I was almost taken out by such a dimwit trying to nip across a red light on a main road last night. I'm still slightly proud that as I sailed inches past him, brakes nearly locked, I managed to get out a deafening shout of, 'WANKER' on the way.
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Worth stressing to any new followers [hello!] that this is not anti-bike. It's just another example of my patented Multi-modal Arsehole Theory of Travel*
*The types who jumps lights on a Lime almost certainly also drives fast/push to get the last Tube seat/recline their plane seat during meals etc
My problem nowadays is undertaking. I am trying to take the lane, and people approach from the left all the time. This feels quite dangerous.
I RLJ quite a lot though, I am quite careful about it, never had any issues, it can be done right.
I'm not a fan of even 'safe' RLJing. I think it undermines the perfectly reasonable expectation that pedestrians should have, that they can dash across a green man signal without having to check to all sides. I'm sure the lad last night considers himself a 'safe' rider.
I agree. It is perfectly possible for bike RLJing to be technically 'safe' in that the bike rider has genuinely checked for and mitigated any risk of collision with pedestrians or other road users, while at the same time being severely damaging to pedestrian comfort/sense of subjective safety.
Interesting. In Amsterdam it were almost exclusively the VanMoof bikes (with illegally increased speed limit) for some years. But now the fatbikes have taken over as the main offenders. As there are more and more of these ebikes (about 30% now) cycling for ordinary elderly cyclist is too dangerous.
This particular light controlled junction is right at a point where the road's decline ends. Immediately after is a pinch point with an incline immediately after the light. If as a cyclist you get a green, you can use the momentum up the incline to keep pace with motorists.
If you hit a red, you lose all that momentum and instead have to put in a huge amount of effort (largely beyond what is possible for non-sports cyclists - 400w+) in order to avoid motorists trying to push past you at a point they can't see oncoming traffic.
It's a great example of a junction where adding a protected strip along the top of the T would enable people on bikes to maintain their momentum for the incline, without the risk of collision.
We do byut have Lime where I live, but I recognise the same in the cyclist who are delivering - almost always without lights and wearing black at night as well. The other night one sailed through red lights and weaved across the traffic on the main road - I was terrified.
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*The types who jumps lights on a Lime almost certainly also drives fast/push to get the last Tube seat/recline their plane seat during meals etc
I RLJ quite a lot though, I am quite careful about it, never had any issues, it can be done right.
There are people who run reds because they're entitled arseholes & there are people who run reds because it's dangerous not to.
Where it's the second group, we need to understand why.
However, that isn't the majority of people on bikes. They're just trying to get from A to B safely. That isn't feasible.