Have you noticed a rise in the number of RLJers

dhope

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh

Gussio

Red lights are a marvellous invention. They provide an opportunity to catch up with the driver who almost killed you 100yrds back and give them a jolly good roasting.

Stevo_666

Could more people please stop at the lights, I get a bit a bit lonely at the front of the queue

greg66_tri_v2.0

DonDaddyD wrote:

Do you find that more cyclists are RLJing at the moment?

Yes. And too many people filtering way too fast.

_Brun_

I'd prefer people to ride through lights more, seeing as the popular alternative is to ride (or sometimes push) past me and then stop. The slower they are the more determined they seem to be to get to the front.

More than once and the inconsiderate shits get an earful.

itboffin

Greg66 wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Do you find that more cyclists are RLJing at the moment?

Yes. And too many people filtering way too fast.

A bit to chunky around the middle these days to filter?

roger_merriman

_Brun_ wrote:

I'd prefer people to ride through lights more, seeing as the popular alternative is to ride (or sometimes push) past me and then stop. The slower they are the more determined they seem to be to get to the front.

More than once and the inconsiderate shits get an earful.

i think it's much like the must overtake the bike some cars have, I don't think there is any though at all.

out in the very edge of the world/london it's rare to spot another bike so not a issue.

jds_1981

I saw a guy on one of those ambulance bikes RLJ yesterday. He had some blue lights flashing but they weren't particularly bright.

cjcp

A lot more scooters seem to be RLJing at Parliament Square, possibly because they're filtering too quickly through the queuing traffic to see the reds.

DonDaddyD

Today I RLJ'd for scientific reasons.

I wanted to see if it really did increase my commuting time significantly.

I only RLJ'd at crossings or juctions with one joining road, like at Clapham North. I also only RLJ'd where I felt it was absolutely safe to do so. None of which makes it OK, but I wanted to see for myself what the difference was.

It didn't make much of a difference to my commute, there was still traffic to contend with and the more complex junctions with longer light phases is what really puts a dent in my journey time. I won't RLJ those.

Psychologically I suppose it my feel faster to do so, but it really isn't unless your commute is short enough for a 30sec light phase to affect your journey. Longer distance and you can make that time back up.

I also have to say that I felt no safer, in fact I felt RLJing was more dangerous as I suddenly had to keep looking around for peds who knows the crossing is on red and so are crossing further up the road, parked cars pulling out for the same reasons (they no the light behind them is red) and obviously cars pulling out from side roads. You really don't realise how much traffic flows from a single red light.

So in conclusion to this circumstantial investigation, I cannot determine why people RLJ. Unless you're in for a balls out sprint too your destination, which isn't safe in London, I'd say it isn't really that much faster.

Not least of which I didn't like doing it.

Bassjunkieuk

I did a slightly different method to DDD to work out how long I spent stopped at lights. Using a combination of my bike computers "ride time" and the helmet cam's total capture time I think it worked out the difference as being about 8-10 minutes on a total journey of 45 minutes over 10 miles.

As he says no doubt most of this was caused by the major junction lights but in the grand scheme of things I don't think it's worth RLJing to save that small amount of time, relatively speaking.

squired

On my commute I don't really see any other cyclists, so can't comment on them. However, in the last couple of weeks the number of cars blatantly jumping red lights has surged. I'm not talking about going through as the light is turning red, but going through a good few seconds after it has turned red.

jonny_trousers

DonDaddyD wrote:

I also have to say that I felt no safer, in fact I felt RLJing was more dangerous as I suddenly had to keep looking around for peds who knows the crossing is on red and so are crossing further up the road, parked cars pulling out for the same reasons (they no the light behind them is red) and obviously cars pulling out from side roads. You really don't realise how much traffic flows from a single red light.

You mean you don't watch out for potential hazards even when obeying the law where traffic lights are concerned? False sense of security there mate...

DonDaddyD

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

I also have to say that I felt no safer, in fact I felt RLJing was more dangerous as I suddenly had to keep looking around for peds who knows the crossing is on red and so are crossing further up the road, parked cars pulling out for the same reasons (they no the light behind them is red) and obviously cars pulling out from side roads. You really don't realise how much traffic flows from a single red light.

You mean you don't watch out for potential hazards even when obeying the law where traffic lights are concerned? False sense of security there mate...

That's not what I said.

You're purposely taking it out of context.

The stuff I describe is/was/can happening/happens/happen due to the light being red. By going through the red light I was subjected to new dangers, bought about because the light was red and the fact that I shouldn't be where I was due to not following a very clear cut system.

It has nothing to do with me not observing potential hazards even when obeying the law.

coshgirl66

Anyone else? Take this morning for example. As I was waiting at the lights waiting to turn right this morning, two vehicles switched from left lane to right cut in front of me and blatantly rljed scattering peds as they went. Where were the police? This was in Hackney, east London btw.