Road Law

RJLJ

Are there any cyclist out there who can show me where it says in the road rules that one can go through a red light?

Saw two cyclist in London getting tickets for going through red lights and serves them right! Had a quite giggle to myself!

asprilla

I think that you can go though them if there is no other traffic about and the sequencing relies on detecting vehicles. Apart from that they deserve everything they get.

rhann

cant go through them at all, unless an emergency vehicle and then excemptions can be claimed.

rhann

cant go through them at all, unless an emergency vehicle and then excemptions can be claimed.

Paul E

It's my pet hate, I catch up with 95% of them anyway.

marcusjb

I don't think it's legal for an emergency vehicle to go through a red light - however, they do with caution.

AFAIK, the only thing allowed through a red light completely legally is a representative of the Royal Mail delivering a declaration of war from another country. One of those weird but true laws that has never been repeelled.

spen666

marcusjb wrote:

I don't think it's legal for an emergency vehicle to go through a red light - however, they do with caution.

wrong, it is perfectly legal for them to go through red lightwhen answering emergency

AFAIK, the only thing allowed through a red light completely legally is a representative of the Royal Mail delivering a declaration of war from another country. One of those weird but true laws that has never been repeelled.

And what is the source of this? I suspect it is a myth rather than law

Wallace1492

marcusjb wrote:

AFAIK, the only thing allowed through a red light completely legally is a representative of the Royal Mail delivering a declaration of war from another country. One of those weird but true laws that has never been repeelled.

Bizzare!! Would this declaration perhaps have a stamped addressed envelope included in it for the reply? And why would Royal Mail be delivering such a declaration?

Wallace1492

Paul E wrote:

It's my pet hate, I catch up with 95% of them anyway.

Its my pet hate too. I catch up with a lot of them too, as they are people on BSO rather than proper cyclists.... It is the ones that are, or look like more experienced cyclists on good bikes that annoy me more as they should know better.

OK, they get there quicker, but at the cost of annoying drivers and other cyclists and pedestrains.

Salsamander

I make a point of trying to catch up with people who RLJ, esp people who do it through peds or through junctions while there is still traffic moving

spasypaddy

ok so what if its one of those sets of lights that you need to be big enough to trigger it to change.

no lie ive sat at a set of lights with no car behind me for 5mins whilst it alternated between the 2 other sets because i wasn't big enough or heavy enough to get the lights to register me?

What do you do?

asprilla

spasypaddy wrote:

ok so what if its one of those sets of lights that you need to be big enough to trigger it to change.

no lie ive sat at a set of lights with no car behind me for 5mins whilst it alternated between the 2 other sets because i wasn't big enough or heavy enough to get the lights to register me?

What do you do?

This was my point, especially the ones that use magnetism to detect vehcles; do Alu and CF riders starve to death wiaiting?

spasypaddy

asprilla theres a set of lights that i sometimes use when out on a sunday, when im normally on my CF bike. ive waited a good 5mins for them to change, and they still did not. eventually i just rode through.

prawny

Asprilla wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

ok so what if its one of those sets of lights that you need to be big enough to trigger it to change.

no lie ive sat at a set of lights with no car behind me for 5mins whilst it alternated between the 2 other sets because i wasn't big enough or heavy enough to get the lights to register me?

What do you do?

This was my point, especially the ones that use magnetism to detect vehcles; do Alu and CF riders starve to death wiaiting?

Get off walk across then carry on?

asprilla

prawny wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

ok so what if its one of those sets of lights that you need to be big enough to trigger it to change.

no lie ive sat at a set of lights with no car behind me for 5mins whilst it alternated between the 2 other sets because i wasn't big enough or heavy enough to get the lights to register me?

What do you do?

This was my point, especially the ones that use magnetism to detect vehcles; do Alu and CF riders starve to death wiaiting?

Get off walk across then carry on?

I was being facetious about the starving, it's just irritating to have to dismount. It annoys me more than it should.

prawny

Asprilla wrote:

prawny wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

ok so what if its one of those sets of lights that you need to be big enough to trigger it to change.

no lie ive sat at a set of lights with no car behind me for 5mins whilst it alternated between the 2 other sets because i wasn't big enough or heavy enough to get the lights to register me?

What do you do?

This was my point, especially the ones that use magnetism to detect vehcles; do Alu and CF riders starve to death wiaiting?

Get off walk across then carry on?

I was being facetious about the starving, it's just irritating to have to dismount. It annoys me more than it should.

When I finally get round to getting some road shoes and pedals I'd rather starve that risk skating across the road.

I know what you mean about dismounting tho, there's a cross roads about 100m from my office, I always wait at the lights when I could just walk the last little bit and save myself a few minutes. I'm cycling to work dammit! :evil:

will3

Asprilla wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

ok so what if its one of those sets of lights that you need to be big enough to trigger it to change.

no lie ive sat at a set of lights with no car behind me for 5mins whilst it alternated between the 2 other sets because i wasn't big enough or heavy enough to get the lights to register me?

What do you do?

This was my point, especially the ones that use magnetism to detect vehcles; do Alu and CF riders starve to death wiaiting?

I believe they're actually metal detectors rather than magnetism detectors, so can detect anything conductive. However the sensistivity is adjustable so they don't always pick up something as small as a a bike. THere are one or two in town on bike paths that operate the crossings.

asprilla

Have just done some research and you are only in trouble if you are on a CF frame with CF rims, then you'll be waiting a long time.

will3

Asprilla wrote:

Have just done some research and you are only in trouble if you are on a CF frame with CF rims, then you'll be waiting a long time.

