Cyclist at Pedestrian Crossing

[grumpypedestrian]

First off I’m all for people cycling, it’s a great mode of transport.

Ive had yet another close encounter and narrowly avoided being hit by a cyclist. Is there an unknown rule that cyclists can go full speed through pedestrian crossings?

Ive experienced nearly being hit by cyclists going through red lights too.

But if the limit is 40 then people will do 40 50.

@Dwappy corrected for accuracy.

In London I wonder if this is a result of traffic conditions forcing the more sensible cyclists to stop cycling to work, because they don't feel that they can safely cycle on London's streets. Leaving mostly the more reckless men (it's usually men) on the road. Therefore you see a higher proportion of reckless cyclists than you would in a different area. If traffic conditions in London were safer, more sensible people would cycle and the lunatics would be a minority.

Whenever I visit London I certainly notice red-light jumping in a way that I never seem to see elsewhere, but I notice poor behaviour from every other road user too, again far more than at home.

Yes that's very true. I definitely see speeding much more than red light jumping where I am.

If you cycle in a city then yes, 10 drivers jumping lights a day us normal, every major junction, cars style it - after the light has turned red.

You can't simply separate the issue of bad cyclists from bad drivers, it's one issue - dangerous road users, complaining about one and not the other doesn't make sense - and it's like comparing pea shooters to knives

Can you confirm whether you mean drivers speeding through on the amber/ just turned red, or where the lights have been red a good 5-10+ seconds and pedestrians are already in the middle of the road? (Or cars coming the other way are already free flowing across its path etc?)
I live in London. Have done my entire life. I do occasionally see drivers speeding through as they change. Maybe once or twice a day on a bad week. Sometimes never. I genuinely have never seen a car ignore a red light that has been red for a significant amount of time and just drive straight through it. I have only seen cars notice a (wrong) light change to green and they've driven off when it wasn't their light they were looking at. Not saying that's not dangerous. But it was unlikely to be a deliberate act.

Interesting stats:

"From 2012-20, one of the 32 pedestrians who were killed by someone who jumped a red light was hit by a cycle (in 2020).

Seventeen out the 385 serious pedestrian casualties hit by someone jumping a red light were hit by a cycle rider (4%). The rest were hit by other vehicles."
www.cyclinguk.org/briefing/cycling-and-pedestrians#:~:text=From%202012%2D20%2C%20one%20of,were%20hit%20by%20other%20vehicles.

That's quite a lot considering the ratio of cars to bikes, but probably a lot less if you assume cyclists are more likely to run red lights than drivers. And oc cars are likely to kill pedestrians in others ways...

Not sure I posted anything about a close pass from a motorist.

However, those of you whining about the odd cyclist on a pavement really need to go overseas. You don't half need to keep your wits about you - cyclists, trams, cars, e-scooters and lots of ding ding ding on their bells for you to move out of their way (even on shared use paths).

But you can separate it, because cyclists cause far less damage than drivers do.

And there are far more car users, too.

If the government has limited resources, it needs to concentrate on the damage caused by cars. Sadly it appears that it is going to do the opposite, as anything else is a "war on motorists".

I agree. Drivers sneak through amber as it changes to red, but they don't just blatantly drive through a red light. I really don't see that. Maybe it happens at 3am when there's nobody around. Maybe we should switch the lights off overnight if there is nobody around. But it's not an issue during the day.

But yes, cyclists do, especially in London.

And so, of course, do pedestrians. I cross on red men all the time if the road is empty.

https://beyondthekerb.org.uk/laws-whos-breaking-what/

Most reliably derived figures seem to indicate compliance is about the same

Trams don't go on pavements.

Do those other countries not have disabled or elderly people then?

To quote you.......

"the key word in that sentence is "almost"

Nothing happened."

So by your reasoning, a close by a motorist (i.e. "almost" hitting) a cyclist is not a problem because "nothing happened", same as a cyclist "almost" hitting a pedestrian is not a problem because "nothing happened".

Why is it acceptable to start threads that lump all cyclists together as an issue, but nobody does it with drivers?

I live next to a four way junction, that is often (and I mean OFTEN!) blighted with temporary traffic lights. In the most recent wave, the lights were set back from the junction, the roads narrowed to one lane, and the lights were taking much too long to change. I have been in a queue of cars waiting at one light. The lights changed to green, but the cars kept coming from another direction. At least eight cars went through AFTER the lights had changed (and bear in mind that the lights take a while, so the number after they got a red light must have been at least half as much again) and only two cars managed to get through from the line of cars I was in. The lights were fully functional.

