Sometimes I feel stupid waiting at red lights when I could safely cross.

What do you guys do?

How do you obey or disobey traffic laws?

How do the Police treat you?

this has been beat to death...search, dysfunctional as it is, is your friend.

Boy, here we go. Do a search, as this thread has been tackled many, many times on BF before -- with a lot of heated exchanges.

Do I personally follow all the rules? Nope, absolutely not.

Police treat me well -- as I follow the rules in such a manner as to provide for my own safety and the safe road use of other people. This is not the same as 100% following all the rules.

I personally don't come to a *complete stop (all forward motion stopped) at stop signs, but slow enough that it's pretty close. At intersetions I stop 100% of the time -- but do not always wait for lights when it's 5 AM and no traffic is anywhere around.

I also am known to "swallow my pride" (ride defensively) to avoid getting hit by motorists -- meaning I care more about staying alive than my rights as a cyclist. I think this comes more naturally to female cyclists and females in general, which is one of the things that I think is great about females. They seem to have a more natural tendency toward caution -- and my wife has definitely rubbed off on me.

I don't give a damn what other people do. I don't give a damn about their reasons either. I've been riding for 5 years, daily without issues.

Yup agreed i do the same thing.

I slow way down for red lights, and what I do next depends on the situation. If the intersection is clear, meaning that I can cross safely, without bothering anybody else or especially stealing their right of way, and there isn't a police officer around who looks interested in giving me a ticket, I proceed.

The police treat me just fine, when I approach them. It would be a little ... disrespectful of their authority to run a light or stop sign directly in front of one while they're paying attention and seem interested. That forces them to do something about the situation. The truth is they really don't care about bikes - we're invisible to them. But on those rare occasions ( usually on longer weekend rides ) where I stop one to ask directions, they seem moderately amused, and then promptly forget me.

Also, I don't start moving just because a light turned green. Cars run lights rampantly ... they just do it during the first 5 or 10 seconds of it being red, and speed through the intersection, whereas bikes do it more slowly and at any point in the light cycle.

I do what's safest, whether or not it follows the strict letter of the law.

^This^

To paraphrase Dwight Yokam, I always follow the rules, except when I don't.

I follow most rules, most of the time. I may not come to a complete stop at every stop sign, but I can guarantee you I pause at the intersection before proceeding for a longer time that most cars who come to a complete stop do. I will occasionally run red lights after stopping and checking carefully to see that its clear. I consider rolling slowly through a red to be the same as jaywalking. Going through downtown at bike speeds, you don't get the advantage of the light timing that allows all the cars to move through many lights in a row. On the bike, I would have to stop at almost every light because they aren't green long enough for bikes to make 4 or 5 in a row. I'm lucky if I can make two.

Agreed, Pallen, although, if I jump the light at Macon and Texas streets, and really hammer, I can make every green between there and the convention center.

I do not make a point of following the rules, but I DO make a point of riding safely, considerately and predictably to those in a position to observe or be affected by it.

I always stop at wait at red lights, unless it's a situation where it's because the sensor for the light is't picking up my bike - but then it's legal to proceed when it's safe anyway.

At stop signs, if there's no conflicting traffic, I will come to an almost-stop - I've never acquired the ability to track stand - then go on through.

Depending on left-turn situations and traffic, I sometimes get off of my bike and walk it across as a pedestrian.

Sometimes I feel stupid at the railroad crossing waiting until after the train is gone.

Nope.

I have been tempted, when the train is just sitting there for a long time, to lift my bike up and over the couplings between cars and climb through

It seems like I can get lucky like that going south, but going north on Calhoun, I catch every stinking one most times.

Do I sometimes roll through stop signs? Yes, though I do slow down quite a bit in case there's a car I'm just not seeing. I feel bad about it, though.

Do I run red lights? No. Why does it make more sense for a bike to run a red light when there's no one coming than for a car to do the same? Or would you argue that you feel silly waiting at a red light if you were driving a car?

Most cyclists, like most drivers, frequently break some rules. However, there's a disproportionate amount of PR damage from a cyclist running a red as compared to most other traffic infractions. This PR damage clouds the debate whenever we talk with politicians and at planning meetings to get more cycle-friendly infrastructure, and otherwise improve the position of cyclists on the road. In short, when you blow a red light, you hurt us all.

More than that, though, different societies have different ideas about the flexibility of THE RULES. If you've ever been to Cairo, you'll note that a red light there simply means "proceed at your own risk." (Which is much the same thing a green light means, strangely enough.) In North America, we've mostly adopted a stricter sense of right and wrong, and breaking a rule makes your behavior unpredictable. The result is that even well-meaning drivers are often confused about how to behave around cyclists because they're not sure what you're going to do next. That creates more risk on the roads.

In the end, I'd ask that you please follow the rules of the road, whether driving or cycling. It makes the roads a more predictable place where we can confidently predict what people are going to do next and avoid crashes. And it lets us get down to actual issues at planning meetings, completely blowing past the "cyclists ignore the rules" part of the conversation.

Confession time: I run the same stop lights in my car that I do on my bike. I always stop for reds, but if there is nobody around, then I'll bust through the red. Nobody sees, nobody cares.

I also roll stop signs whether I'm on the bike or in the car. Except for the fact that with one vehicle I'll use highways, and with the other I'll use MUPs, sidewalks, dirt trails, and surf parking lots, I pretty much bike like I drive and vice versa.

Nothing wrong with crossing the track before the train is gone, but just don't get "caught"....ha ha.

Trains are something I take seriously. They're so damn big they don't look like they're moving even when they're going 30+ mph. They're so damn heavy that nothing's going to stop them fast even when they're going 2 mph.

On the way in this morning, I saw two cars both refuse to yield to a pedestrian in the cross walk who had the walk signal. Also, too many cars to count were speeding, and several cars did "California stops." If bikes want respect as legitimate road users, we'll have to break more laws.

I use to think traffic signs were mere suggestions, but I follow them now.

I'm fairly certain that the "pass" people give cars for breaking the rules has a lot less to do with the fact that they break so many, as that they are not part of the "other."

When the average driver sees a car break the rules, they put it down to "that's a bad driver." If they see a cyclist break a rule (and are not, by chance, also a cyclist), they'll say "cyclists are unsafe, can't ever follow the rules." It's not fair, but it's how it is. Breaking more rules won't reduce the effect of being, effectively, foreign.

BF really needs an FAQ for the noobs so we don't have to cover the same old ground umpteen million times.
For the question of "Should I follow the rules?", I nominate your answer.

I stop at all the lights, usually using the prostitutes and transvestites to lean on when they come over and start going through my panniers. I always avoid eye contact and pretend like they don't exist because obviously that is the solution. If they continue, I tell them I'm going to call the police on them! That usually scares them, or at least I think its fear when they stab me several times and I die at the intersection waiting for the red light to turn green.

Then I wake up and realize the streets are a dangerous place and I remember to continue riding according to what has kept me alive in "one of the most dangerous places in the world."

Why do people get upset when the same topic comes up? If you aren't interested, then move on!
Besides, it'not just "NOOBS" who ask simple questions. Maybe they're just intitiating conversation!