Originally Posted by Daily Commute
I admire your restraint, but it's the city's job to make the lights work. I try to stay predictable, and a turning car wouldn't expect me to go from the lane to the signal to the lane again. Street Smarts, which has been published by, among others, by the Pennsylvania DOT, agrees:
As I said, it is not restraint, but the fact that there is never a sufficient break in traffic (3-lanes each way) for me to cross. In fact my commute route is designed so I cross these streets where there is a light, there are places to cross without them and my first time commuting this route I waited nearly 10min for a break in traffic before I gave up and (gasp) rode the wrong way on the sidewalk to where there was a light that would let me cross. I have run these red lights during weekends when there is much less traffic.
When I leave the road to press the signal, there is sometimes a car or two coming, I let it go ahead and line up behind it. These are 90% of the time right turning cars. (it makes sense that in the morning folks are leaving neighborhood streets and turning L or R onto main streets, not crossing them into another neighborhood)
One light has a push button just for cyclists, but I can't reach it from the left turn lane I am in. I wonder if the city will fix those sensors if there is already a 'cyclists push button'
Al