If I was to start a thread asking a question about it, effectively suggesting that there is an unknown rule for car drivers, I'm pretty sure I would get shouted down (completely fairly) for tarring them all the same. Why is it ok to do similar for cyclists? It never seems to be 'AIBU to be annoyed at this specific cyclist' but 'AIBU to think that cyclists think they own the roads' or similar.

It's possible those lights were timed wrong though. Temporary lights often are timed badly. You couldn't know if cars were going through on red unless you knew someone watching them from the other side and telling you when they changed.
But they often seem to time temporary traffic lights normal speed of cars. If there's heavier traffic cars are often going slower. So even though a car went over on green/amber by the time they've gone very slowly through the roadworks it's been green for ages at the other end. I've had it happen to me quite recently. I went through on green. Lots of cars behind me also got through. But we were driving behind a cyclist. The lights are not timed for a cyclist. And due to the roadworks we couldn't overtake. So by the time we all made it through the roadworks the lights on the other side had been green for ages. The cars waiting were swearing and gesticulating at us as we all finally made it past. It might have looked like loads of us jumped the lights. But we were all just stuck in the in between behind a slow vehicle.
Or its possible some people jumped the lights. I will admit I see that far more often at temporary lights than regular lights. (Not as many as 8 though!) Perhaps because drivers perceive the risk as lower as they know cars coming the other way cannot move until they have gone through. (Obviously I'm not saying this is right at all. I'm just pondering what their mindset could be). Also theres unlikely to be a camera on temporary lights. That could be another reason drivers jump them more often.

The lights were fine - they had already been up for a week, and there was a long discussion about this particular incident on a local Facebook page. The drivers were just fed up of waiting - the queue was very long. I can completely understand their frustration (the saga of the temporary traffic lights is a long and unhappy one). But even though a lot of drivers did it, I still wouldn't try to start a thread 'negging' all drivers because of it.

pp is taking about this kind of thing. Yeah the lights could be faulty but it's much more likely it's just a load of entitled pricks taking the piss

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/2068852/shocking-video-nine-drivers-jump-red-light-falkirk/amp/

That's utterly ridiculous and yes those drivers are terrible. Would be good if they could all be caught and fined. In 25 years of driving I've never seen that many. Absolutely awful behaviour from all of them.

Yeah but everyone sees one or 2 at every change of every temporary light don't they? I've had people overtake me so they can run the red after I've stopped for it plenty of times

Could be a lot of the same drivers OneTC - I'm not terribly far from Falkirk!

So should we now have a thread where we complain about how drivers are taking the piss? Given that it's fair game to complain about cyclists as one homogenous group?

I would happily join in on a thread moaning about "drivers" jumping temporary traffic lights after seeing that video. I said I have seen it myself and it's definitely more of a problem then drivers jumping normal lights. Obviously it's not all drivers. I don't do it. Plenty of others don't do it. But I wouldn't get offended at people saying about "drivers jumping temporary traffic lights" even though I don't do it. Its obviously a bigger issue than I thought.

Of course there isn't - it's just common practise amongst the minority of cyclists who are cunts.

Why is it acceptable to start threads that lump all cyclists together as an issue, but nobody does it with drivers?

People start threads complaining about drivers all the time, the difference is those threads aren't immediately jumped on by angry drivers saying:
Actually other things are more dangerous than cars.
You didn't actually die so no big deal.
Not All Drivers.
Drivers get hurt too.
Here's a video of someone who isn't a driver breaking the law and harming people.
It's okay for drivers to break the law because reasons.

And generally being hostile and aggressive to anyone and minimising the pain and trauma caused by illegal dangerous cycling.

The only reason people treat cyclists as one group is because they act like one group! If you stopped acting so outraged anytime anyone criticises a single cyclist (there have been loads of "AIBU to be upset by this one specific cyclist incident" which always end the same way, with the cycling brigade's hostility and defensiveness taking over) and started saying "yes dangerous illegal cycling is bad, I don't condone it" then we'd find it far easier to not see you as a single threatening mass who endanger us every single day and don't give a tiny shit about it.

I couldn't agree more. The cyclists on these threads are always full of outrage and indignation because they CHOOSE to take any criticism personally. They justify their vitriol by claiming to be fed up of the antagonism towards cyclists, yet are all over such threads in an instant. If they are fed up, then don't read the threads or don't respond! Simple! Tbh, their responses do nothing to change any negative perceptions people may have. If anything, they reinforce them! I personally think they enjoy these threads!

Some cyclists react this way because they're aware of the effects such unchecked animosity has on their road using experience.