http://cbs5.com/local/bike.lights.stop.2.751714.html

What do we do when the laws aren’t keeping up with a changing world? We ignore those laws when we think we can get away with it.

Yes, michael, bike boxes would be great. It’s exactly why I often split lanes and go to the front of a line of cars stopped at an intersection.

Y’all: I think the reason people run stops and red lights on bikes is the same reason they jaywalk: they’re human, they’ve got places to go, and it goes against human nature to sit there waiting like a zombie when there’s no good reason to.

Isn’t that thinking from the same page as
‘She was askin’ for it with that dress she was wearin’”?

A major reason why many bicyclists might be seen running red lights is the fact that there are no bicycle detectors to trigger a green light if a bicyclists is waiting at a red light, therefore you either wait until a car comes along to trigger the light or you run the light. This is my reason. I typically do not run red lights when there are cars already waiting at the red light.

One way to get bicycles out in front of cars is using bicycle boxes. These are being heavily used in NYC and Portland. They allow bicycles to get out front so they are visible and can get across the intersection before cars.

That works well with most of the population, I suspect. You guys run with that, and use that tag line on me, no charge. Good luck with that.

”

last friday, i experimented: i obeyed every traffic law, light, & rule of etiquette on my way to work. 50 minutes.

yesterday, i broke every traffic law i could, rode on the sidewalk, rode to the front at traffic lights. 40 minutes.

the roads & the rules are made for cars. i can’t tell you how many red lights i sat at because they changed just as i got to them. i can tell you how much time that adds, though. 10 minutes.

time is money, bitches.”

The last part is the best.

Can’t disagree with your last paragraph.

No offense, Brian, but ‘it’s a pain in the neck’ isn’t going to win bikers any friends. It’s a pain to lose momentum in a car, too, but we expect people to do it because it’s the law and it doesn’t make sense to simply allow people to go through an intersection when they think it’s prudent. Unless bikers want to lobby to change the laws, I agree with giving out tickets for jay-biking, or whatever it’s called. Being bikers doesn’t give us license to break the law.

I’m really not trying to be strident here. I just think this debate (in seattle, at least) often gets dragged down into ‘but bikers run red lights all the time!’ and ‘cars pass me going too fast!’, neither of which really advance anything. It would be more productive to hash out the changes in policy and infrastructure so that bikes and cars can coexist.

Have to admit I don’t usually run signalized intersections. If I lived in central San Francisco, I might.