Red Light jumper, 8am Victoria road, Glasgow

I can't be faffed to read all this, but you do understand that the folk you overtake, you stop at the red light, they sail past you, you overtake them again, you stop at the red light, they sail past you, you overtake them again, you stop at the red light, they sail past you, you overtake them again, you stop at the red light, they sail past you, you overtake them again are saving a vast amount of energy over what you're expending to achieve the same average speed, don't you? 😀

But this guy didn't go between amber and green, he went whilst the road crossing the main road was on green.

If you're so scared of traffic that you feel you need to RLJ to get an advantage, then you shouldn't be cycling on the road.

I happen to be an obssesively safe and defensive driver. We have a big family 4×4, i really dont want to hit anyone in it and sure dont want to be labled as "one of them" etc etc. I go crazy at people on mobiles behind the wheel and don't even get me started on drunk driving.

People, a big part of why I love cycling is the sense of freedom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space

Please read this and comment, this is what I beleive in.

BoardinBob – Member

If you're so scared of traffic that you feel you need to RLJ to get an advantage, then you shouldn't be cycling on the road.

i don't do it cos i'm scared, i do it cos i don't like slowing down 😆

Roll on winter.

Bit patronising that BD, absolutely no need. I've been riding for 20 years, average about 6,000 miles a year through all seasons and weather. Not the biggest or the fittest, but experienced enough not to take that line from you.

And I'm sorry, but it is about the impact on their journey and their attitude towards the road, and our position or right to be on it. It's not their right to seek retribution for a wrong – that's what the police are for.

I see lots of wrong doing on the roads every day (sadly, I drive around 35k miles a year as part of my job). I rarely get upset with other road users unless it has a direct and obvious risk to me or somebody else. I'll leave crime detection and prosecution to the authorities.

Unless you think it's okay to live in a vigilante state…

i don't do it cos i'm scared, i do it cos i don't like slowing down

Well for me the sprints away from traffic lights are great interval training. And the guy this morning was slowed right down, wobbled about like a fanny then went through the red. And he was still slower than me.

Can I ask again why car drivers get pissed off with RLJing? What impact does it generally have on their own journey?

It has no impact on their journey, but they see you breaking the law with little possibility of getting penalised – even if the junction has camera, a bike is unlikely to set it off, and even if it did there is no way to identify you. This leads to two reactions: a) Immediate retribution, cutting up, squeazing, throwing stuff out the passenger window as they pass (or all of these in combination) and b) letters to the Daily Mail asking for compulsory registration of all bikes, compulsory testing of all riders, mandatory helmet use, insurance, taxation etc etc.

Bikes are a soft enough target without given the motoring lobby even more reason to beat us over the head with specialist legislation

It could have been worse, he could have been driving a diesel sports car.

Roll on winter

Unless you think it's okay to live in a vigilante state…

I fail to see the connection or the umbridge you have taken about my 'roll on winter' comment. In winter the fair weather, red light jumpers generally disappear.

In winter the fair weather, red light jumpers generally disappear.

You made that up

Im not scared of traffic Bob, I just like to take any advantage available to ensure I get home to see my wife and kids of an evening, if that means jumping a red light to get some space or riding on a (gasp) pavement for a stretch of road I don't give a monkeys.

Getting all worked up about it on a forum will only increase your blood pressure. I am sure the object of the op is struggling to concentrate at work today wondering if the random bloke he cycled past took offence to his riding.

🙂

You made that up

Could be attached to 99.9% of posts on this forum.

I smell of biscuits…

Well for me the sprints away from traffic lights are great interval training. And the guy this morning was slowed right down, wobbled about like a fanny then went through the red. And he was still slower than me.

well in that case i'm with you all the way. 🙂

You made that up

Really, you clearly don't commute by bike.

maxray no idea what the point of your last sentence is. I'm not worked up at all.

"Well for me the sprints away from traffic lights are great interval training. And the guy this morning was slowed right down, wobbled about like a fanny then went through the red. And he was still slower than me. "

You really were in a pretend race with him! 😀 classic

It has no impact on their journey, but they see you breaking the law with little possibility of getting penalised

Exactly my point. Busy bodies basically then? Busy bodies who live themselves in very thinly paned glass houses. Pathetic.

BD – I assumed, as you'd quoted me directly above your point, that you were talking to me. Wouldn't say I'd taken umbridge, just now allowing that point to sit with me. No sweat.

Anyway, must do some work.

Don't know if it's already been said but, if it botherered you that much why didn't you just mention it to the guy.Posting on here about it to moan is,well it's pretty sad tbh….

Stop jumping those lights!

