It's probably worth reminding yourself what a green light means. It means "proceed if your way is clear", not "floor it, screw anyone who's in the way".
I thought I wrote that I stopped on a green light - which is not exactly "flooring it and screwing anyone in the way". In fact stopping was putting me and my family at risk from the car behind running into the back of us. All unnecessary.
We're obviously not getting anywhere here. My view remains all road users need to stick to the rules in order to improve road safety - and that includes cyclists. Better training, enforcement and infrastructure would all help. But the fact of the matter is, cyclists are vulnerable and will come off worse in any collision. I'm sure one thing behind John Armitt's comment and the attitude of the majority of motorists is that cyclists who choose to ignore bits of the Highway Code are more likely to "come a cropper" - which I agree with.
Cyclists get killed by motorised vehicles where the cyclist is innocent and that is completely tragic. But I'm sorry to say some of those casualties are cyclists deliberately doing the wrong thing, and the motorist doesn't or can't respond in time. The law says in those circumstances, assuming the motorist was acting reasonably, that the cyclist was at fault. That's not victim blaming - that's the law.
Motorists making the jump that "all cyclists are a menace" is obviously nonsense, but when their daily experience of cyclists is one of them being reckless, I can understand the way they feel. All I'm saying is the cycling community should be saying vocally and strongly that such behaviour is unacceptable and be seen to try and improve things. Eglobbying government for better enforcement, training and infrastructure. I see action on the latter two of these, but not the first.
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