1 in 10 cyclists jump red lights, says Sunday Times

I commute to work in Oxford and every day see lots of cyclists jumping red lights (though most do not) - and far more of them do it than drivers.

And it's never because its safer to do so, but because they can't be bothered to wait and know they can get away with it.

Amazing the way the British have discovered cycling through towns and cities. As if cycling was only invented in the last 10 years or so.

I drive, ride motorbikes and cycle. Only on the latter do I filter through/jump red lights. I don't do it all the time, mainly on my racer to avoid unclipping but only when turning left or going straight on at T-junctions. Occasionally, when drivers block my path, do I go off road and only when there are no pedestrians. I wish I could avoid my bad behaviour but I feel I need to make some difficult choices to stay in one piece and continue cycling. Better junction design, the ability to be treated the same as a pedestrian in more places is the best solution. The right to filter left or cycle through pedestrian crossings would help.

The fact that only 10% jump red lights should be seen as reason to relax the traffic laws not tighten them.

The effort to make cyclists comparable to motor vehicles, by some fuckwits, is worrying. Cyclists are more like pedestrians. Always have been. Always will be. We have understood that fact for over 100 years so what has changed? Nothing as far as I can see.

Whether it's a car, train, aircraft, boat, HGV, motorcycle, cyclist or pedestrian. Red = Do not pass, Green = proceed with caution only if your way is clear. See its so easy and people will live longer too!

1 in 10 they say. They must have all been in Bristol that day.

Every set of red lights I stopped at today had at least 1 or 2 cyclists ride through.

At some junctions in Bristol you get shouted at by other cyclists for stopping at red lights.

What I find odd is that given this survey, and other similar articles, there would appear to be a lot of cyclists jumping red lights, particularly in urban cities.

So I would expect, given that this RLJ behaviour is regarded as 'dangerous' there would therefore be a corresponding high number of road casualty statistics to go with this.

However I cannot find any evidence that RLJ is causing many accidents.

The Rospa survey doesn't highlight this as an issue or significant factor in cycling incidents.

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformation/cycling/facts-figur...

So my conclusion is that although RLJ does take place, the vast majority of the time it is done without undue risk.

Personally I always stop and wait at a red light.

If anything this common behaviour suggests the design of the junction could be improved for cyclists, e.g. with advance go lights for cyclists, left filter arrows for cyclists, etc.

On the way home from work a 4x4 and I rolled up to a red light together. I stopped at the line the driver meanwhile continued to roll their car forward whilst riding their clutch. I shouts at them and pointed at the line. They roll down the window to snarl at me. I tell them they're well over the line and and their bumper is now over the studs for the crossing. I get a shrug and the window goes back up. Needless to say when we got the green I was away quicker than they were.

Traffic light controlled junctions in our cities are generally a pretty lawless environment. ASLs are usually occupied by cars, vehicles mount the kerb to sqeeze though gaps that don't exist and all types of users RLJ.

Until there is some real enforcement of the rules this will not change and as vunerable road users we should simply do what we feel best to stay safe as long as we don't endanger other vunerable users (pedestians). RLJing because you're in a hury is dumb, crossing the stop line to get ahead of the car blocking the ASL is rather different.

Interestingly, that is the junction where i was 'doored'. I was travelling towards manchester, outside the current Tesco store. Whilst within the painted 'Cycle lane', i was undertaking stationary traffic at said lights.
However one passenger couldnt wait to get into Tesco and nearly knocked me unconscious.
I try not to go through red lights - but it is circumstances like this that make cyclists behave this way.

It should be 1 in 10 city cyclists jump red lights. I got hit crossing at traffic lights by a cyclist riding the wrong way up a one way in covent garden. He got a slap and a load of verbal, poncy hipster on his stupid crime against cycling narrow bar fixie.

You don't see it much elsewhere, but I suspect if you did the same survey for cars it would be a similar figure. City cyclists need to sit up and take a lesson from us sensible country dwellers.

Weird choices to observe red light jumping in Manchester.. Oxford/Whitworth is at the top of a hill, with a lot of RLJing taxis and buses, and pedestrians who're eager to leap into the road as soon as the lights go red. You'd have to be suicidal to jump Mosley/Wilmslow, but you do get people riding off *just* before the lights change, which I suppose counts. That's more of a safety move, as waiting for the lights is more dangerous.

The stretch of road in between the two junctions is full of red light jumpers, especially through the curry mile. I often follow serial RLJers (on my bike, and no I don't RLJ) from the Wilmslow junction to the Whitworth junction, and they jump every single light, but they don't jump the two surveyed.

