I don’t jump lights (and rarely jump the line), but I can sort of see the rationalization for it. As well as having a better line of sight and maneuverability, riding a bike gets a car off the road and is much better for the environment and your health. Doing something like riding a bike instead of driving should come with some perks, shouldn’t it? I mean, carpoolers often have their own lane, a pretty good incentive to car pool. What incentives are given to cyclists to promote more bike use?
FWIW - I ride to work on average once or twice a week, including winter so long as the snow isn’t too bad. It’s about 7.5 miles each way and takes me about 30 minutes each way the friggin stoplights included. Yes I wear bike clothes and have clipless pedels. I have a pair of shoes at work to change into and a change of clothes in my backpack. It’s a work out each way and I try to sprint it as much as I can. No I am not training for an event (although I have done triathlons), but I am including it as part of my fitness agenda. I wouldn’t work in clothes I ran in, or lifted in, and I am not going to work in clothes I biked hard for half an hour in. The clipless makes a huge difference in pedelling efficiency. The clothes matter not only for padding but so pants don’t get stuck in the chain. A cyclist without a helmet in my mind is advertising future organ donor. Maybe I am not a “normal” person but I am not a bicyclist racer either.
I am lit up so much at night I may represent a blinding hazard. I try to keep close to the side to let cars by.
I’ll also fess up. While I signal and “stop” at a red light, it will be a Hollywood stop if there is no traffic, or even a very wide gap, just like I’d jaywalk across if I was a pedestrian. And I will slowly go along side cars stopped at a red light. No apologies either. Neither of those represent a hazard to anyone.
I’ve also had drivers who thought it would be funny to come up behind me and blare the horn or see how close to me they could come. No, no relationship to if I’d just “jaywalked.” Just for kicks. I’ve gone over my handlebars (bike following as I was clipped in) when I had to stop suddenly when a car pulled out from a stop sign, and been hit by someone who turned right into me despite my florescent green windbreaker, not realizing I was there until the thud. Shoulder separations are a bitch.
I actually wonder if on average road cycling lowers rather than raises life expectancy.
Erm…what?
I routinely cycle short distances in whatever clothes are appropriate for the destination. That could be shirt and tie to work, or jeans if I’m off to a shop. Usually I’ll just roll up the chain side leg of my trousers for obvious reasons. Care to explain why that’s an issue?
Better health isn’t enough of a perk for you?
Of course not! I’m greedy.
Plus, it’s probably at least partially mitigated by the fact that I have to sit in the exhaust of all those vehicles ahead of me at the light instead of pulling to the front of the line, lest I annoy some fragile soul. cough, cough
ETA: Saving on fuel isn’t enough of a perk for carpoolers?
In countries with sensible multimodal transport policies such as the Netherlands, cyclists have their own separate bike lanes and bike paths with their own traffic lights, and the traffic light system often prioritizes bikes over cars. Also, city roads are narrow and crowded and city parking facilities are pretty skimpy, so bikes can generally get where they’re going in town at least as fast as cars can, and have a better chance of finding a place to park when they get there.
That’s the sort of perks that communities ought to provide to cyclists in order to encourage bike use. Cheating on traffic laws is not an acceptable form of perk.
You’re trying to bike fast as much as possible, in fairly busy traffic, sometimes with suboptimal road surface including the possibility of snow, and you’re carrying your stuff, including an entire change of clothes, in a backpack?!!??
You’ll increase your stability, mobility, and ability to look around you if you get that bag off your back and onto a rack or into a pannier with a lower center of mass.
I don’t think this has been mentioned, but bicycles (and motorcycles for that matter) will often not trigger the light changing sensors. You are faced with three options:
- Wait for a car to come along and trigger the sensor for you
- Be illegal and get onto the sidewalk to press the crosswalk button (assuming there is one)
- Run the light
In my small town I can wait quite a long time for someone to come along and trigger the sensor.
Nicely done. I didn’t know you were a Mel Brooks fan.
I’m curious about that too. I thought that was something you did on the chain-side to prevent your trousers from getting mixed up in the mechanism. Most males wear their jeans so loose these days I can see how might be a hazard. In the 1970s, when flares and bell-bottoms were popular, you’d see people using a slip-on metal clamp to keep the hem from flapping around–before that, jeans and trousers were usually tighter anyway so it wasn’t an issue.
I think the issue is that in most cases, the person looks foolish (much more foolish then someone in cycling clothes, tbh). It depends on the area though - I can understand if you are riding a few blocks to work or something, not building up a sweat. But it just seems…gross to wear your regular clothes when you’re on a bike building up a sweat. Depending on your location though, YMMV. Here it looks odd.
If you are not part of the solution, you are the precipitate, or something.
Here’s an interesting video used to track down a driver that hit two bicyclists and fled.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57423645/video-captures-calif-hit-and-run-leads-to-arrest/
One of the cyclists had a handlebar cam. While it shows the driver hitting them (not good) it also documents the cyclists blowing off traffic rules and riding 2 abreast on narrow and pretty busy roads.
lolWUT?? They were two abreast for SECONDS maybe twice. Neither time did any traffic pass them. And after they make the right turn at the stop sign, they’re either in a bike lane with parked cars, or a parking lane used by cyclists. it’s hard to tell which it is.
And if you consider that a pretty busy road, there must be ZERO traffic where you are. 14 cars pass them safely; the 15th car hits them. I get passed by more than that in the ride from my house to the first big intersection I come to.
I’ll grant you that they did ride through a couple of stop signs. I might have done the spot where there was a right turn lane a little differently, unless there was no traffic behind them.
Driver was the asshole, not the cyclists.
So I wonder what the charge was/will be?
Assault with a deadly weapon?
Or
Attempted murder?
From the article:
Car drivers almost never get ARRESTED for hitting cyclists. Or killing them even. :mad:
I’m sure that car had been following those asshole bicyclists for awhile and pulled a Zimmerman. Totally justified. Warning bicyclists: You ride inappropriately and we, the tax-paying, car-driving majority will run your ass over.
They do when they are drunk. Otherwise…
Then they get arrested for drunk driving, not for injuring anyone.
IF we’re lucky.