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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
CCE Members' attitudes (2) RLJing
(59 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Ok, I think its foolish, wrong etc.. though if its a left turn I can be tempted to get off and walk on the pavement round the corner, but usually wait for Green.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Going on amber can be dodgy - I was once nearly wiped out at Western Corner by a car that shot the red lights at speed. And that fast decent into Roseburn heading west is dangerous even on a green light if there are eastbound cars filtering right that misjudge your speed.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Going on amber can be dodgy"
Useful point. In a way it highlights the fact that if cyclists go on Amber - with there own safety in mind - they may be really on motorists obeying the law and being careful drivers...
Posted 13 years ago # -
I never jump reds & must admit it annoys me when I see others do it. IMHO if you want to be respected on the roads you need to act like a road user. Pedestrians throw dagger stares at RLJs too (from what I've seen.) That said I've gone through a few ambers in the full knowledge if I'm hit it's prob my fault. Tend to do this when my speed is such that to try & stop would result at best a back wheel slip out.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I get off and push quite a lot at junctions, especially if pedestrians are crossing it is perfectly legal. I like the way cyclists can become pedestrians so easily: it's a key strength of our mode of transport, and we ought to take advantage!
Posted 13 years ago # -
"85% of drivers 'are amber gamblers' "
Posted 13 years ago # -
I try to behave like a car - take up the space I need, go as fast as I can and stop when I'm supposed to. I don't mind what other people do. Never bother taking issue with anyone who does anything else although I might just shake my head in a ostentatious display of disapproval.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Instography - on Gorgie Road just after Fords Road if right turn is looking dicey to turn up there I proceed to the pedestrian crossing wait for green man then shuffle over propelling myself with my foot in a kind of admittance that I should be pushing the bike. This also lets cars get in and out of Fords Road but it does annoy some drivers. I read it in Cyclecraft {tho Mr Franklin may not endorse my exact interpretation] - sort of using what crowriver was saying - taking the advantage of what can be done on a bike to buy you some leverage with the cars.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Sure. I wasn't criticising crowriver or anyone else. I was thinking more of RLJing with my exaggerated head shaking. I'd walk but I'm usually panting like a dog and grateful for the rest that the lights give. Sometimes I slow down and pray that the lights will change to red.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Instography - I didn't think you were being critical, I was really analysing my own behaviour and noting that a certain action would get thumbs up from the motorists I had facillitated in their right turn but frowns from others.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ah, OK, sorry. Misunderstood the "@" :-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Conversation in pub tonight - Buddy - 'does anyone do anything about cyclists RLJ ?' Me - I dont do it, so its like asking you if you usually drive home drunk.
ok, so a couple of pints later, I cycle home - nobody said I was perfect......however, I did abide by the rules of the road, sat in the correct place at lights, did not go over when the ped lights came on etc.
Its personal choice - I prefer to make people think cyclists are 'better' but i realise that some cyclists are part timers/uninterested in rules etc and there is little I can do to improve that.
Posted 13 years ago # -
RLJ poster campaign
Back of buses
"Drivers: Keep the red boxes clear"
"Cyclists: Don't ride through red lights"
Of course that would depend on the council keeping the ASL boxes maintained.
Which it may or may not agree to do after the November transport committee.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I was heading down Lothian road the back of four tonight when I passed a blue bullhorn barred bike with a trendy/fakenger bloke riding it. Don't know if he was horrified at being passed by a small wheel but he then passed me when I stopped at the next set of (red) lights and weaved through the peds/cars to my utter scorn and disgust.
No need, and it doesn't count in SCR anyway ;-) :-pI must confess I commented then to no-one in particular, "you thought you looked foolish, but now you look like a right a***!"
Must try not to let it annoy me :-/
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Smudge - but it IS annoying.
I have to confess to having thoughts along the lines of 'you are about to get hit' but then realise that, regardless of their stupidity, being hit would be terrible.
I think its a little like car drivers (of which I am one also) who dont understand what its like to be involved in a collision - until it happens, when the penny finally drops how painful / terrifying it can be.
20/20 hindsight and all that.
Posted 13 years ago # -
there is one set on my early morning commute days @ 4am I jump
the simply refuse to change for the bike
I wait for a bit to see if a car is coming behnd me but in general nothing comes
outwith that i stop at every redPosted 13 years ago # -
I think a bus campaign would be good but mainly I want to distance myself from most of these cyclists. I wouldn't mind a jersey, like the 'I Pay Road Tax' one that said 'I Stop on Red'. Or maybe a wee badge for my rear mudguard.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago #
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Nice (although it looks like a plug for Red Nose Day). I'd rather it just said "I stop on red" rather than be me telling anyone else what to do. I suppose I see it as a lost cause persuading people to do what they know they should do so I just don't want to be bracketed in with them.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The ones I don't get are those who cannot stop at/on the red and sort of roll slowly through it, pretending that counts as a track stand, and then stop in the middle of nowhere. There are a few junctions like this, where the stop line/light is actually a short distance back from what it is stopping you cycling/driving through. They probably think that there will be a gap in the traffic and they can nip through, but at these sorts of junctions there rarely is. Haymarket heading east at foot of Morrison Street an example. They are then infront of the lights and can't see them changing so don't move until those of us that did stop at the lights pass them. So they've saved no time whatsoever. And looked stupid.
