Jumping the lights
I’ve cycled through london a few times. I’m not a fan of the tube, and I always have my trusty brompton with me, so when I have to get across London I’ll typically go on two wheels. When I cycle across London, every time I pull up at traffic lights, a flock of cyclists whizz past me.
I can understand this, you know. In busy traffic, in a car, you just resign yourself to crawling along. On a bike, though, it always seems that you should be able to nip through and around the traffic, sneak down the sides of the jammed lanes, and keep going at a sensible pace. So if you’ve been caught up in the jampacked bus lanes for a while, it’s tempting to hop through a few lights to catch up with yourself.
Me, I wait at the lights, there in London. But—and I never admitted this, if anyone asks—I jump lights occasionally.
I started doing it in Lincoln. I used to reach a set of lights at 9am on a Sunday morning which would not go green unless a car approached them. My bicycle apparently wasn’t detected by them. And, at 9am on a Sunday morning, there weren’t too many cars approaching those lights. So I got in the habit of looking around and then hopping across.
When I was working in Cambridge and living in a village a few miles out, I often used to ride home from in the wee sma’ hours. One of the great things about cycling at that time was: all the traffic lights would change for me as I approached them. Cambridge does this much better than Lincoln or Southampton seem to. I’ve not had so many late nights in Southampton (well, Zepler closes at 11pm), nonetheless I’ve more than once found myself sitting tapping my foot at the lights on an empty road. This feels terribly frustrating, and if it is late at night, and I can neither see nor hear any traffic, I might just nip through those lights.
right into the side of something, and then I slide around the corner, keeping in close until I’m well settled among the traffic.
Oh, and what’s with those funny ~5m stretches of cycle path that hop you around the pedestrian lights, on the avenue leading up to London road? All they seem to do is encourage cyclists to run over the pedestrians crossing!
Those funny cycle paths around the pedestrian lights allow you to easily cross using the lights when cycling down the Avenue - you just zip up the ramp on to the pavement, swoop round next to the button, give it a press and then cross when the lights change (and they’re usually pretty quick).
Comment by squircle — September 4, 2006 @ 9:49 am
Personally I don’t want to give motorists any more reasons to resent me, so I’m squeaky clean when it comes to sticking to the rules of the road, and I wish other cyclists were the same. If we want motorists to behave better (stick to speed limits, overtake safely, indicate when turning) for the benefit of cyclists, we’re hardly going to persuade them when they perceive all cyclists as anarchic rule-breakers. This is all about PR.
I’ve lost count of the number of motorists I’ve had conversations with who, when they discover I’m a cyclist, say that they wish I would obey red traffic lights. When I point out that I do, they find this hard to believe (since all cyclists are the same to them), and then they launch into a tirade against cyclists ignoring the rules of the road. If we want to be treated with respect on the road, rather than contempt, I think we have to look at our own behaviour.
Finally, on this topic, I often get off and walk across the junction if the traffic light is against me - this strikes me as a legal (if somewhat slower) way of not having to wait for the lights. This is especially easy on routes you use regularly, as you learn the phasing of the lights, and know when and where it’s worth doing this. I remember a CTC magazine article explaining that to keep within the law you have to walk rather than run, scoot or ride, but it’s still usually possible to get across before the lights change.
Comment by Martin_Edney — September 14, 2006 @ 11:20 am
Back to basics for a moment . . . when the lights are red this means others are using the junction. Either cars have right of way (easy to spot if nothing coming) or people.
Its much harder to spot the latter who may suddenly decide to cross the road or may be joggers who appear from nowhere.
I used to work near Holborn where crossing on a green man meant you still had to look for cyclists jumping the lights. Had a few near-misses.
I think jumping-the-lights has more to do with a macho mentality present in those who like to be perceived as a ’street warrior’.
But, as the last post noted, you end you alienating drivers and pedestrians. And remember pedestrians on another day are drivers too.
Even getting off your bike and using the pavement and pedestrian crossing needs to consider others. Even if just being pushed a bike is a large and potentially-painful bit of equipment.
I say stick to the roads and obey the highway code.
Comment by Shirley_commuter — December 4, 2007 @ 1:35 pm