Originally Posted by
thumpism
All very eloquently put, and not to judge too harshly but I hope you were stopping at those same lights, at least briefly. If not, you're damned lucky that monster didn't squash your ass.
In my experience if you run red lights on a bicycle as a job in a big city you will not survive. Folks do it all the time once or twice each day commuting to work and get away with it. Do it a hundred times in a day for work and I doubt you'd survive a week. City intersections are too big and many frustrated folks drive very aggressively. One thing we used to reflect on back at the bike pool, whilst we awaited for the next job, was the sobering fact that every day you always saw a 'civilian' under a car - usually a well dressed suited and booted city worker. Most likely jay walking or crossing against the lights.
My dopamine shot referred to passing all the stuck vehicles as you zipped passed them up to the next intersection. Hopefully you timed it to go green when you arrived. Do the same route thousands of times and you get to know the timing of the traffic signals. If not, you balanced for a few seconds at the head of the beast and off again from the front.