My biggest annoyance is the "it doesn't count if you ride onto the pavement, around the light and then back onto the road" cyclist. That makes me proper angry.
Posted 13 years ago # -
kapps - that is quite funny - so far forward, stranded in no-man's land can't actually see the light changing, not actually gaining an advantage and looking like a pilchard.
I have two regular companions on the commute - I think they may be an item, they emulate each other's behaviour and shave valuable seconds off their commute by anticipating every light - going as red changes to amber [they must be counting?] Taking the inside lane for turning left but then going straight on etc. It works for them.
Posted 13 years ago # -
There was a tubular gentleman this morning trying to sneak through the red from South Charlotte Street to Princes Street. He trickled onto the footway, through the ped crossing, east a bit then through the (also red-lighted) westbound stop line before edging forward, by which time traffic from South Charlotte Street had the green light anyway and was sweeping through in front of him, so he tucked into the left of a bus.
Posted 13 years ago # -
It would be interesting to see some statistics on red light jumping cycle related deaths/injuries. I reckon the figures would be pretty low. I mean I find a bit of rljing perfectly acceptable at certain red lights but I don't go speeding blind into traffic when I can't see what's coming and I think that's probably the case for most rljers.
People seem to get wound up about cyclists nipping through a red on a pedestrian crossing when nobody's on it. All this get off and walk the bike through the light and remount and carry on seems ridiculous to me. In a lot of cases getting rid off traffic lights altogether would make drivers concentrate more and improve traffic flow. see the link below for example.
[+] Embed the video | Video Download Get the Flash Video Posted 13 years ago # -
@ Cyclepathic
(1) "I find a bit of rljing perfectly acceptable at certain red lights"
Ergo, you presumably find it acceptable in other road users? Whats allowed - just bikes, or a car, or a taxi, or a truck ???
(2) "All this get off and walk the bike through the light and remount and carry on seems ridiculous to me"
Me too !
May not get universal agreement by all of us, but IMO you are either a road user or not - and I can understand car/taxi/bus drivers annoyance if cyclists decide to walk bikes through the green man or flout other rules of the road.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"I can understand car/taxi/bus drivers annoyance if cyclists decide to walk bikes through the green man or flout other rules of the road."
AFAIK this is perfectly legal. When you are on foot pushing the bike you are a pedestrian. It's just a bonus that it winds up drivers!
Posted 13 years ago # -
"AFAIK this is perfectly legal."
My belief too.
But as long as there is any doubt (I think there used to be about wheeling bikes across Zebra Crossings) and/or people believe it's illegal there will be problems.
Bit like cycling past "No Cycling" signs in The Meadows/Links which (certain parts of) CEC fails to understand the need to remove ASAP.
This may or may not help -
Note on the law relating to pushing bicycles on public footpaths
[+] Embed the video | Video Download Get the Flash Video Posted 13 years ago # -
At the junction of Saughton Road and Stenhouse Drive I need to turn right so some days I get off and push with the pedestrian sequence Usually only if I miss my sequence or if there is heavy traffic trying to turn.
I have no issue with this, there isn't a filter for right turning traffic and cars coming the opposite way rarely stop on amber or early red so by the time the junction is clear to turn the traffic from Broomhouse Drive is starting to move. This is not a great place to be. Also rarely more than two vehicles can turn right through this sequence so if i'm not one of them then some one else gets to get going. Its also worth noting that I only do this if the button has been pushed and the pedestrian sequence would be run any way.
I never bother with this at other junctions and especially not ped crossings its purely because I know the sequence and its worth the time taken to dis/mount and it feels much safer than trying to take that right turn some mornings.
I do however use the pedestrian crossing at Fords Road more often than now, when wanting to turn right, I don't care how much this might annoy drivers or "harm the vehicular cycling cause" being between four lanes of often fast moving traffic is also not a good place to be. The turn further up into Stenhouse drive isn't nearly so bad since there is a right turn alne and there is only 2 lanes of traffic, oddly, some one usually lets you in to turn there its not some thing i encounter so often at other junctions..
Posted 13 years ago # -
Some clarity on my point - I know its not illegal, and in some instances (those noted by crowriver and steveo seem perfectly valid) is ok.
My point, perhaps not clear, was in relation to cyclists who simply cant be bothered waiting and either sail through ala chdot video, or dismount and push it through - while I sit waiting for the green.
You wont convince me on those types - and its not about causes, its about road manners - whatever you drive/ride.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I could have got to the ASL, but I chose not to...
Posted 13 years ago #
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