If they'd surveyed Oxford Road/Grosvenor Street, or Wilmslow Road/Dickenson Road, the figure would've been more like 6 out of 10 cyclists jumping the lights. Some might say "oh, that's just the students". If that's the case, then there's a lot of middle-aged students these days..

All of the "it seems too low" comments are just describing the effects of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

And car drivers law breaking IS relevant.

The usual comments of cyclists all being law breakers are often used as justifcation in blaming cyclists when theres an accident and also in arguing against safer facilities (they don't deserve it etc.). This provides evidence that cyclists really don't act too differently to any other road user.

This isn't saying that such behaviour is okay, just that it maikes no sense in singling out the rule-breaking behaviour of one group lumped together simply by the fact they happened to be using the same form of transport.

I'm not sure where the self-reported figure comes from? The only thing i can think of is the IAM study (carried out on its own website).... http://road.cc/content/news/58339-cycle-campaigners-see-red-over-aim-red...

If you add up the Yes-Somtimes and Yes-Frequently figues its not too dissimilar to the Times result.

Just now, someone just forced a little girl and her mum off the zebra crossing outside the nursery on Guilford St. Every time that happens, it's one more person who isn't on our side. Nobody cares about stats. Only 6 RLJs on Theobalds this morning though (ah..still over 25%!)

I don't know why everyone gets so butthurt every time there's talk of cyclists RLJing. "But how many motorists do it?" That's irrelevant, this is about cyclists.

From my experience of cycling in London, that figure is too low. It depends though - in central London you'll see a much higher percentage RLJing. When I happen to commute early enough to see lots of other fellow commuting cyclists, around Clapham Common, the vast majority (more than 90%) don't RLJ. That's just my experience.

This afternoon on my Sunday ride, there were very few cyclists going in my direction. Two didn't RLJ. I noticed at least 5+ who did.

I'm surprised by the comment about Oxford, I was there for the day on Friday and didn't see any cyclists jump a red light.

In Manchester city centre I rarely see any rider stop at one.

I've never RLJed. I drove back from Richmond Park to WC1 and saw 5 or 6 cars do it within 10 miles. Crossing Theobalds Rd on foot, at least 25% of cyclists do it at rush hour.

The vast majority of cyclists in London do not jump red lights - that's if you don't count those who can't to a trackstand, but nevertheless refuse to unlcip and attempt one so roll into the middle of the pedestrian crossing and then can't actually see when the lights turn green, but I digress....

What I wanted to say was it would be great to start a Flickr album with photos of cyclists waiting patiently at red lights. I've not got a point and shoot anymore and my phone is too fiddly to take pictures at short notice, but I think it would be a great album.

Shame they didn't stake out Manchester's Fairfield Road/London Road junction, by Piccadilly Station. Red light jumping by cars (and busses, and taxis) is endemic there, on the pedestrian crossing phase usually.

Cyclists might be as bad (although I see very little RLJ by them on my commute into Manchester) they're a hell of a lot easier to step out of the way of than a bus.

My experience of working in the waterloo area was that... its true and you took life in your hands when attempting to cross on a zebra crossing. Mainly from clipped in riders not wanting to stop, which i can appreciate but still.

There is no excuse for running a red light . . . period IMO ! It's just plain crazy and sighting the fact that others eg. motorists do it does not justify doing it yourself.

The rules are there for a reason and if everyone ignores them just imagine how dangerous it would be to venture out onto the road then. It is everyones responsibility to ride within the rules. Ride hard and fast by all means, l certainly do ... all the time.. But I always ride within the rules to the best of my ability.

I have friends who have have run red lights infront of me and I always take them to task over it. If we all aimed to set a standard then we could criticise other road users with a dear concience, until then we're just hipocites.

Sorry if my spellings a bit strange ..... I'm using a handwriting interpretation app which seems pretty good even with my scroll.

Cars and cycles jump red lights, yep fore gone conclusion. Right or wrong well that will always be the debate.
Stand and watch any pedestrian crossing and then tell me who disregards the respective red lights then?
I bet the pedestrian will come out the full on serial offender.

This seems like a low estimate but that is because a statistic has been misused (again). In order to actually determine that "1-in-10 cyclists jump red lights" you need to follow a population of cyclists for enough time to determine each of their behaviour at red lights i.e. through an ENTIRE journey (or longer).

What they have shown is that the probability of a cyclist jumping ANY GIVEN RED LIGHT is 1-in-10. This means that the number of cyclists who jump red lights will be quite a lot higher. In fact their observations remain compatible with the possibility that all cyclists jump red lights (although I suspect it will actually be a number somewhere between 50% and the self reported 18%).

This is compatible with behavior observed during my commute across Oxford (by bike) every day.

I'd say much higher than 1:10 from my experience in London. Probably closer to1:3.