Do you stop at traffic lights?

RobBaxter

When cycling and you come to a red light do you

-completely ignore it?
-stop only if it is very unsafe?
-stop if it is busy?
-stop?

Also, how do you add a poll to this?

Personally, I don't stop, I try to make a break if it is safe even though the light is red. I only fully stop if it is unsafe to try and go.


Bobby

penexpers

Do a search, this topic has been done to death already.

Antiundead

stop?

I stop no matter what during the day, it's conciderably more noisy during the day, which means I can't judge if there are any cars approaching and more cars are on the road during this time. However if it's very late at night though and I can hear nothing around then I cycle through those red bad boys.

ThisRegard

Even if it hasn't been done to death, what's the point ? Why not post the same poll in motors ?

Anyway, where's the track stand option, or does that count as stopping ?

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

Antiundead wrote: »

I stop no matter what during the day, it's conciderably more noisy during the day, which means I can't judge if there are any cars approaching and more cars are on the road during this time. However if it's very late at night though and I can hear nothing around then I cycle through those red bad boys.

Wow, I cant believe that most people stop! What if you are turning left and there is nothing coming? you just wait for it to go green?

I tried a search and nothing came up. I was fairly surprised. I'll re-search

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

ThisRegard wrote: »

Even if it hasn't been done to death, what's the point ? Why not post the same poll in motors ?

Anyway, where's the track stand option, or does that count as stopping ?

ya track stand is stopping

Beasty

Yes- how can I expect other road users to follow the rules if I'm not prepared to do so myself?

Lumen

RobBaxter wrote: »

I tried a search and nothing came up. I was fairly surprised. I'll re-search

Here.

vancough123

stop?

traffic lights????

Gavin

What is the big deal ? Really ? Stop at the red and go when it's green. It's hardly rocket science.

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

Lumen wrote: »

Here.

Wow, I am seriously shocked here! Do ye not feel as if they slow you down when you are cycling? break your rythm? Do ye stop if there are huge breaks in the cars? If there are hardly any cars to be seen? If there are no cars?

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

I commute to work everyday - 10 km each way. By the n11, donybrook, town and i would say at least 85% of cyclists that I see don't stop at red lights.

I always find it amusing when I cycle past someone stopped at a red light with no cars around!

Lumen

Gavin wrote: »

What is the big deal ? Really ? Stop at the red and go when it's green. It's hardly rocket science.

There are only really two options:

1. Obey the traffic signals as you are required to do by law.
2. Treat the signal as a yield and proceed when you consider it safe.

Since each person has a different appetite for risk there is little point debating the finer distinctions of 2, except that if you're still alive and uninjured you've managed to be adequately safe up to this point in time, regardless of legality or courteousness.

Lumen

RobBaxter wrote: »

Wow, I am seriously shocked here! Do ye not feel as if they slow you down when you are cycling? break your rythm? Do ye stop if there are huge breaks in the cars? If there are hardly any cars to be seen? If there are no cars?

All those points apply equally to when you are driving.

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

Lumen wrote: »

There are only really two options:

1. Obey the traffic signals as you are required to do by law.
2. Treat the signal as a yield and proceed when you consider it safe.

Since each person has a different appetite for risk there is little point debating the finer distinctions of 2, except that if you're still alive and uninjured you've managed to be adequately safe up to this point in time, regardless of legality or courteousness.

That sums it up perfectly, can I change the poll to just those two options?

ednwireland

:Dwhats a traffic light ? i have to cycle an hour to find one

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

All you people who have said that they stop at red lights no matter what.

When crossing a road(walking), would you wait for the green man or would you wait until you would consider it safe?

Stark

I break them the odd time but I always come to a near stop first as I can't see what's coming when I'm approaching the junction. The only time I haven't stopped is when it's a pedestrian crossing and it's obvious on approach that there's no-one crossing or about to cross.

RobBaxter wrote:

When crossing a road(walking), would you wait for the green man or would you wait until you would consider it safe?

Look for a safe place. Don't hurry, stop and wait.

niceonetom

Walking: It's not cycling.

Lumen

RobBaxter wrote: »

That sums it up perfectly, can I change the poll to just those two options?

Not really, people have already voted.

As mentioned already, this has been done to death many times before and the results are always consistent. Most people on this forum claim to obey the lights, most people out on the roads don't.

The reasons are well-discussed in the linked thread. People who stop always (or almost always, except when the roads are obviously deserted) do so because it is legal and courteous to do so.

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

niceonetom wrote: »

Walking: It's not cycling.

Same principle. Do you treat it as an obey the law or as a yield until it is safe? Just wondering if ye would do the same walking?

ednwireland

RobBaxter wrote: »

All you people who have said that they stop at red lights no matter what.