They should be able to pick up CF if they're set sensistive enough.

gaz545

The law states that you must not cross the solid white line if the light is red. You could argue various reasons why, in some cases, you can do it.

cougie

If lights arent triggered by the bikes approach (and I knew a set like this) then there are 3 options.

1. Wait til a car comes behind you to trigger it.
2. Get off the bike and walk through.
3. Cycle through slowly and make damn sure its safe.

I would have a look round to see if there were any cars approaching to trigger them, and if not go for option 3.

This is 8am on a Sunday though 20+ years back and traffic was pretty rare at that time. If there are no cars around, then stands to reason theres no police cars to catch you !

thistle_

marcusjb wrote:

AFAIK, the only thing allowed through a red light completely legally is a representative of the Royal Mail delivering a declaration of war from another country.

I never realised so many wars get declared on us every day, usually before lunchtime too... :roll:

Surely they'd use FedEx or DHL rather than RM anyway

thistle_

cougie wrote:

If lights arent triggered by the bikes approach (and I knew a set like this) then there are 3 options
...

You missed "walk back up the road and lie your bike down flat over the sensor" which works about 50% of the time.
You can try reporting the problem to the local authority, Some are proactive and will send someone to check the sensitivity of the sensors (some will just ignore you though).

IMO if the lights don't detect bikes then they are faulty and should be treated as a give way 8) .

thel33ter

There is one I technically go through, I ride up onto the pavement, go around the corner and back onto the road, the rest of the time I don't cause cars are much bigger than me

chuckcork

cougie wrote:

If lights arent triggered by the bikes approach (and I knew a set like this) then there are 3 options.

1. Wait til a car comes behind you to trigger it.
2. Get off the bike and walk through.
3. Cycle through slowly and make damn sure its safe.

One set of lights in Woking is no right turn, buses and cycles excepted. Brilliant except as OP notes it doesn't detect cycless, so you'd have to wait until 3 buses come along at once for the detector to notice you are there!

I just get off and walk around now.

shouldbeinbed

RJLJ wrote:

Are there any cyclist out there who can show me where it says in the road rules that one can go through a red light?

Saw two cyclist in London getting tickets for going through red lights and serves them right! Had a quite giggle to myself!

you're reading the wrong road rules. there's the special appendix commonly known as the book of dick that allows for RLJ'ing, riding everywhere on pavements past puberty, wearing all black at night and doing BMX tricks in the middle of a busy road.

its the same book where left hooking, parking in bike lanes, mandating pot holes, white vans exemption from humanity, overtaking as if the bike isn't really there if there's cars coming the other way and the existence of Road Tax is laid down.

RJLJ

Some interesting responses. Interesting to note that none of the people who should know better, but still go through red lights have commented!

A question to the people who know better, but still go through red lights. When driving your car, do you do the same? If not, then why do you do it on a bike?

snailracer

RJLJ wrote:

Some interesting responses. Interesting to note that none of the people who should know better, but still go through red lights have commented!

A question to the people who know better, but still go through red lights. When driving your car, do you do the same? If not, then why do you do it on a bike?

In my car, I never RLJ.
As a ped, I RLJ and it isn't even illegal.
So I can see why it's not so clear cut to some cyclists.

VespaTrek

I've always thought and been led to believe that if a set of lights do not detect you and remain red then you can treat them as out of order and proceed (with care) through them. Happens to me quite a lot near home where I have to cross a dual carriageway. I did report them via fixmystreet.com and got a reply the next day and a follow up a week later saying that they had checked them.

Re RLJing:
On a bike - rarely, and only if very early am and a ped crossing or roadworks where there are temp lights

On the scooter - same as above, I certainly wouldn't wait around at 5am for roadworks 20m long for example

In the car - same as above for the scooter, but only if the other end of the roadworks was visible (ie straight road)

rolf_f

I ran the lights on the crossroads in the town centre of Pudsey today. The whole of West Leeds was gridlocked. I rode past the cars to the lights (on red) and waited. The ped crossing part of the sequence was on which precedes green for me. Ped lights go red, my lights stay red. I wait. After a bit, the ped lights go green again. Then red and my lights stay red. On the basis that, due to the cars being stuck, the lights were never going to go green, I just ran straight through them with all lights from all directions, pedestrian and car, fixed on red. Not really much else to do. Getting off and walking across would have just been silly.

bigmat

RJLJ wrote:

Some interesting responses. Interesting to note that none of the people who should know better, but still go through red lights have commented!

A question to the people who know better, but still go through red lights. When driving your car, do you do the same? If not, then why do you do it on a bike?

Because I can. If I was in a car I'd be worried about getting my plate taken by a camera. The sanctions are a lot worse (bigger fine, possible points on licence). Also, its generally more dangerous to jump a red light in a car. I still find myself wishing I could though, usually on routes that I cycle on where I know I'm being held up for no good reason. Red lights are a PITA, if I can safely cycle through one then generally I will do. Causes no harm to anybody else. Some of the comments on this thread (laying your bike on the floor at a junction to get a sensor to work - WTF?!) are just ridiculous. If the road system is that poorly set up for cyclists, doesn't that suggest that maybe you need to take a more common sense approach? BTW, that doesn't mean that I endorse pavement riding, weaving through pedestrians at crossings, blasting through crossroads against the lights. I just think that as intelligent beings we should be capable of forming views on what is right and wrong without having things dictated to us (I sometimes stop to let pedestrians cross even when its my right of way :shock: ). Hell, its a bit like religion isn't it - red lights are the new god?