"But the question was whether a person had EVER run a red light, not whether they ran every red light"
Yes, but then the headline on their own press release was that 57% of cyclists run read lights, despite only 14% admitting to doing it all the time.
Anyway, for motorists those who do it at every light is probably way way lower as well, because to run every light would require them being at the head of the queue every time the light just turns red.
I'm running into not being able to explain very well again. Let's try this. Red light running in a car is a very different beast to red light running on a bike. I actually think that the grand majority of people in a car probably have never run a red light because they're further back in a queue, or the light has been red long before they get to it (I'm not saying this doesn't happen, but for pedestrian reasons etc etc etc, it's more difficult to do in a car). And that 'speeding up as the light goes amber' thing isn't, technically, red light running, it's amber-gambling, which still means that, honestly, someone can say they have never run a red light.
It's easier to do on a bike, with more opportunity (given filtering and so on) so there will always be more cyclists admit to running a red light than motorists.
"I am not sure why that needs complaints unless I am missing something somewhere?"
Because, reading their press release, they lead with "57% of cyclists run red lights" which is misrepresentative of the actual results (it suggests 57% do it all the time which isn't the case) and employs the lovely "cyclists have to help themselves" line...
"Cyclists are right to feel that roads are not cycle friendly enough, and this is reflected in their behaviour. But while poor junction design, inconsistent cycle paths and inconsiderate drivers put cyclists at risk, cyclists also have to help themselves" (essentially, we realise that there are bits of the road that are dangerous for you to use in a legal manner, but you should use them in a legal manner and run the risk of being squashed rather than being naughty).
The IAM are are even-handed organisation, and it's really the headline that annoys me more, simply because, as Bike Biz points out, the red tops will go nuts for this. 57% = 'all'.
posts
