That bottom section doesn't come off the main road, it's a side road coming from another area.

https://goo.gl/maps/0P7xu

It looks like when they built the highway they cut off access to the property (an animal shelter?) on the south side of the highway at the bottom of 80 St., so that spur for the moment only serves that property.

I've found that it's best to ride predictably, and if this means queuing up with cars at a red light, then I'll queue up. Switching between being a vehicle and being a pedestrian is also a good way to confuse drivers and annoy pedestrians on the sidewalk.

OP: In urban situations, I'll ride in the lane with the cars (I can easily keep up with the general flow of traffic, about 15-20mph in Lancaster), waiting at red lights if I come across them. The lights in Lancaster are timed, so if you can maintain a good speed, you'll hit all greens anyway. Lancaster also has zero bicycle infrastructure. I know that Philly is getting a lot of bike lanes, so it's probably best to act as the locals do.

As far as triggering lights, usually there are plenty of cars to trigger them for me, but I've had good success with lining my bike up directly over one side of the loop, so both wheels are on top of the metal. They're upgrading a lot of our intersections to be camera-based instead of induction loops in the ground, and these pick me up 100% of the time.

In DC there are a lot of cyclists who blow through red lights. I usually stop at most of them because riding through red lights rarely buys me enough extra time to be worth it. At most of the red lights heading east through National Mall, there's too much car traffic for cyclists to roll through safely - I usually catch up with the same cyclists I saw rolling through red lights earlier.

The only red lights I roll through all the time are on 4th St NW, the last north/south street on the National Mall on the east side - those red lights are there to allow tourists to cross, but in the morning rush hour, there's typically nobody there to cross the street.

My behavior depends on the time and neighborhood. Sometimes I even ride on the sidewalk.

What about 4-way stop signs? When I come to one with a decent shoulder and I'm going straight I'll come up adjacent to the lead car (if he's not turning right ) and go at the same time he does.

See if you can find out what the local culture is and what law enforcement is like. The police started to give tickets to cyclists for running red lights a couple of years ago. But it's a big city, and the police can't be everywhere, so most people don't stop at lights most of the time. I'm a very cautious cyclist, so I go slowly at red lights, and I'm careful (1) not to inconvenience anyone with right of way and (2) not to scare anyone. But I do break the law. Enforcement is very spotty. I have even broken the law in front of cops in hopes of getting stopped, but I haven't been stopped yet. I even once rode while drinking from a beer bottle. Nothing, but there were no cops around at the time.

Let me say to folks in the western US who think what I describe is deplorable. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. You have no idea how chaotic things are here. We have a different attitude towards law and order here. Your way works for you. Our way works for us.

I do that all the time, I think of it as using the car as a 'shield'

Why would you hope to be stopped?

It would be nice to know that the police are there to protect us. They have more purpose than just giving citations.

My cycling habits are similar to yours (Boston vs NYC), and I have once been stopped for running a red light, though at 6AM On a Saturday in a leafy suburb (going down the famous Heartbreak Hill on the Boston Marathon route). The officer gave me a warning, and was actually gracious about it, doing it for my own safety.

Unlike you, and not intended as a criticism, though I could likely get away with running a stop, I won’t do so in the presence of a cop, just out of respect.

In DC, the cops tend to go after cyclists running the red light at Madison and 15th St, which runs in front of the Washington Monument. That's when there's a lot of tourists crossing 15th St. The cops try to protect them.

That's the only place I've heard of cyclists getting tickets.

That's exactly the way I think of it.

How do you know? Turn signals are very unreliable, and at least around here, drivers are not expecting someone to come up on their right.

By the car's lane positioning.

Yes, I take into account the car's position as it stops. Vast majority will ease to the right if turning that direction. Nothing guaranteed, however, so you still have to be cautious.

I simply treat every Stop sign and red light (and even unmarked 3-way and 4-way intersections) like I have a "Yield" sign, and yield to any/all traffic that has the right of way, just like you would do if driving in a car parking lot where there are no signs. If I can clearly see that no traffic is intersecting my line of travel, I go thru all Stop signs, red lights, and unmarked intersections at the absolute fastest break-neck speed I can muster.