http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097882/Paris-allow-cyclists-run-red-lights-bid-cut-accidents.htmlWhat do the collective think about this then?

Good idea.

Daily Mail – did not read.

Here’s The Times version for folk not wanting to give the Heil any traffic.

All for it. Anything that makes cyclists safer.
Already some discussion about this in the ”Bike Rant on BBC Radio Bristol” thread in the Chat Forum.

Considering it for the UK too apparently:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/07/cyclists-headstart-busy-junctions-london

Sounds eminently sensible to me. Sod all chance of it happening here, then.

Not just giving motorists one more reason to hate cyclists then?

A significant number of motorists will always find a reason to hate cyclists along with foreigners and anyone else they don’t fully understand.

Not just giving motorists one more reason to hate cyclists then?

Perhaps French motorists don’t hate cyclists that much in the first place? Crazy idea, I know, but Johnny Foreigner is a funny old bird…

Not just giving motorists one more reason to hate cyclists then?

If it is signed or signalled in some way then I think it would be accepted.

If it was just a change in the law then we’d get loads carp off people who don’t know it has changed (probably the same people who think the speed limit on a dual carriageway is still 60).

Having ridden in France i found the attitude of motorists towards cyclists to be, in general, better than in the UK. However, I found Paris to be comparable to our major cities and would hazard a guess thast most capital cities around Europe are similar.

Obviously I’m pro anything that makes cycling in major cities easier but I just don’t see this will help. Far better to implement a “head start” system at traffic lights (as I believe they have in Copenhagen) IMO

Like I said in the other thread, there is a minority of motorists who will hate us anyway. If we rode along dressed as angels dispencing free petrol at traffic lights they would still hate us!