Jerrys88

Here's another question I have: I know that when we ride on the road we are supposed to act like automobiles and obey all traffic rules. But let's say you come to a red light. You stop, but there's no traffic in sight in the cross street from either direction. Do you still wait for the light to turn? In this situation sometimes I feel downright silly waiting for the light to turn - If I was walking, heck I'd carefully J-walk without a second thought if no traffic was coming, and it's so easy to feel like something between an automobile and a pedestrian in this situation.

Oh, and then there's this one. You come to a red light or stop sign, but you are making a right turn. Do you stop or just slowly and carefully make your right turn without stopping if you're not turning onto a really busy street?

knobster

Depends. If there is a way to trip the sensor, then I would wait. If there isn't, then I treat it like a stop sign.

The other one depends on who is there. If cop is near by, I stop. If not, I go through slowly.

JoeyBike

I wouldn't even slow down (assuming good sight lines). I don't look at the color of some mindless machine. I look for traffic. Most times that prevents me from leading a pack of NASCAR wannabes off the green light too. I run the reds and ride in the car-free gaps created by red lights.

Lizzylou

It depends on the intersection.

For a lot of stop signs... I do a "rolling stop" if there is no traffic. At 3mph, I'm more or less stopped, just haven't had to unclick my foot yet.

For red lights I always stop. I can't think of a single light that I encounter that gives me enough visibility in either direction to just run it. I stop and wait. If it's a censor deal, I stop, wait, then run it.

DoB

In the morning (6 am) there are rarely cars around and I can usually roll through all stop signs. I stop for red lights, but then I will proceed through if there is nobody around.

pueblonative

On a red light, I always stop. Typically you'll see those on busy lights and there's no way I'm going to risk that sort of collision even early in the day.

On the stop signs, if I know that it's quiet I'll roll on through. It's probably wrong, but it's what I do. And I will admit on downward turns you do get the rush of that acceleration.

ItsJustMe

Become a pedestrian if you want. If not, what would you do in a car? I wait.

apricissimus 

My rides take me through a lot of lights, none of which are based on an in-street sensor (or almost none anyway), so sometimes I get red lights where there's no cross traffic at all in either direction. These are usually smaller city streets. I run those lights without compunction. However if I see cross traffic in either direction less than about 200 feet away or so, I wait. I do it more out of courtesy for the vehicles in the cross street than out of any fear for my safety. Of course, if I can't see that far, I'll wait at the light regardless.

Like most people here, I also do the rolling through the stop sign, rolling through the right on red in most situations.

Bat22

I do what's been posted. I'll do a little extra and ride empty crosswalks, especially when there are
bends cutting down on the sight lines.

kuan

Slow down a little and eyeball cross traffic, or if I have to stop, I'll cross when it's safe. The problem with red lights is if you wait until there's a line of cars behind you and go when the light turns green is that unless you take the whole lane you get squeezed onto the shoulder by all these cars trying to whiz by you.

noteon 

I do whatever keeps me away from the most cars, whether that's waiting or blowing the light.

chipcom 

When in doubt, obey the law. When you get to know your route, you'll know every light, whether it is timed or triggered by a sensor, which sensors trip for a bike and which don't and the timing of the timed lights. Armed with this knowledge, you'll rarely ever get caught at a red, and if you do, you'll know which ones to treat as a four-way stop and which to treat as a light.

For example, there is one light I never, ever catch green...it turns red almost as soon as I pass through the previous light, so I take it easy and time it, which allows me to sprint up to a full head of steam as it turns green, which then allows me to catch the next light seconds before it goes yellow, which allows me to maintain a 'normal' pace and hit the remaining three lights before my turn.

Indeed, sometimes stopping for a red until it turns green is a good thing to get your timing back to normal when traffic conditions, running late, running slow, etc. throw it off.

A skilled commuter knows his/her route and its traffic patterns like the back of their hand and can ride in harmony with it. People blow lights because they don't know their route and are out of sync with it.

noteon 

Or because God told us to.

I know you meant to say that and just forgot.

chipcom 

No, I never told you to, it must have been that son of mine.

markhr

If you wouldn't do it while driving, i.e., passing on the inside, running red lights and stop signs, not indicating and checking before manouvering, driving on the pavement, kerb crawling, lane splitting, tail-gating, driving against traffic, etc., then you probably shouldn't be doing it as a cyclist.

Longfemur

We always need another one out there to reinforce the image of cyclist as lawless nuisance on the roads.

Indie

It ticks me off when drivers get sloppy because they think nobody is around to see or no harm will be done. The big one for me is drivers who don't use their turn signals when there are no other cars in the intersection. Cyclists and pedestrians are paying attention to which way you're going to turn, and we can't see through your stupid tinted windows to tell which way you're even looking.

Erm, that's sort of a different rant, but my point is that it's good to make a habit of following the rules even when you think they aren't needed. Your judgement isn't flawless, you might be missing something or not thinking of something, and the more people drive predictably the fewer chances there are for accidents.

kila kila kila

Depends. I have a series of lights that, if I wait for the green on the first light I cross, I hit all the greens as they turn for the next mile. Otherwise I'll check for traffic, if there is none I'll check for parked cops, if there are none I'm not going to wait there like a knob.

smessvader

+1 to rolling stops. Unless you have crystal clear sight lines, you're dumb not to slow down. Plus, I don't think a cop would pull over a cyclist who's clearly being safe but doesn't come to a complete stop, but may do so to a cyclist who tears through a red light without looking.

kila kila kila

I guess it depends where you live. Around here they do.

bckpck2rev

I know my route perfectly thus I know the lights, 2 stop signs then a ton of lights (city all the way). I roll the stops when I don't see any traffic, which also means I am rolling at 1-3 mph due to coming down a steep hill. The lights I treat individually, some I can roll through others I have to stop and look first. That said if there are cars anywhere in site I stop and wait, it's the right thing to do. So I stop and wait into work (it seems though that my city timed the lights at 20 mph, I rarely get a red light almost always I hit the green), and coming home is usually a nonstop ride at 4am.

lil brown bat

Oh god, not this "you're giving cyclists a BAD NAME!!! (and this will be going down on your permanent record young man/lady)" scoldy schoolmarm preaching again.

GV27

If a red light gets run in a forest and nobody is around to see it being ran, is it actually ran? Is it even red?

When there is a lot of traffic I follow the rules. At 5:30am on a back street when there's not another living soul around I'd feel like a complete moron sitting there stopped at a light. The silence can be enjoyable, however.

cyccommute 

And you are the problem. Why do you think the cagers get so pissed off at us? What if they took the same attitude? Hell, some of them do. But that doesn't mean that it's right. Part of being a citizen and not a sociopath is to understand why the rules are there and to obey them so that society functions smoothly. Outlaws are people who don't think the rules apply to them and, sooner or later, society will deal with them. It may just be the rest of us who pay for your transgressions.

Grow up.

DataJunkie

Grow up +1

I:
1) Sit and wait
2) Turn into a ped and hit the button.
3) Very very rarely do I run a light and only after trying 1 and 2.