London cyclists! Red light running survey

arran77

HamishD wrote:

ImperialCollegeMSc wrote:

Hi all,

I am currently writing a research paper into red light running among cyclists in London. Part of this paper involves a survey, which investigates the extent of red light running and the reasons why cyclists run red lights.

As a keen cyclist myself, I want to provide an objective view of the subject with the ultimate aim of supporting measures to improve cyclist safety.

Please could you spare 2 minutes and complete this (very brief!) survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NQQMZ6V

Please note that the survey is only for people who cycle in London, and are over 18 years of age.

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Alex

Done -

but please do bear in mind, and I'm sure you are, that the value, objectivity and validity of the skewed results in this survey will not be very high because of the inherent bias in respondents... this being a cycling forum and all that. Unless of course you're finding other ways to get participants in the survey other than a sub-group of the cycling populace that is the bikeradar commuting forum and its equivalents...

Don't worry, my answers will help to un-skew the results

Ian.B

GCHQ will be monitoring this thread and survey responses and your summonses will be in the post

ImperialCollegeMSc

Hi all,

Thanks to all of you who have responded so far - and for your comments.

I will certainly post the results of the survey on this thread if that is something people would be interested in.

I won't comment here on the actual questions as I don't want to influence future survey participants, but just to give a bit more information on the study: the survey forms just one aspect of the study, where the other part is on-the-road traffic counts, to assess the observed prevalence and factors affecting red light running (gender, helmet use, direction of onward travel, etc). Previous academic studies have been conducted into this subject in Melbourne and Beijing, but (other than one TfL report which only considers the prevalence) there is little objective research into the situation in London.

As some of you have pointed out, recruiting participants through BikeRadar and other (inferior) cycling forums will result in a sampling bias, but this forms just one aspect of participant recruitment.

If you have any queries about the specific questions and how I'm planning on using the information I'd be happy to respond by PM!

The Never / Rarely / Sometimes / Frequently / Always answers are a standard Likert scale used in social research, though I agree there is some ambiguity here. Please just answer however you feel best describes your own habits.

Thanks again for all of your responses and comments - this is a subject that always provokes some interesting conversation!

PS - I'm not affiliated with GCHQ. Honest.

surrey_commuter

I used to be baffled that people without helmets, generally, take far more risks but if you stop and think a bit longer it makes sense that will be more comfortable with risk.

dhope

Surrey Commuter wrote:

I used to be baffled that people without helmets, generally, take far more risks but if you stop and think a bit longer it makes sense that will be more comfortable with risk.

Whoa there, RLJ and helmet debate in the same thread? On a Friday afternoon?! Careful, you'll break the forums :P

bigmat

In the comments boxes I confessed to RLJ:

"When in doing so I am confident that I won't interfere with any other road user and I don't feel like waiting just for the sake of it."

On the other hand, I'll happily stop and let pedestrians cross when its my priority, give way to cars etc - consider me a considerate anarchist.

surrey_commuter

BigMat wrote:

In the comments boxes I confessed to RLJ:

"When in doing so I am confident that I won't interfere with any other road user and I don't feel like waiting just for the sake of it."

On the other hand, I'll happily stop and let pedestrians cross when its my priority, give way to cars etc - consider me a considerate anarchist.

same here - and when walking I wave cyclists through ped crossings

pastryboy

I'm dubious about people who say never unless they only ever ride at peak times.

I set off at 6am. Sometimes there is no traffic around, nowhere near a junction and a pedestrian controlled light is red when the pedestrian didn't hang about and has already finished crossing.

If I'm making good progress at 25mph I'm not going to waste my brake pads on stopping for nothing and nobody.

iPete

Is the survey going to casually link using Strava, RLJ and colliding with another road user?

That was a somewhat leading ending (?), I do hope no link is assumed between the RLJ questions and the GPS/Incident question.

airbag

The answer to this question would interest me:

You approach a red light where you believe you can see all directions from which a hazard could come, and it appears safe (i.e. "you can see no hazards", as opposed to "you cannot see a hazard").

