Originally Posted by boots
i consider running red lights to be an essential safety technique for urban riding. after running a red light, and especially after sneaking through a light right after it turns red, you find yourself on a completely vacant street. no cars = no threat. the more often you run red lights the greater the percentage of time you spend on empty streets.
here's some knowledge that i find useful: on new york's one-way avenues, the lights are timed in groups, divided by the major crosstown streets i.e. 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd etc, and they're timed for 20-25 mph traffic. Thus a bicycle riding down seventh ave will begin hitting yellow lights, then reds, because bikes aren't fast enough to take advantage of the lights' timing. However, the cycle restarts after every major crosstown intersection, so that if a cyclist can make it through the light on a major crosstown, the next light will be not red, but green, and an early green at that. So if you can sneak through a red on a major crosstown street, you'll get 5-10 blocks of clear sailing with no cars anywhere near you.
I completely agree with the motivation here to run some red lights. But I disagree with regards to the lights "restarting" after a major cross street. My experience tells me its more that the major cross streets go yellow/red faster than the minor cross streets. In other words, riding southbound on 5th ave, one can ride a "wave" of greens from 50th to 43rd but the 42nd (major cross street) light will turn yellow (and then red) sooner than the rest of the wave. But once you pass 42nd, then 41st (and 40th, 39th, etc) will be on the same wave as 50th to 43rd was.
But that was just my personal experience.
Lastly, the best wave I've caught was 5th ave from 50th to 17th (i think). The downhill from 37th or so to 31st really helps.