That makes me wan to hate the b@stards even more. They pay nothing fot the up keep of the highway so why should they get anymore.
I might be going out on a limb here (what the heck) but I am defo with the cyclists on this one.
Like us, they are exposed to cars / lorrries etc much more than anyone in a car. I have no problem at all with cyclists who (safely) jump red lights. They do so to get ahead of the traffic - if/when we all pull away from a junction together - this is a dangerous time and they choose to avoid that danger.
Point in case - other day I am on a red light about to turn left. Four cyclists are on my inside - one slightly ahead of me. I have no idea if they are going straight or left. One is a few yards ahead and I reckon it’s a bit tight to race off round him - possibly cutting him up / knocking him off.
Leaving aside my position (I refuse to ride in the gutter even if turning left) I opt to let them go - all four of them - waiting before I move off to turn left. If I go and have to stop - fairly good chance the car behind will hit me.
Car behind me starts bibbing his horn and getting angry. Apparently my giving way to a more vulnerable road user upset him. Cyclists have to deal with aggressive and unaware road users every journey. Of course there are some muppets - but jumping the lights is just a way of them looking to stay safe…good luck to them.
Personally I don’t generally get wound up with cyclists jumping reds at junctions etc. , but what does p1ss me right off is when they jump the lights when people are trying to cross - seen this a few times, including some poor old sod nearly getting wiped out 
One word - They should be made to take out INSURANCE! :crazy:
There is an ounce of truth in that article and if you’ve ever cycled in central London you would know exactly what they are on about. I used to cycle to work and had more close shaves that were not my fault than I’ve ever had on a motorbike and car together. I even had one bloke trying to force me out of the way going past Buck’ Palace as he thought he had right of way as he was in a car! Cyclists have to deal with bigger aholes who actually try to take them out. What’s annoying for me is that cyclists jumping red lights etc frequently makes the news but how often do you see idiot bus drivers who think that the ‘give way’ rule means that they have carte blanche to knock you down and kill you or black cab drivers who like to u turn in front of you with no prior indication in the news or even the fkwitted moron in a chelsea tractor on their mobile phone who likes to just pull out and change lanes in front of you with no indication either. This happens to us all on motor bikes but cyclists don’t have that power or good enough stopping power to get them out of such scrapes at times. Tell you what, theres a lot to be said for that idea of one bullet, one person a day, probaly be left with no bus/taxi/white van drivers but hey, is that really a bad thing?
shando
I don’t have anything against cyclists jumping red lights provided that they don’t have a go at me for sitting in a green box at the front of lights so cars don’t decide to squish me, and they don’t do things like shouting at me for filtering because I’m “in their way”, or other things like, and don’t insist on overtaking each other at 2 miles an hour whilst wobbling dangerously all over the road and taking up an entire lane whilst doing so, or not bothering to do shoulder checks before pulling out, or ignoring the flow of traffic and carrying on regardless of traffic that’s trying to turn left or right when they know they’re in the way…
Those are the sorts of things that irritate me about cyclists. It’s not all about momentum - sometimes safety and preservation of life (both their own and other peoples’ when evasive action has to be taken) are more important.
Sheesh. Talk about one rule for one group and another rule for everyone else.
Yes you are right, not sure about the ‘taking a whole lane’ thing though as you are suposed to give them as much room as you would a car anyway. I think a better answer would be to see more cops policing the roads in central london. Looking for the ahole drivers/riders/cyclists. There are a lot of foolish people on all sorts of vehicles on the roads but not all cyclists are aholes.shando
I cycles nearly every day for 30 years so have some sympathy for cyclists’ concerns about safety and always try and give then space and time, but I get really annoyed at the cyclists in Stockwell who routinely shout abuse at school children as they ride through a crossing on the red light and the cyclists that endanger me by going through red lights “becasue it is safer” when they can have no idea what is coming. Regularly cyclists have almost hit me at the Savoy Place/Embankment junction under Waterloo Bridge as they can’t see through trees, and the Bridge Street/Westminster Bridge/Embankment junction when they come at speed onto Westminster Bridge with no regard for vulnerable motorcyclists passing through the green light onto Westminster Bridge.
I am also very worried about the enforcement of advanced stop lines which is coming in. I think it will lead to more motorcycle injuries and deaths. When I rode a 50 I was as vulnerable as any cyclist and needed those boxes to have any chance of getting away without a white van or 4x4 running over me. Without motorcycles in the green boxes more and more motorcycles will collide with cars turning right or changing lanes at traffic lights and more motorcyclists will end up in the blind spots of HGVs.