If you stop, why? Give the response as if you were driving, or cycling, or both. As far as I can see you would do so because:

a)habit;
b)afraid of a personal reprisal for law breaking even if you believe you have done nothing wrong;
c)you doubt whether you really can see the area to be hazard-free (i.e. you trust the light above your own opinion);
d)afraid of collective reprisal (i.e. give your respective "group" a "bad name").

Anything I've missed?

dhope

airbag wrote:

Anything I've missed?

Safer if people are predictable. I don't trust everyone else to be correct in their assessment of when it's safe to RLJ, nor for other people to know that I've only RLJ'd because it was safe. If I jump 9 safe lights and someone else then goes into the back of me when I don't jump the 10th (they thought it was safe, I didn't, but they thought I'd jump it anyway)... etc.

If it was a completely empty road with nobody to see my RLJing then I might go through.

Bit of a contrived example I know, but generally I prefer it when I know what people will do, and when people know what I'll do.

roger_merriman

dhope wrote:

airbag wrote:

Anything I've missed?

Safer if people are predictable. I don't trust everyone else to be correct in their assessment of when it's safe to RLJ, nor for other people to know that I've only RLJ'd because it was safe. If I jump 9 safe lights and someone else then goes into the back of me when I don't jump the 10th (they thought it was safe, I didn't, but they thought I'd jump it anyway)... etc.

If it was a completely empty road with nobody to see my RLJing then I might go through.

Bit of a contrived example I know, but generally I prefer it when I know what people will do, and when people know what I'll do.

what he said.

plus almost always even now on a old MTB, with panniers that flap in the wind, you pass the RLJer frankly it seems more effort than its worth.

airbag

dhope wrote:

airbag wrote:

Anything I've missed?

Safer if people are predictable. I don't trust everyone else to be correct in their assessment of when it's safe to RLJ, nor for other people to know that I've only RLJ'd because it was safe. If I jump 9 safe lights and someone else then goes into the back of me when I don't jump the 10th (they thought it was safe, I didn't, but they thought I'd jump it anyway)... etc.

If it was a completely empty road with nobody to see my RLJing then I might go through.

Bit of a contrived example I know, but generally I prefer it when I know what people will do, and when people know what I'll do.

So e) is roughly fear of setting a bad example to less observant road users. Good explanation, cheers.

dhope

airbag wrote:

So e) is roughly fear of setting a bad example to less observant road users. Good explanation, cheers.

Not quite, I don't trust myself to make the right call all the time either. If everyone stops when the light is red then everyone is predictable. If everyone stops only when they think it'd be unsafe not to then everyone is working to their own estimations and IMHO, it makes it more likely that someone will either put someone else in danger or feel they're being put in danger.

M-A-S

Completed.

Got a good response here Alex!

jonny_trousers

Completed.

I would have liked to see the option: "I do it purely to annoy W1". Whatever happened to that guy, anyway?

natrix

I don't ride in London so haven't done the survey, but........

What about all the pedestrians who run the red light by not waiting for the green man before crossing?? Seriously, it's illegal in a lot of countries but in the UK nobody cares if pedestrians run the red light. Put the same person on a bike and folk go nuts about it........... :?

cookeeemonster

Jaywalking is not a crime here (only a crime in the US because car companies bribe-sorry campaigned for it) and pedestrians have priority pretty much everywhere in theory i.e. if you can stop you must stop otherwise you are at fault.

The point above about predictability is a very good one and is connected to the point that everybody has a different definition of whats safe and whats dangerous to do....

asprilla

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Jaywalking is not a crime here (only a crime in the US because car companies bribe-sorry campaigned for it) and pedestrians have priority pretty much everywhere in theory i.e. if you can stop you must stop otherwise you are at fault.

The point above about predictability is a very good one and is connected to the point that everybody has a different definition of whats safe and whats dangerous to do....

Predictability is always my issue when driving; I know that people are trying to be kind by stopping to let others cross traffic or out of junctions nut I always proceed according to priority because it's predicable.

In my eyes when people start acting unpredictably and behaving in a way that isn't in accordance with the HC then that's when accidents happen. I'm also aware that I'm a complete hypocrite when it comes to motorway speeds.