I understand your point.
However, to be clear, there are no cars there when I pass through around 6am - none. In fact, if I get there by 5:59, that light is a yellow blinking light.
I do stop if there are any cars around, in any direction. I only roll it when there's no one there but me.
Again, it's still not legal and If I'm ever ticketed I'll just grin and bear it.

Holier than thou?

I do but depending on the sensitivity setting of the inductance(?) sensor a motorcycle or bicycle might not trigger it.

There's also the sheep effect on others, where people may follow without thinking. An experience I always remember is being a pedestrian in a rush, arriving at a red light, and stepping into the intersection even though a car was coming, because I was preparing to dash across as soon as it went by. A school girl, maybe about 10 years old, was waiting for the light, and when she saw me step from the curb she automatically assumed the light had changed and started to walk into the path of the car. My impatient illegal behaviour almost sucked her into getting killed.

If we want to leave out informed evaluation, I guess that sums it up.

So, you never exceed the speed limit. You have never rolled through a stop sign with out comming to a compete stop.

Good for you.

Another thread where troll will gang up...
What did your parents teach you as a kid...???...
Red means stop, green means go.


I'm going to "stop" there, I don't need another spitting contest here in the commuter forum.


These 2 sum it up plain, & simple.

This is it. Law enforcement often doesn't bother with cyclists. If you don't endanger anyone or make anyone nervous with your speed or proximity and you aren't likely to get caught or make a bad example, then you're not doing any harm. A lot of this is related to the culture of your locality. In the midwest and west of the US, people generally follow the law. NYC is the wild west, where traffic flow of cyclists and pedestrians resembles water running down a hill. It finds all possible directions and spaces and never stops flowing. If a westerner tells me I'm doing something terribly wrong, it's as stupid as me telling them that they should run red lights.

I am one of the most cautious riders I see in Manhattan. When I come to a red light, I stop. Then after the cross traffic is exhausted and there are no pedestrians near me, I cross very slowly. I turn my head left and right repeatedly without stopping to make sure I'm not endangering anyone or even making anyone nervous. I make it obvious, with my constant head turning and my slow pace, that I will not make anyone change course or direction as a result of the path I'm taking.

and my repsonse to motorists is equally plain & simple: ef your discriminatory rules.

In the event I did, I wouldn't try to justify it or encourage others to similarly ignore the law.

It seems like the stop/roll through if safe crowd is firmly devided here. I am curious to know, has anyone here been been anti run any red light and now does so, and vice versa?

Yes, a couple of years ago I would have been more in the camp of never running any red or rolling any stop. I've changed my mind in this particular instance.

Yadda yadda blah blah. My running a red light at that tee I showed does not endanger me, or anyone else. Be sure to stop and honk at the Fort Worth city line.

If the OP or anyone is concerned about the law on the question, the answer is of course it's not legal, except in those few states where cyclists are allowed to treat red lights as stop signs.

If the question is whether it's OK, no one can give you sanction to break the law, but I'm neither a cop nor your conscience so don't ask, and do what you feel is appropriate.

From a legal standpoint, no it's not ok to ever run a red light, you have the same rules as cars have, obey those rules or get a ticket just like a car would. Not to mention from a safety standpoint, cyclists have run red lights thinking they had the clear then got hit by a car they somehow missed and was discharged from earth.

You can turn right on a red as long as you stop first, this is true with cars too.

Regardless if someone thinks it should be legal it's not and until it is you must obey the law or face certain penalties if you're caught. Depending on the city the cops may not care what you do, in Indiana the cops don't care, they figure if you get hit and permanently injured or killed that's on you.

But you do what you want, I obey the signs just like I do in a car...I do have a weakness for speeding in the car but if I get a ticket it's on me, of course I did once get a ticket for speeding on my bicycle! The only time I run a stop sign on my bike is out in the country where I have a long clear view of the road, but even then I will slow to about 10 mph and check over my shoulder for cops!

Just an"i."

if you are talking about making a right turn on red at the intersection.... its allowed here as a default, intersection would have to be marked "no right on red" in order to be illegal. so I wouldn't go all out and run it but if its clear why not?
lefts of course are another thing.

bbbean, you left out my attitude: I will break the law when it doesn't endanger me or anyone else and when it doesn't rattle anyone's nerves.

I wonder if there are any car forums that spend any time wondering if you should drive 10mph over the speed limit.

HAHAHAHA, I wonder that too. But running stop signs and traffic lights in a car is illegal, and accidents are caused by that all the time. Speeding, while illegal, is a bit less of a hazard, depending on how far over the car is going of course and driver skill, then running signs and lights. I only speed 10 over on highways, speeding 10 over in residential areas is just plain stupid, I never go over the speed limit in residential areas and in fact in dense residential areas I'm doing 5 under because you never know when some kid you didn't see will jump out of somewhere, and I have enough things on my conscious without adding that to it!

The time I got a ticket for speeding on my bike I was doing 10 over in a school zone! A radar cop got me, I pleaded to the cop I didn't know because I have no speedometer, he didn't care, but it was dismissed in court.

One of the joys of cycling, for me, is to be able to throw my legs over my surly steed and have pure, unadulterated and uninterrupted movement. It takes a lot of energy for me to maintain my 18 mph average commuting speed, and I am not going to sacrifice that because of a red light or stop sign. I never "blow" a red light, and in fact I always come to a complete stop to check for traffic. When or if the coast is clear, I continue through the red light with a smile on my face. Freedom. That is freedom on a bicycle, to be able to disregard traffic laws that have no utility in making me or anyone else safer.

Um...how exactly do you maintain your energy when you come to a complete stop?

That's why I run stoplights in my car when no one else is arround.

Good luck with that, I hope you live a long time.

Would it be better for either the drivers or you the cyclist if you stop and wait at the light with the cars, and then start moving at the same moment as all the vehicles when the light turns green? I'd rather have some distance from the vehicles. I wonder what drivers think.

Good luck trying to find any evidence to support your contention that treating traffic signals as yields is unsafe.