Personally I think it is just an excuse for these people who either dont give a S*** or in too much of a hurry to ride carelesly. “Oh, I’m on a push bike so that doesn’t apply to me.” is all I see too often. Jumping red lights, especially on crossings, cussing and swearing at pedestrians on the crossings. Hang on fella, the rules of the road apply to you as well you 4rsehole. Then if they are in too much of a hurry they use the crossing. It’s a PEDESTRIAN crossing. Give you a clue does it??? One minute on the pavement then on the road, cant be bothered to signal or let anyone know where or when they are turning, riding 2 or even 3 abreast and then they wonder why some drivers get upset with them. Admittedly there are more bad drivers out there, including motorcyclysts, and you could list the things they do badly, but dont you think this should be about education of all road users?The highway code is not law. It states law and is a guide on how to use the road, but changing laws to justify these acts of impatience and simply cannot be bothered is not the way forward. In this country we are, generally, atrocious drivers/road users. We dont give a stuff for other traffic, unless it’s bigger than us. Try driving like we do on the continent and you’ll soon get short shift from someone.
All it takes is a little forethought from everyone. Something called manners and a little consideration. You’ll feel less stressed at the end of a journey.
But, I think I’m really living in a dream world if I expect it to happen 
There is always the good old alternative, if you get some twat cut you up, rip his mirrors off at the next set of lights.:D:D Sneak out left on a red light :w00t:and hey :hehe: watch the lemmings scatter at the crossing:D:w00t:
lets give the people who contribute the least more rights than the rest.:hehe:
now that sounds familiar;)
The thing that bothers me is, how come car drivers have all these lobbies that get them what they want, and bicyclists have like, 50 different lobbies all fighting for their rights, and we’ve got MAG, who every now and then defends our position but generally is about as effective as a slap in the face with a damp smelly haddock…
No offence to anyone who works for MAG at all, but it just doesn’t seem to be as “loud” and “effective” a “voice” for our views, opinions and position as everyone else’s representatives seem to be.
Jump the lights in front of me at own risk!
bulls***!!!
I come from a country where most people ride bicycles A LOT, and where riding bicycles appears to be much safer. If anybody would propose that cyclists could brake the law or jump lights because of safety, they’d be laughed in the face and ignored ever after. It’s safer not because we’re allowed to break the law, but because we are educated how to ride a bicycle safely from very young age.
I got fined 100 pounds when I was 16 for jumping a light on my bicycle (jumping a light here was not stopping for an amber light and instead accelerating so that I could still make it). I was angry, but it was the right thing, I was more careful ever after.
And please don’t say that they can at own risk. Nobody would like to get a bicycle through their windscreen because some idiot jumped a light “at own risk”. It is endangering other road users for nothing than selfish reasons. If they could safely jump lights, why wouldn’t anybody else be able to? I can’t see the difference. It’s safer for everybody not to, that’s why trafic lights are there.
Using safety as an excuse for breaking the law - that dog won’t hunt monseigneur. Strangely enough if they obeyed the laws methinks they’d be safer (unsafe laws?! What?) but that means they don’t get to behave like asses so it’s not a point they will concede is it.
We need to stop any encroachment by a powerful lobby on the otherwise fine document that is the highway code. Do us all a favour and drag the next cyclist you knock down behind your bike / car as a warning to the others.
To alter the highway code to include preferential treatment for pedal-terrorists doesn’t solve the problem at all. Allowing cyclists to jump red lights on pedestrian crossings just shows how selfish those lobbies argue. What about the vulnerable pedestrian then?
The best way forward is to create dedicated cycle lanes, as they already exist in numerous other countries. Of course they need to be maintained and of decent width and surface quality in the first place.
Liability insurance for cyclists is another good idea. Although I would propose that in case one is found without insurance, the perpetrator gets crushed, rather than the bike.
A lot of the anti-cyclist thing from bikers/car drivers is tribal - particularly from us bikers as some of the bitterest conflicts occur between those tribes who are actually quite closely related (Arabs and Jews, Inter-Slavic conflicts in the Balkans etc) bikers and cyclists both travel on two wheels and often compete for the same space when hustling through town - so we come into conflict from time to time. Perhaps we should make more of an effort to understand each other. However the real irony (to digress slightly) is that If the cost of oil keeps rising and if we’ve reached ‘the foothills of peak oil’ (see Rupert Paul, Bike Magazine August 08) we’re all gonna be on bloody pushbikes soon - to quote Chris Skrebrowski (highly respected) editor of Petroleum Review: ’ the final peak (in oil production) is when you simply cannot produce any more oil at any grade at any price. His prediction for these exciting times? 2011 to 2013.’
So what happens when one of us gets taken out by a cyclist that jumps a red light? Even if its just a few scratches to the fairing and a mirror or indicator that gets damaged, they are not insured and so we have to pay. Personally if i could push the f*ckers off then i would. Thankfully i live out in the sticks so don’t have the pleasure of interacting with them.
+1 - or easily even a fatality!.
+1, used to cycle all the time in London, no excuse for jumping lights