Red lights, white lines, black tar rivers

[j4]

"I try not to go through red lights but I'm not the Pope," says one of the ninety-three cyclists caught jumping red lights in three hours in central Oxford.

I've often seen cars and buses creeping slowly through a red light, as if they were cyclists who couldn't take their feet off the pedals, but I've cynically assumed that they were just intent on being a yard or two further ahead of the car behind them when the lights change (or that they didn't know how to brake). Perhaps I misjudged them: perhaps they're actually grappling with their conscience.

I wonder if the cars I photograph parking on double yellow lines and in cycle lanes are also trying really hard not to park illegally. I'm trying really hard not to photograph them, but they just keep slipping into the viewfinder. Imagine how hard it would be to avoid it if I had a camera strapped to my head.

Comments

[ultraruby.livejournal.com]

aw, you've put that song in my head! :-)

[nja.livejournal.com]

Does the Pope stop for red lights? He doesn't have to, surely, being infallible.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I don't recall the highway code having a section for popemobiles, in fact. Not that the present incumbent needs one AFAIK.

[simont]

I've cynically assumed that they were just intent on being a yard or two further ahead of the car behind them

What always confuses me about people creeping through red lights is that they don't seem particularly intent on being as far ahead as they can, at least if you can go by the fact that when the lights do eventually go green they often take distinctly longer than average to get their car moving properly. One is inclined to think that if they were really in a hurry, they might creep through the light to get a few yards' head start, but would also get moving quickly in order to capitalise on that start.

Though I suppose one could argue that it's precisely because they're not skilled enough to get their car moving within a sensible length of time that they have to compensate for that delay by creeping forwards through the lights instead...

[brightybot.livejournal.com]

Andrew and I saw a car go straight through a red light in Kidlington the other day, without bothering to stop to check the way was clear, even. Maybe the next psychological step from bikes jumping red lights is for cars to do it too. I think he was just a teen racer though.

I can't say I've never jumped a red light, although mostly I don't. I guess you can 'try' not to, but be tempted if the road is completely clear. I know it doesn't make it right.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a cyclist, I say screw stopping at red lights, if it means I have to go through the junction along with a bunch of *quack*wit drivers intent on either cutting me off turning left, or squashing past me when there's no room.

Of course, not all drivers are like that, but it only takes one idiot to kill me. (And, conversely, I would never go through a red light if the coast were not clear, and it safe for me and all other road users. If pedestrian lights are involved, on green, I often jump off my bike and walk it across, whistling nonchalantly.)

I wouldn't be so vociferous about this if I hadn't been clipped, just the other day, by the wing mirror of a car trying to squash past when there wasn't room. As it happened, I merely wobbled for a few seconds then regained control; but if during my wobbling I'd hit either the kerb or the car in question (no more than a metre or so apart), I could have come off onto the road in the middle of traffic, and it could have been very nasty indeed.