When crossing a road(walking), would you wait for the green man or would you wait until you would consider it safe?

ha got caught in germany, crowd of people waiting to cross the road went to cross when there was no traffic and nobody else moved, thought better of it and waited for the green man when ebveryone else crossed, law abiding bunch germans

oh and considereingthe rules of the road states for cyclists

You must obey the rules applying at traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, pelican crossings and zebra crossings.

it makes no such mention of the red man for pedestrians

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

ednwireland wrote: »

ha got caught in germany, crowd of people waiting to cross the road went to cross when there was no traffic and nobody else moved, thought better of it and waited for the green man when ebveryone else crossed, law abiding bunch germans

Ha ha. I'll never understand the Germans. I find it incredible how they all pay for the public transport when there's no-one to stop you if you don't!

Lumen

RobBaxter wrote: »

Same principle. Do you treat it as an obey the law or as a yield until it is safe? Just wondering if ye would do the same walking?

The principles may be related but the issues are different. Cyclists have a hard enough time getting treated as first class road users; red light jumping harms rather than helps the cause.

chakattack

RobBaxter wrote: »

I always find it amusing when I cycle past someone stopped at a red light with no cars around!

Do you find it amusing when the cyclist stopped at the lights has effortlessly caught you and left you for dead a few hundred meters down the road? :cool:

I stop at lights as I can't expect other road users to behave themselves if I'm blatantly breaking the law and I don't want to be at fault in the event of an accident.

PandyAndy

stop?

I always stop at red lights and obey all rules of the road *cough*

But if, hypothetically, I was more nonchalant about it all then I would go through red lights at cross roads assuming there was no traffic at all. I would come to a complete stop though to check first. If there was traffic I would only go through them if there was quite a distance (a good 10 secs at least) between the vehicles, in the same way I'd cross the road when there's a big enough gap if I was walking.

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

chakattack wrote: »

Do you find it amusing when the cyclist stopped at the lights has effortlessly caught you and left you for dead a few hundred meters down the road?

No but I do love when they try and catch up, and so starts the race which is fun until.....uh oh....another red light.....and that's the end of them

jimmycrackcorm

stop?

I do the same as pedestrians crossing in the same direction but without dis-mounting

ThisRegard

RobBaxter wrote: »

Wow, I am seriously shocked here! Do ye not feel as if they slow you down when you are cycling? break your rythm?

Intervals FTW.

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

FTW???

on_the_nickel

RobBaxter wrote: »

No but I do love when they try and catch up, and so starts the race which is fun until.....uh oh....another red light.....and that's the end of them

Until the day a truck is going through the green light and it's the end of you.

Cop on, for every cyclist going through a red light, there's a motorist who forms the opinion that cyclist do not obey the laws that motorists adhere to and consequently gives all cyclists less respect on the road.

Gavin

RobBaxter wrote: »

Ha ha. I'll never understand the Germans. I find it incredible how they all pay for the public transport when there's no-one to stop you if you don't!

Hmm yes well, you've made your point.

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

lol - people seem to be getting touchy now... there will never be a truck to take me out of it because I check before I break the lights, use them as yield signs. Nothing dangerous about it.

Also the results seem to be changing toward people who break the red lights now and again to the law abiders

Carsinian Thau

Yes, but to be honest, that's also because I have no choice but to stop. I really only cycle one route regularly (into college and then back out) and there are just two sets of lights on the way. Anytime that mine go red, the lanes that have green are so busy that if I didn't stop, I'd be run over.

Lumen

RobBaxter wrote: »

lol - people seem to be getting touchy now... there will never be a truck to take me out of it because I check before I break the lights, use them as yield signs. Nothing dangerous about it.

The system of traffic signals is designed to create a more predictable environment to allow faster traffic flows. Traffic with a green light may proceed on the basis that they have both priority and the reasonable expectation that their path will be unimpeded by joining traffic. This means they can drive at a higher speed than if they might reasonably expect merging traffic (you've no doubt seen how traffic crawls through junctions where traffic lights are out of action).

By entering the traffic flow where you do not have priority and where the drivers are not expected to slow down to check for your presence, you are putting the entire onus of responsibility of observation on yourself. If you make a mistake, you could well end up seriously injured and banned from driving because the cars will not see you.

In other words, it's not dangerous unless you screw up (only illegal and discourteous). But people do make mistakes, the ROTR are designed to ensure road users can compensate for each others' mistakes; a reasonable evalutation of your behaviour is that it is more dangerous, although it may be acceptably safe, to you.

I don't care about your safety but it does affect me when I have a discussion about road cyling with a non-cyclist and their first assertion is "you shouldn't be on the road, cyclists don't even obey the ROTR".

PandyAndy

stop?

on_the_nickel wrote: »

Until the day a truck is going through the green light and it's the end of you.

Cop on, for every cyclist going through a red light, there's a motorist who forms the opinion that cyclist do not obey the laws that motorists adhere to and consequently gives all cyclists less respect on the road.

Well, if a cyclist goes through a red light without checking (s)he might as well cycle blindfolded. It's pure and utter stupidity.