I jumped a set of lights on a dual carriageway a while back. After 100 yards I made it into a filter lane without the traffic catching up. Next thing I knew an old boy in a Rover pulled into the slip lane beeping his horn, with his wife hanging out the window giving me stick. In their haste to lecture me on road safety, they narrowly avoided being rear-ended by the car behind and almost ran me into the kerb. They then followed me past a school at 40mph, in a 30mph limit.

why didn't you just mention it to the guy

Seems to be a lot of people on here can't read today.

iamtheresurrection clearly you took my 'roll on winter' point the wrong way somehow.

lol @ 'Busy bodies'. So if you break the rules and it doesn't have any impact on anyone else then that's fine? What about the potential impact it may cause?

Thanks Shandy for a perfect illustration of pissing off other road usesr. You were wrong and so were they, so no winners there.

I jumped a set of lights on a dual carriageway a while back. After 100 yards I made it into a filter lane without the traffic catching up. Next thing I knew an old boy in a Rover pulled into the slip lane beeping his horn, with his wife hanging out the window giving me stick. In their haste to lecture me on road safety, they narrowly avoided being rear-ended by the car behind and almost ran me into the kerb. They then followed me past a school at 40mph, in a 30mph limit.

You realise if you hadn't jumped the lights they would have driven very sensibly, paying particular attention to cyclists and children, and probably taken up cycling the very next day.

You see what happens when you jump red lights.

Ok I'll give some examples………..

[1]turning right onto a 1 way streeta at crossroads from a 1 way street, lots of trafic islands about.

Is it;
a)safter to sit in the middle of the lane waiting for the green light only for the cock behind you to move right as soon as you start moving, then ease you slowly into the barriers on the trafic island

b) jum the red, sit in lee of the trfic island waiting for a gap in the trafic then go (at worst you'll have to wait untill the main road is o red and go before the road behind you is on green).

I used to do a, untill it ended in me nealry being minced through the railings by a taxi. He got a good 5 minute angry rant for that. Now I jump the light as its safer.

[2]
would you wait indefinately for the camera to see you in the bus lane and change the lights to let you through?

[3]
pedestrian crossing about 50m from a set of mini roundabouts.

You know car drivers use this as a rat run to avoid the main road so will be cutting you up on the roundabouts, overtakign and turning left etc etc etc

do you:
a) wait for the green light and mix it up with the school run mums?

b) pop through on a red light and pull away enough to clear the roundabouts before the cars catch up?

Seems to be a lot of people on here can't read today

No,just can't be arsed to read all the posts…

I'll take it you were just to scared then….

Ah thisisnotaspoon you are forgetting that if you are not "scared" of traffic it is your responsibilty to get as mixed up in it as you can!

Posting on here about it to moan is,well it's pretty sad tbh….

This is a free forum and anything is allowed within reason – There is nothing stopping him posting his gripes and has started a heated discussion – thats what a forum is about – discussion. Give an opinion but this is supposedly about free speech?

try reading this thisisnotaspoon

Yeh emac65 I was terrified, that and the fact that as I caught up with him I was turning right so in the outside lane, he was in the inside and there was a taxi in between us.

Never said it wasn't pal,I just think it's very sad that's all….

If it's that sad why are you wasting your time posting on the thread?

The hysterical repressed finger pointer is the most dangerous of all road users. Who knows when they'll finally snap?

To tell you the error of your ways in the hope you'll be a better person in the future….

That & I'm killing a bit of time before going out for a ride… 8)

just a litle red cross from here, presumably its either the HW code or the Bible?

Either way it only works if everyone sticks to it, once the **** in taxis and school run mum's come into it i'd rather assume everyone on the road is out to kill me and act accordingly. (presumably they have read the bible but not the HWC and mistake me for a sodomite with my muddy arse?)

you clearly don't commute by bike

Em, I clearly commute rain or shine, interupted only by big nights out in the pub. you clearly are a patronising big mouth.

the usual response is 'f&*k off and leave me alone, it's none of your business what I do'.

TBH, I'd probably say mich the same thing but without swearing, but I doubt you'd catch me in the first place.

I jump red lights. Not every time, just when I can see what's coming.
Am I proud of this? Not really.
Am I ashamed of it? Not really.

Why do I do it?
Because I can
Because I get from A to B faster

That's all.

So if you break the rules and it doesn't have any impact on anyone else then that's fine?

hands up who thinks thats fine?

<hand raised>

<hand raised>

mcboo in thats case I'm surprised you haven't encountered a strong rise in bike commuters during summer and a sharp fall in winter. But I realise you only said it to start an argument.

However I do love the way you have progressed to name calling to get your point across. Good on you.

My car will do 130mph, just going to nip out for a drive to get it up there. As long as I don't impact (sic) anyone else it's fine.

Yep me too

Free the weed while you're at it.

<hand raised>

That includes slacking off work if its a slow day to post on STW which I am sure you are guilty of BD 😉