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RE: [Blog #10] Cycling Saturday | I Guess I Don't Like Cyclists | Beautiful Day
I go through the red light if it's clear because I would rather be ahead of the cars when they try to get through the intersection. I have been hit twice while following the law as cars turned right into me despite my having the right of way and a green light. They see green and just turn. They don't look for bikes. I would rather go through when the coast is clear, even if red, rather than worry about cars turning into me when we both have a green light.
Hey @robmolecule, thanks for your comment. Sure it's a reason, and it's sad that you got hit.
I always check over my shoulder to see if the car behind me has its turn signal on. If yes I take the front instead of following by the sidewalk. One thing though, that I avoid, is to cycle near to the sidewalk. Many times distracted pedestrians step outside of the sidewalk into my space and It'll be harder for the cars to notice me.
It's been working great and no complaints from the drivers for taking a bit of their space so far.
All this I think goes into the common sense law, if you double, triple checked and it's safe for you to run that red light, do it.
What makes me mad however, is that in my city, most cyclists in order to check if there are cars coming, invade the crosswalk, where the pedestrians are passing. That's rude.
And another thing that makes me mad is that, if they for some reason get hit by a car, while doing something wrong, the fault is always the car, and they always want to bash on the poor driver. Just this past week I saw cyclists wanting to cycle against a one way street, and they were mad because the cars were honking hahahahahaa
I don't disagree on your reasons, it must feel terrible to get hit when you are right! But we do have to be aware of the traffic laws and common sense.