I'd be the same as Rob, I'd stop and check first before going through.

seamus

PandyAndy wrote: »

Well, if a cyclist goes through a red light without checking (s)he might as well cycle blindfolded. It's pure and utter stupidity.

I'd be the same as Rob, I'd stop and check first before going through.

But you're not infallible, so no matter how well you think you've checked, you run the risk of it being that one time in 1,000 that you've misjudged the traffic and you get flattened by a cement truck.*

If you stop at the red light you will never run that risk. (Though technique/placement for stopping at red lights is an art form of itself).

I'm as big a risk-taker as most people, but it's probably my age and road experience showing that I obey road laws on a bike (where it's safe to do so). Because to do otherwise makes journeys a whole lot more stressful and makes me a complete and utter hypocrite.

---

* A good example of this I saw a couple of weeks ago, here. At this junction, there is a bus lane in all three roads going northbound. The vast majority of cyclists going northbound (into town) from the left-hand of the fork, just saunter straight through the red lights onto main Harold's Cross Rd after checking for busses in the bus lane.
However, this particular morning I witnessed a car come flying down the bus lane on the right-hand side of the fork (undertaking traffic) in excess of 60km/h, straight across onto the bus lane of the main road, almost skimming the kerb in the process. Whatever the legality of what he was doing, if any bikes had been breaking the red light at that point in time, they wouldn't have stood a chance, and no amount of checking would have saved them.

Stark

seamus wrote: »

If you stop at the red light you will never run that risk.

Well that's not true. Plenty of people have been crushed by large vehicles turning left just as the light turns green after stopping at red lights. Had they proceeded through while the light was still red, they'd still be alive today.

Lumen

PandyAndy wrote: »

Well, if a cyclist goes through a red light without checking (s)he might as well cycle blindfolded. It's pure and utter stupidity

There is a similar issue with perceptions of safe speed. Most drivers think everyone who drives slower than them is a bumbling numpty and everyone who drives faster than them is a crazed lunatic.

The point is not whether it is safe for you to proceed when you think it is safe, the point is whether you can expect to survive the resulting accident if you are wrong.

By entering a flow of cars who are not expecting you to merge, you are drastically increasing the risks of being KSI if you are wrong.

For a demonstration of the behaviour of drivers not expecting to give way, try crossing the road on foot in front of traffic after it exits a roundabout. Drivers are entirely focused on the roundabout itself, and when they see the exit is clear of cars they floor it completely blind to the road ahead.

Chips Lovell

Stark wrote: »

Well that's not true. Plenty of people have been crushed by large vehicles turning left just as the light turns green after stopping at red lights. Had they proceeded through while the light was still red, they'd still be alive today.

Had they not gone up the inside of a HGV, they'd still be safe. And you don't need to break a red light to do that.

Stark

The HGV could pull up beside them while they're stopped. There are safe positions that they can take, but the red light alone definitely doesn't give them immunity from being hit by large vehicles.

Chips Lovell

Stark wrote: »

The HGV could pull up beside them while they're stopped. There are safe positions that they can take, but the red light alone definitely doesn't give them immunity from being hit by large vehicles.

And in that case you stay stopped behind the white line while the HGV clears the junction.

Jawgap

Stop - then chase the RLJ'ers - it's called interval training:)

blorg

I stop and look but will roll on through an empty pedestrian crossing or to make a left turn if there is nothing coming, eg I treat it as a stop sign in these circumstances. I won't cross a road on a red where I would be crossing the path of oncoming traffic. I am aware this is illegal. I know a good number who selected always stop behave similarly BTW, at least when they have been cycling with me

DirkVoodoo

stop?

blorg wrote: »

I stop and look but will roll on through an empty pedestrian crossing or to make a left turn if there is nothing coming, eg I treat it as a stop sign in these circumstances. I won't cross a road on a red where I would be crossing the path of oncoming traffic. I am aware this is illegal. I know a good number who selected always stop behave similarly BTW, at least when they have been cycling with me

Are you back yet?

blorg

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Are you back yet?

No I just have some more free wifi. Have seen quite a range of attitudes towards red lights in the last few weeks!

chakattack

RobBaxter wrote: »

No but I do love when they try and catch up, and so starts the race which is fun until.....uh oh....another red light.....and that's the end of them

There's no honour in winning a commuter race by breaking lights.....

RobBaxter

stop if it is busy?

sounds like a sore loser to me

unionman

chakattack wrote: »

There's no honour in winning a commuter race by breaking lights.....

Agreed. I automatically disqualify my opponent if they go through a red light.

Chips Lovell

chakattack wrote: »

There's no honour in winning a commuter race by breaking lights.....

FYP

Ant

chakattack wrote: »

There's no honour in winning a commuter race by breaking lights.....

It's not actually possible to win a commuter race by jumping red lights. That's an automatic disqualification.