Originally Posted by
Polaris OBark
I understood your intent, and wasn't trying to be difficult.
Let me re-phrase my worry as a worst-case scenario.
Someone encounters this problem at a 4-way junction with a traffic signal. The signal is unresponsive to the presence of the rider, and just to make it simple, there are no "beg buttons."
The rider stops, waits, looks for oncoming traffic, sees that it is safe, and proceeds. Somehow, a car that has the direction of the green light arrives at the intersection, collides with our cyclist, and kills the cyclist crossing against the light.
If it was a 4-way stop, or a signal on failsafe, the family of the dead cyclist might recover something in an insurance settlement, but in this case, legally, the auto driver did nothing wrong, and the cyclist broke the law by going through a red light.
I understand that this is extreme, and unlikely, but it is just pointing out that the cyclist is assuming all risk, liability and forfeiting any legal protection by treating it like a 4-way stop. (Treating it as a 2-way stop isn't any better, but it does emphasize that there should be no expectation that the perpendicular traffic has any constraints.)
If I was that concerned about it I would probably commute only by bus or light rail. Certainly not by bicycle ever again. We don't always have to be jackpots for our next of kin if our time comes. As I read this, not just cyclists, but pedestrians as well are advised not to ever cross intersections where there is cross traffic and no 'beg button'. My life is way too hard as it is for me to spend a single minute imagining worst case scenarios for vital processes like bike commuting and shopping. $8/gal. gasoline can't get here soon enough to make some of us fully embrace the freedom of the bicycle without apology.