Idiot cyclist at Tower Hill last night

helz

You jumped a red light and hit a pedestrian. Not only are you dangerous, but you're a total embarrassment. It was during the rush hour so loads of people saw what you did. You didn't even apologise - just carried on and then jumped the next set of lights on the other side of Tower Bridge as well (although luckily you didn't hit anyone that time). I wish I'd said something to you at the time but I was too angry and couldn't trust myself not to lose my temper.

(Luckily the pedestrian seemed to be ok - just very angry and shaken.)

el_presidente

What happened to the ped - did they keep their footing or not?

Also can you describe the cyclist & their steed & we can keep an eye out

helz

Well the pedestrian stumbled when the cyclist hit him but didn't actually fall. Can't desribe the bike I'm afraid... but I think it was a road bike and he was wearing blue lycra.

mailmannz

And thanks to this moron every cyclist gets tarred with the same brush!

Mailman

redvee

Nearly got hit by a cyclist tonight myself on the pavement, but she had lights on :shock: . Shouted 'Roads' at her but guess it went over her head. If we had made contact and I had been injured it couldn't have happened at a better place, right outside the BRI in Bristol.

prj45

mailmannz wrote:

And thanks to this moron every cyclist gets tarred with the same brush!

Mailman

Well, people that tar every cyclist with the same brush are morons too...

richardast

Just up the road from there is Liverpool St Stn. Every morning and every night I sit at the red lights at the junction of Bishopsgate and London Wall, normally with 1 or 2 other cyclists. We all watch while, on average, about 20 cyclists RLJ on each phase and weave between the pedestrians and the opposing traffic.
I actually find it quite embarrassing.

I was almost knocked over (as a ped) on a pelican crossing yesterday too.
Green man lit. Loud beeping from the crossing, but 2 cyclists assumed that I sprint out of the way while they RLJed.

To55ers!

spen666

Ianment and others on the Soapbox thread- note the effect of red light jumping?

iainment

but this isn't what I do. I only go over a red if the way is clear.

:twisted:

Bassjunkieuk

I had one person RLJ this morning, presumably not knowing the phasing of the lights at this particular junction, only to be missed narrowly by a car!

The driver tooted the cyclist and then did make a swing half way into the bus lane (quite un-needed and dangerous in my opinion) but the cyclist didn't seem phased by it.
I too get fustrated by RLJ as it's them that gives everyone else the wrong impression of cyclists!

pete236

Driving in Reading last night on my back from a band practise - literally dozens of people ith no lights, no reflectors, nothing and all riding on the road! I just don't understand the mentality of them. It beggars belief!

phil_ss1

richardast wrote:

I was almost knocked over (as a ped) on a pelican crossing yesterday too.
Green man lit. Loud beeping from the crossing, but 2 cyclists assumed that I sprint out of the way while they RLJed.
To55ers!

If this happened to me I'd be tempted to stand my ground and "accidentally" knock the 8uggers off with a well timed elbow!

Phil

il_principe

Drives me f@cking mental, everyday I see these numpty morons doing the same thing. It is embarrassing. Saw one bloke at it today, he must have been in his 40's, really old enough to know better.

BigBlackShed

I used to RLJ. But then I thought about how mad it makes me feel when I'm in the car and I see cyclists RLJ-ing. So I stop now and relax. My commute time hasn't changed either.

cee

BigBlackShed wrote:

I used to RLJ. But then I thought about how mad it makes me feel when I'm in the car and I see cyclists RLJ-ing. So I stop now and relax. My commute time hasn't changed either.

what do other folks reckon. how much time can you actualy save by jumping red lights on your commute?

Gussio

cee wrote:

BigBlackShed wrote:

I used to RLJ. But then I thought about how mad it makes me feel when I'm in the car and I see cyclists RLJ-ing. So I stop now and relax. My commute time hasn't changed either.

what do other folks reckon. how much time can you actualy save by jumping red lights on your commute?

Probably the fastest way to end up in hospital, so time saved there.

Parkey

It's the same kind of "get-there-itis" and lack of patience that is responsible for a lot of bad practice from motorists too.

Cyclists also seem to do the same thing with rationalising their bad behaviour to themselves. "Oooh, well I reckon that..." etc.

BigBlackShed wrote:

I used to RLJ. But then I thought about how mad it makes me feel when I'm in the car and I see cyclists RLJ-ing. So I stop now and relax. My commute time hasn't changed either.

Exactly! Stop, chill, relax. The world won't end if you get to where you're going 5 seconds later.

Bassjunkieuk

I find quite a few of the people I see RLJ are the slightly slower cyclists, so I usually end up catching up and overtaking them a bit further down the road anyway, I don't ride particularly quickly - i can normally average between 16 and 17mph on my commute. It's usually only the cycle couriers that get away :-)

For a better example I left my house @ 7:50 this morning and got to Kings Cross (11.3 miles) around 8:45ish, according to my cycle computer I was riding (i.e actually moving) for 43 minutes. This means I spent approx 10 minutes or so at junctions or traffic lights. It seems quite some time now I've put it on the screen but I do go through quite a lot of traffic lights (and had a short 45 second walking section) , and even waiting 30 second at 20 junctions or traffic lights could add up to this!

It is down to luck sometimes though but my commute times are based on 5-10 minutes of "down" time so I don't need to RLJ, sometimes I might get lucky and just get to lights as they change (no point rushing towards a red light after all!) yet other times I seem to hit every bl00dy light on a road - and in these cases it never really bothers me as I either save or lose a few minutes, but then the same would happen if I was in a car!

One final tip: It's better to arrive a few minutes late then dead on time.

jefferee

I'm generally pushing the pace hard enough that when I get to a red light, I'm quite happy to sit and catch my breath for a minute, and then work on sprinting back up to speed when it turns green.

