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My 10 year old machine has
My 10 year old machine has been descaled (rarely) but never dismantled or degreased or had the gasket changed. At this stage, the gunk may be all that’s holding it together. I feel a project coming on.
Of course, amber gamblers are
Of course, amber gamblers are endemic. I was just saying that it doesn’t stand scrutiny to suggest that lack of opportunity is the only thing holding people back from ignoring red lights. There is always someone who decides to stop at red, and they must be in the majority, otherwise we’d see constant streams of cars sailing through on long-established red (seem to recall a video on here of this happening in London somewhere around a cycle superhighway, and it’s actually very strange to watch), rather than a small number of people at every junction chancing it just after the lights have changed.
Markieteeee’s suggestion is a little more mischievous – can’t fault that technically (damn you), other than by defining my own terms and saying I’ve always thought of RLJing as actually proceeding through the junction, rather than just overstepping the line.
Well yes, but… There is
Well yes, but… There is always a first driver at the lights. Presumably the first driver at any given set of lights did have the opportunity to ignore an amber or red, but chose not to. This is repeated time after time so that everyone will at some point be that first driver at the lights. If it was just lack of opportunity due to traffic, then you would expect to see more drivers proceed through solid red lights when they finally realise their chance of being the first driver in the queue. But IME it is exceedingly rare to see a driver arrive at established red lights and then proceed anyway – when you do see it it’s quite shocking.
How so?
How so?
Sriracha wrote:
a cyclist stopping over the line at a red light is seldom overlooked.Interesting – hadn’t occurred to me that drivers might characterise that as a form of RLJing – I’ve always assumed their beef is with sailing through solid red lights and continuing on your way.
I have used this argument
I have used this argument myself before, but I don’t know if I really believe it. Sure, a lot of drivers find cyclists an annoyance and will come out with something like “as soon as you lot stop at red lights, I’ll give you more space”. But I question how many drivers actively choose to endanger a cyclist because of another cyclist’s infraction. I suspect it’s usually just a poor attempt at defending themselves after the event, in the heat of a confrontation. They seem perfectly capable of taking murderous offence at legal things that cyclists do too, so RLJing is only part of the problem.
I agree with all of that, but
I agree with all of that, but I do think there’s still a place for calling out bad behaviour – it doesn’t need to amount to abuse (I wasn’t actually endorsing the ‘loser’ proposal in the OP). I’d also probably support things like the Idaho Stop (haven’t given it a lot of thought), but unless and until it is law here, I don’t agree with just acting like it is. Sadly, it’s not uncommon to see cyclists in London going through a pedestrian phase at speed, rather than with Idaho Stop levels of care.
Whether it’s a problem is a
Whether it’s a problem is a matter of opinion, but in my experience it is common. I haven’t commuted in London for a while (covid, innit) but I used to see it a lot on my commute. I have said before on here that I think the ire drivers reserve for RLJing cyclists is partly because of the way cyclists jump red lights. Yes, plenty of drivers (and some cyclists) are amber gamblers, who will sneak through on amber or red when they should have stopped. But what a lot of cyclists (but very few drivers) do, is arrive at an established red light and then carry on through it for their convenience.
Are you suggesting we shouldn
Are you suggesting we shouldn’t care about cyclists’ offences unless and until we have eradicated motoring offences? I fully understand that cyclists pose a much lower risk to other road users, relative to drivers. But the risk of harm is not zero, as illustrated by my example above. Why can’t we try to make both drivers and cyclists better at the same time?
I have a lot of sympathy with
I have a lot of sympathy with your frustration. My sister was hit by a cyclist while she was using a crossing on a green man. He (the cyclist, not the green man) broke her ankle and collarbone, dusted himself off and left. I sometimes used to regale other cycle commuters with that one, and mostly they had the good grace to then stop bleating about how it was fine because they’d never hit anyone.
But I’m not convinced about the “it hurts us all” argument. If I run a red light on my bike (which I don’t), that in no way justifies a driver behaving dangerously towards me, and it certainly doesn’t justify them behaving dangerously towards other cyclists. On the occasions when a driver spouts some supposedly self-justifying nonsense at me about all cyclists running red lights (which, ironically, they often seem to do while we are both stopped at a red light) I can confidently say I do stop, and so they’re talking horseshit.
Not an offence to cross on a
Not an offence to cross on a red man.
Thanks. Work PC, so my
Thanks. Work PC, so my options are limited!
The worst excesses of the
The worst excesses of the left hand panel are a problem in Chrome, but not Edge for me. The bottom banner covers the content regardless of browser.
The worst offender is the one
The worst offender is the one on the left hand side (Miele, in my example). That encroaching into the text is a relatively new development. Second most irritating is the one at bottom centre, which also reduces the amount of text visible. The rest I can easily tune out. But put it all together and there is a tiny scrolling window (no deeper than the author’s by-line in the example above) where I can actually see the full width of the content I come here for. Hoping at least some of this is an error.
It’s when they try and sell me Bentlys thet you realise that AI isn’t that particularly good.I find it strangely comforting that ‘targeted’ ads are so wide of the mark. It’s either stuff I don’t want, or stuff I bought last week and won’t be buying again for [x] years (“oh, so you like washing machines? well check out these washing machines”).
