An RLJ's Happy Christmas Story - Not

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  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 16,996
    Kieran_Burns wrote:
    Amber means stop. Not "oh go on then"
    By the same token, green does not just mean go.

    Let me make my point another way; if someone rlj's (which is daft and which I do not do) does a motorist have permission to run them down? The answer is clearly no. The information we are given suggests that a driver moves from stationary to collision with a cyclist. Its not quite the same as not having time to stop, even if the cyclist shouldn't have been there.

    The actual instance here, which incidentally the OP has nothing but a 2nd hand b&w account of, having not been there and not seen any footage, is not the really my point. Neither is the driver's distress, which I'm sure is genuine. Its the failure to question the simple premise that rlj = bad, so, oh well.
  • veronese68
    veronese68 Posts: 27,773
    This is true, you should look before pulling away on a green. He does say further up this page that the cyclist came through stationary traffic in this instance. I would expect most people cast a quick glance before pulling away. I wouldn't expect them to look that carefully for someone passing stationary traffic though.
    As the more vulnerable road users it is in our interest to be more aware and more careful than a person in a 2 ton steel cage.
    I stopped myself from pulling away from a green light on a motorcycle once as I saw a car obviously about to jump the red. Sure enough a battered Ford Sierra on Lithuanian plates went screaming through the red and would have smeared me all over the road had I not looked. Being the more vulnerable one on the road I was careful.
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