According to my computer, I generally spend only a minute or two stopped during my half-hour commute.

Bassjunkieuk

jefferee wrote:

I'm generally pushing the pace hard enough that when I get to a red light, I'm quite happy to sit and catch my breath for a minute, and then work on sprinting back up to speed when it turns green.

According to my computer, I generally spend only a minute or two stopped during my half-hour commute.

Same here to an extent actually! I quite enjoy the sprint away from the lights :-D

Eat My Dust

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Ii can normally average between 16 and 17mph on my commute.

For a better example I left my house @ 7:50 this morning and got to Kings Cross (11.3 miles) around 8:45ish

er, that's an average of just over 12mph.

Bassjunkieuk

Eat My Dust wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Ii can normally average between 16 and 17mph on my commute.

For a better example I left my house @ 7:50 this morning and got to Kings Cross (11.3 miles) around 8:45ish

er, that's an average of just over 12mph.

If you read a bit further down, that was my total time for the whole journey, including waiting at lights. I quoted my average speed as the cycle comp displays (sorry if I didn't make that clear). Which for today was a bit under at about 15.5mph, as it reckoned I'd been actually moving for just over 43 minutes!

Eat My Dust

Sorry I'm just being a pedant!

I can do my 13 mile commute in 42 mins. If I get held up at all of the lights it can take as long as an hour, does this make my average speed 18.5 mph or 13 mph?

Bassjunkieuk

Eat My Dust wrote:

Sorry I'm just being a pedant!

I can do my 13 mile commute in 42 mins. If I get held up at all of the lights it can take as long as an hour, does this make my average speed 18.5 mph or 13 mph?

I guess the best way to find out is grab a cycle computer! I'd go for the upper limit tho as it sounds better :-P

Eat My Dust

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Eat My Dust wrote:

Sorry I'm just being a pedant!

I can do my 13 mile commute in 42 mins. If I get held up at all of the lights it can take as long as an hour, does this make my average speed 18.5 mph or 13 mph?

I guess the best way to find out is grab a cycle computer! I'd go for the upper limit tho as it sounds better :-P

I always count my average speed to include stopping times at lights and junctions. People like their averages to sound higher than they actually are. I've had this discussion on here before, but I say if you travel 13 miles in 1 hour then your average is 13 mph. People will argue differently!

Bassjunkieuk

Eat My Dust wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Eat My Dust wrote:

Sorry I'm just being a pedant!

I can do my 13 mile commute in 42 mins. If I get held up at all of the lights it can take as long as an hour, does this make my average speed 18.5 mph or 13 mph?

I guess the best way to find out is grab a cycle computer! I'd go for the upper limit tho as it sounds better :-P

I always count my average speed to include stopping times at lights and junctions. People like their averages to sound higher than they actually are. I've had this discussion on here before, but I say if you travel 13 miles in 1 hour then your average is 13 mph. People will argue differently!

I can see your point :-) I guess the important thing to remember is whatever way you look at it it's still faster and more fun then a car or public transport :-D

e999sam

iainment wrote:

but this isn't what I do. I only go over a red if the way is clear.

:twisted:

The only safe time to go through traffic lights is on green. You are just the same as the motorist who thinks it’s safe to overtake you with only inches to spare or overtake you only to do a left in front of you or the idiot who thinks it’s safe to do 40 in a 30. They are all using their own judgment that quite frankly I don’t trust, and as I don’t know you or most other RLJ I don’t trust your judgment either.

redddraggon

e999sam wrote:

The only safe time to go through traffic lights is on green.

Is it? Just because it's green doesn't mean it's safe to go.

Just because the lights are red doesn't mean it's not safe either. I've said this before but I'll say it again - sometime I work late and commute home when the roads are quiet - read about 3 cars in a distance of 6 miles. There's some lights half way home that have sensors which no matter what I try I'm unable to trip, therefore I either just go (no cars at all visible) or wait until the 0630 bus to trip the sensor after I've been waiting there for 10hours - which would you choose? It can't be illegal to go through the red in this case as the lights seem to be faulty as they don't change no matter how long you wait there.

Bassjunkieuk

e999sam wrote:

iainment wrote:

but this isn't what I do. I only go over a red if the way is clear.

:twisted:

The only safe time to go through traffic lights is on green. You are just the same as the motorist who thinks it’s safe to overtake you with only inches to spare or overtake you only to do a left in front of you or the idiot who thinks it’s safe to do 40 in a 30. They are all using their own judgment that quite frankly I don’t trust, and as I don’t know you or most other RLJ I don’t trust your judgment either.

I missed ianment's original comment. I agree with twisted that the only safe time to go through a traffic light is on a green. I've heard plenty of people who profess to be responsible cyclist's claim that they'll go through a red when they think it's safe! The traffic signals are there for a reason and going through one on a red (even if it seems pointless, like a red light at a ped crossing with no people) is still a red light! at worst you could end up with an on the spot fine just because you couldn't wait 30-60 seconds! As for cycling through T-Junctions with lights I've had a few near misses when I've come through on a green only to find a cyclist has come through on a red from the other direction!

redddraggon

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

The traffic signals are there for a reason and going through one on a red (even if it seems pointless, like a red light at a ped crossing with no people) is still a red light! at worst you could end up with an on the spot fine just because you couldn't wait 30-60 seconds!!

If you are lucky, some lights on my commute don't change without being tripped, 30-60 secs is a dream.

webbhost

what do other folks reckon. how much time can you actualy save by jumping red lights on your commute?

Guess that depends on how many traffic lights are in the way. I wait as I'd rather have a slightly longer trip to and from work than a trip to the hospital.