Cycling UK Forum

A short section of this steepish hill is temporarily traffic light controlled. On more than one occasion ascending the hill, having gone through a green light, I have encountered descending motor vehicles coming towards me in the narrow controlled section. Today, despite seeing me in the road, a massive tractor and trailer went through the lights at the top of the hill and bore down on me at speed. Luckily I was able to get out of the way by a farm entrance. I spoke to the driver of the tractor who pulled up eventually and claimed he had gone through a green light.

My conclusion is either that descending drivers see that there is “only” a cyclist in the road and go through the red light regardless or, more likely, that the traffic lights are simply not set up to allow a relatively slow moving cyclist to clear the section safely before changing, or perhaps do not register cyclists at all. The controlled section is only c 300 yds so no great hardship to others to set up the lights to allow sufficient time for cyclists to clear. In my view this is a dangerous situation, particularly as the first part of the ascent includes an S bend or if a descending motor vehicle went through the top lights at speed, so please take care. I have reported to Hampshire police.

You are never going to see a long enough timed all red stage to allow 300m uphill cycling by the slowest cyclist - it could be four or five minutes if you had to get off and push.

The solution is to install periodic detectors along the stretch so that it stays red until the section is clear.
This section in the Peak District is an example:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.1885499 ... ?entry=ttu

It is the responsibility of the road user to ensure that their route is clear before proceeding through a set of lights that change to green. You have right of way regardless of the time it takes you to clear that section of road.
Clearly, arguing that fact is fraught with issues and I would adopt the safer option in such a scenario. Get off and walk - although I’m sure in some cases walking space doesn’t exist. If that were the case I would consult the working crew to ask for their advice. They too have a responsibility; to provide safe passage for all road users.