And if a cyclist cannot ride without freezing to death, that’s just poor judgment.
Well, rather than the “jump red lights” law to solve this problem – which doesn’t solve any problems if there’s cross traffic at a red light intersection – let’s pass a “bring a sweatshirt” law. You’re not legally obliged to wear it, but you are legally obliged to carry it in case there is a hazardous, sudden drop in temperature.
Look, asshole, I’m not Mapquest, and I’m not a fucking mindreader. YOU said “Bad Neighborhoods. Do I need to elaborate?” Not “Bad neighborhoods that cannot be avoided due to bridge constraints.” I don’t see how a law that allows jumping red lights anywhere, regardless of whether you’re in the city’s equivalent of Baghdad or the city’s equivalent of Beverly Hills, is necessary for your very, very specific situation. It seems like a great deal of overkill to me. If you can’t take an alternate route, or drive, or take a bus or metro or subway, then jump the red light if you feel threatened. On the off, off, off chance that a cop decides to flag you down and ticket you, isn’t that still better than getting jumped?
Regarding the “bus duel” stuff, two thoughts – one, how about waiting, you know, 15 feet behind the bus instead of 3 inches? Sort of avoids that diesel smell. Second, I don’t see how jumping a red light is really going to help, except in the rare cases where the bus is first in line at the light, since you said it’s fairly easy for a bus to gain enough speed to pass a cyclist.
But the easy answer is just wait behind the bus. Cars have to do it all the time on one lane roads. C’est la vie.
Gee. Thanks. Want to put that in a file marked ‘shit I already know’? Maybe next your could tell me that should turn the pedals to make the bike go. :rolleyes: Between that and your ‘find another route’ suggestions you’re a real prize.
The bus is first at the light, or only one or two cars back at most. All I will say is that when I see rogue cyclists going through the light I usually don’t see them stuck behind the bus again.
When I jump reds it’s to help out the cars behind me, so they don’t have to pass on the right. The first 10 feet from a full stop are when the bike is most unoredictable to a casual observer. Once I get up to speed, and am gyroscopically stabilized, passing is easy.
It is illegal, but I’ve never seen it enforced on a bicycle. Much like CWI, one would have to cause some sort of problem (besides making aliquot insane with rage over the injustice of it all) in order to get cited.
If it’s shit you already know, then tell me again why you think it’s justification to be able to jump a red light? There’s no danger here, boss, just an inconvenience.
Hey, I’m just saying the world wouldn’t end if crossing a red light when there is zero cross traffic, is all. You insist in getting your panties in a twist over it.
Right, I’m so insistent about the issue. I just won’t let these dumb reasons drop without comment! How dare I?? What’s more, I’m just talking to myself here. Post after post of just me. That’s why I have 62 posts in this thread, and you only have 14.
Pot, Kettle. Black. You’ve been dragging this thing out far after its expiration date. This whole stops/lights was one minor consideration over several other important bike improvement points I was making, points that you otherwise managed to ignore in order to harp hysterical about how the lazy cyclists were gonna slam into everyone. Give it a rest.
As I said above, I’m not the only one posting here. It takes two to tango, pal.
Dumb is dumb, no matter how minor it is. If A Brief History of Time had a paragraph about how the brightest star in the sky is Polaris, that’d be wrong and dumb, no matter how great the rest of the book is.
Or, perhaps, points I didn’t have a problem with, because they were less dumb. Are you so fragile that you need every comment you post approved?
Well, that’s one read. Another is that I called bullshit when you said you have evidence the law isn’t unsafe. Evidence being said law itself, somehow. Whether that makes me hysterical or not… again, I can only note that you have 4x the amount of posts in this thread than I do. Seems like if anyone’s gonna win the crown for “Guy who should let this drop,” it’d be you, bud.
When you roll a stop sign and cross a street that obviously has no traffic either way, you are figuring on two things: First, that it’s not hurting anyone, and second, that it is barely enforced by the police. You don’t jump a red light in a car because that rule is strictly enforced by the police, even though it’s no more dangerous if the street is clear. For a cyclist, that particular law is only enforced when it creates a safety issue, much like going five miles an hour over the speed limit for cars.
If you never roll stop signs or exceed the speed limit by a small amount, then I salute you, and have nothing else to say.
Perhaps to make this thread even more combative, we should discuss the merits of declawing cyclists. And the racial sensitivity of their foreskins. Or lack thereof.
