to place the combined sign "no entry except cycles" [...] the number of motor vehicles which contravened the restrictions was halved and there was an increase in the number of cyclists using the contraflow schemes compared to the prescribed solution of using the "no motor vehicles" traffic sign" from "Signing the Way" s5.37 which led to TSRGD 2016 allowing "except cycles" under the no entry regulatory sign.

In other words, cycles should have been excepted from most one-way orders since at least 1998 and the "except cycles" plates are the current advice on to do that most effectively. "Signing the Way" said that TAL 6/98 would be updated but I don't think it has been yet, so it's still not all in one document

Also note that it's yet another "should" and not a "must" - there's still no effective penalty for highway authorities failing to implement this guidance.