Last Friday, I stood in the middle of Oxford and took many shots of cyclists and the different kinds of people riding bikes. It was quite fascinating. One of the best places to take photos was by the Bodleian library opposite the Kings Arms on broad street. Here there is a crossroads with traffic lights. In the 30 minutes I was there, I noticed about 20% of cyclists cycled straight through a red light. The number of cars is minimal, although a cyclist was killed at this junction a few weeks ago (although I don’t believe the fatal accident was related to cycling through a red light)
Their are a number of different attitudes cyclists take to cycling through red lights.
- Never ride through any red light, as it breaks the law.
- Generally obey red lights, but, make exceptions if there is no traffic around and not possible to impede anyone e.g. a pedestrian light at red with no cars or pedestrians.
- Go through red lights - even if it crosses the path of traffic turning, such as straight on at a crossroad.
- Completely ignore red lights even if it means cars have to break. If anyone dares try to correct them, they will just shout aggressively.
I would say the majority of cyclists are in group 1 and 2. 40% of cyclists are in group 1, 40% in group 2. 20% in group 3 and about 1% in group 4.
I try to be in group 1; although there are occasions when I have gone through pedestrian lights with no-one around. People will say it is breaking the highway code, but so is exceeding the speed limit in a car - And I know which is more dangerous to other people.
One of the problem with group 3 and 4 is that there are no penalties for the cyclists, the only deterrent is the risk to themselves.
Having said all that. I also happened to be stuck by the side of the road with a puncture for about 20 minutes. I was observing the driving of cars coming off the Oxford ring road. I would say at least 20% of cars were driving with excessive speed round a particular corner and went on to the wrong side of the road as a result. I’m sure over 70% of motorists were breaking the speed limit as well.
Overall the bad driving is more of a menace to other road users. The motorists put more lives of other people in danger than the cyclists. However, that doesn’t in any way excuse bad cycling. The main reason I no longer like to jump lights is that it feels wrong. Who cares about saving a few seconds when you disturb your inner peace and probably annoy people near by as well?
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7 comments ↓
You don’t mention in your article those traffic lights that don’t detect cyclists, and will stay on red indefinitely unless a car comes to rescue you. I always treat such lights as faulty, and follow the Highway Code’s instruction to ignore the light and cross the junction slowly and carefully in that case.
Three times in the last week I have stopped for an amber light and been overtaken by cars that were queueing behind me. In all three cases I had plenty of time to pull up gently, and the following car was going no faster than I was. Once I stopped and was shocked to be passed by *two* cars, at close quarters. Being hit from behind while stopping at lights has now surpassed being overtaken while turning right as my most feared way of getting squished.
I am definitely a type 2. I like to generally obey the road rules when on my bike, but if there is absolutely no-one around it doesn’t feel right to just sit there because a light says you should.
Type 3&4 cyclists give all cyclists a bad name.
It’s worth mentioning that the police spent some time stopping and ticketing cyclists who jumped that very set of lights a couple of weeks ago. You’d have thought that people wouldn’t be sufficiently dim to sail straight through a red with a bunch of policemen standing right there talking to the riders they’d pulled over already, but apparently they are.
Look at it this way. Traffic lights were not installed for bikes, they were put their to aid motor vehicle congestion. As a consequence i do sometimes sneak through with this point on my mind!
However I never do this when wearing club colours. I dont want to upset the club.
The best thing to do though is get off and walk through. Technically it is still classed as cycling if you scoot through standing on one pedal. But if you get off and walk you can still save minutes on your journey.
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