Red means STOP! or How I began to hate cyclists.

[poetd]

I commute 5 days a week. On bike. Some pretty major roads through Leeds too.
(do the odd bit of weekend leisure riding too on and off).

I know there's a lot of anti-cyclist feelings out there so I go out of my way to try and be the most polite and decent road user I can be:
Full High viz everything - I look like a canary on my bike, but I know motorists appreciate being able to see me and plan their movements around me, so that's cool.
Stop at every traffic light. Stop at junctions and let people pull out or pull in if they're waiting.
Any choke points I check to see if anyone's coming and let them through first.
Anyone stuck behind me too long on narrow roads I pull over as soon as I can and give them a wave of thanks for their patience.

I have to share the same roads with these people every day. I want them to see me and remember me as the good guy that causes them no problems.

Yet EVERY SINGLE DAY - I see other idiots on bikes blasting through traffic lights and pedestrian crossings at Red lights.
I see MORE running red lights than I see stopping at them. It's not a minority IT IS THE MAJORITY!

When I speak to car drivers, the number 1 cause of their irritation with cyclists is running red lights. Understandably really.

I hate these people.
Every time they run a red, they are angering other motorists and putting my life at risk!

Today a guy in his 60s just blasted through some lights ahead of me. Took all my self-restraint not to kick him off his bike as I passed him....

No matter how much I try, I'll never win because of these clowns.
So down about it right now.

[tykeboy2003]

I understand and agree with your anger, but I find that round where I live, motorists run red lights just as often as cyclists.

[Cunobelin]

Had a discussion a few years ago on similar.....

We have a busy junction, so set up a video. Every single change, cars would ignore the red lights

In half an hour’s recording over 80 transgressions by vehicles. Longest was 25 seconds after the light change

On the video - 2 cyclists


However these vehicles are apparently “following the vehicle in front” and definitely NOT jumping the red light

Every time they run a red, putting your life at risk.. the only difference is that motorists accept it when it is a car


It is a problem, but all offenders need to be addressed

[tatanab]

Why tell us? You are preaching to the choir.

[Bonefishblues]

Why tell us? You are preaching to the choir.

That's making the OP welcome

[Spinners]

I understand and agree with your anger, but I find that round where I live, motorists run red lights just as often as cyclists.

I find that very hard to believe. Going through late, maybe. But not going up to a red light and then just going through, or turning left when the light is on red which is so common with some POB's (I just can't bring myself to call them cyclists).

[Tangled Metal]

I might have taken similar threads as an opportunity to whinge about a dangerous double set of lights near a supermarket entrance near us. So I'll take this as another example too!

It's a double set of lights left to side road then second set off to the right into the supermarket carpark. Slight downhill but crest of hill far enough back for there to be plenty of sighting of v the lights. First light goes red then second originally. Then both together. Then second before the first I believe that's the current order.

So you'll see both sets of lights and the second is on red. But the car drivers speed up to get through the first lights supposedly on Amber but they're on red when they approach. But the second lights were already on red so what do they expect to achieve? They go through both lights that's what.

OK straight road and traffic turning into it seem to be kept back a bit longer to account for this I think. Side road drivers wait because they know its dangers. Supermarket side has a wait before green.

What about the pedestrian crossing? Green when cars are beating the lights! Anyone with kids want to see how quickly parents can react to danger for their kids? Observe these lights. I've seen kids start to cross on green man only for their mother to physically yank them off their feet and out from under one of these nice car drivers who don't believe they have to stop on a red light (actually they should stop on Amber really). How a kid hasn't been killed I don't know. Until that happens nothing much will change.

So that's car red light jumpers. Annoys the hell out of me. I carry that over to cyclists who jump red lights too.

There's an on demand light junction near me and it doesn't always detect my bike. I get off my bike and walk out round the junction to carry on. Nobody else on a bike seems to do that as far as I've seen. It's just that I do it because of the principle. I can't criticise others if I don't do what I say is the right thing. I ask the OP do you really always do the right thing on a bike and in a car (if you drive that is)? I'm sure you do, like the rest of us.

[Oldjohnw]

Why tell us? You are preaching to the choir.

There are plenty on these pages who think that cyclists are, by their very nature, saints and that motorists are, along with pedestrians, without exception, devils.

The OP has a fair point well made.

[Tangled Metal]

To err is human, to forgive is divine!

But not when it's cyclists! Grrrr! And they don't even pay road tax! Grrr! They should be made to have number plates, licence and liability insurance. Grrr!

[poetd]

Hi Guys,
Sorry about that.

Was genuinely miffed though.
Trying my best to win back some good feeling towards cyclists - mostly it's been paying off, the majority of motorists on my route probably recognise me and give me a fair chance and wide berth.

I totally get there are idiots in cars too, and idiot pedestrians (so many muppets walk out in front of me with their phones glued in their hands!), but with so much negative press about "pest" cyclists in the media, every time I see a cyclist breaking laws I just think they are feeding that perception and making all our lives that bit more dangerous.

And Hi Everyone.

[tatanab]

every time I see a cyclist breaking laws I just think they are feeding that perception and making all our lives that bit more dangerous

I agree entirely, but I cannot be held responsible for their actions, nor can I be in a position to police them - I tried that 35 years ago by pointing out to an offender that his single action wiped out years of trying to be a good example by people like me.

Other things that some cyclists do that make things potentially more dangerous for me are - using daytime lights - wearing high vis - wearing magic hats. Contentious views there.

[mattheus]

Why tell us? You are preaching to the choir.

There are plenty on these pages who think that cyclists are, by their very nature, saints and that motorists are, along with pedestrians, without exception, devils.

The OP has a fair point well made.

Who are these "plenty"?

Do you have examples of this? please name and shame. Or are you deploying your telepathy skills?

[poetd]

Other things that some cyclists do that make things potentially more dangerous for me are - using daytime lights - wearing high vis - wearing magic hats. Contentious views there.

How does high vis and a helmet make it more dangerous for you? (sincerely asking).

The helmet I wear for me (I'm not as young as I was, and don't have the reactions I once did, and head vs road seems like a fight I won't win) and I wear high vis for motorists sake as many tell me there's nothing worse than someone in all black gear blasting down the side of their car like a wheeled stealth Ninja.

Intrigued....

[Oldjohnw]

Why tell us? You are preaching to the choir.

There are plenty on these pages who think that cyclists are, by their very nature, saints and that motorists are, along with pedestrians, without exception, devils.

The OP has a fair point well made.

Who are these "plenty"?

Do you have examples of this? please name and shame. Or are you deploying your telepathy skills?

I have read them in these pages and been the victim of outrage. I have no intention of trawling through pages to locate them. Some will recognise what I have written: others will know who they are.

[Tangled Metal]

Can I just make a potential point about you and your cycling? I mean no offence by it just putting an idea out. Could you be excessively making yourself visible and could that be creating a view in motorists who see you that you're someone to give a wide berth?

When I cycled with my son in a trailer cars gave me plenty of space, indeed excessive space. It was the unusual and there's a child involved which makes the difference. A vulnerable person. Could they be seeing you as someone who is more vulnerable than most cyclists for some reason? Because you're making above average effort to be seen?