All the cyclists are patiently waiting at a traffic light. Should they jump it instead?
Risking a fine
For a start, if they were caught, they would be issued with a £50 Fixed Penalty Notice. In 2013, over 4,000 cyclists were issued a Fixed Penalty Notice after jumping a red light or ignoring a road sign.
Endangering pedestrians
Aside from a potential fine, there’s a question of endangering pedestrians. According to statistics provided by TfL, between 1998 to 2007, 4% of pedestrian injuries were the result of red light jumping by cyclists. With the remaining 96% involving motor vehicles.
Endangering themselves
What about endangering themselves? Between 2001 and 2005, two cyclists were killed by red light jumping. In the same period, seven motorcyclists were killed in the same way. More recently, there is only one case recorded where a cyclist “most likely” jumped a red light, though this wasn’t given as the cause of death.
According to a report by the CTC:
“In 2012, ‘Disobeyed automatic traffic signal’ was assigned by police to 180 pedal cycles out of 13,212 involved in reported incidents where contributory factor(s) were assigned to one or more of the vehicles involved.”
This means that in 1% of incidents, red light jumping was a factor.
How many of us are actually jumping red lights?
We all have our own ideas of how many cyclists are actually jumping red lights. The reality is, we can’t trust our anecdotal evidence. After all, a cyclist waiting patiently at a traffic light isn’t noteworthy to us, so it hardly registers. Whereas a cyclist jumping a red light will definitely attract our attention.
Most surveys, such as this controversial one by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, have sought to paint an image that red light jumping is pandemic. However, upon closer examination they feature a self selecting audience of a small sample size and they rely on the honesty of respondents.
The most authoritative source is a TfL study conducted in 2007 at five different locations around London. Researchers observed that out of 7502 cyclists, 16% jumped a red light.
Whether 16% is unacceptably high or low is up for debate. Sadly, I couldn’t find a conclusive comparable survey of the percentage of drivers that jump red lights or disobey the speed limit. For the speed limit, some observational surveys suggested 18% and others as high as 75%.
Why do cyclists jump red lights?
There are of course cyclists that jump red lights because they know they can get away with it, they are too lazy to wait or they enjoy the short respite it provides from cycling in traffic.
The most common argument is that it is safer to jump a red light. There have been cases where cyclists have been killed or injured whilst waiting at a red light from a heavy goods vehicle that hasn’t seen them.
I’m sure anyone that has sat on a bicycle at a traffic light next to a heavy goods vehicle or an aggressive driver will attest to the feeling of safety from getting away from that situation as fast possible.
In our recent piece about five of the greatest dangers cyclists face in London, heavy goods vehicles are right at the top.
Other anecdotal evidence suggests that red light jumping cyclists are less likely to be in a collision, because they are more confident cyclists.
So should you jump red lights?
I obey red lights for one good reason. Perception.
When the occasional cyclist jumps a red light, he or she creates a bad image for all cyclists in the minds of other road users. The knock on effects are many:
- Drivers think that cyclists are rule breakers and treat them with less respect on the roads
- People write in to their politicians and police about the menace of cyclists
- The debate about cycling doesn’t move on beyond “but don’t cyclists jump red lights“
- The media feeds on the anger motorists feel and reports on red light jumping, which then fuels more anger
- When it comes to politicians making decisions about providing safer infrastructure to cyclists, this negative perception clouds judgement
If you’re still going to choose to jump red lights whether it be for safety or for other reasons, then at least watch out for vulnerable pedestrians and do so cautiously.
Before you leave a comment on this post
Like the debate on helmet use, the question of red light jumping always flares up some heated commenting. What I’ve tried to put together here is a well reasoned post and I’d like the comments to focus on reasoning over anecdotal evidence and the emotions that rule breaking brings up. As always, any posts with swearing will be removed.
Personally I treat red lights as advisory. If it’s safe to go, and I’m not upsetting pedestrians, I go, cautiously. The traffic lights are designed for cars, not bikes. When the rules take us into account, I’ll consider obeying the rules. This is especially true when going straight on at a T junction or right at lights. If there are pedestrians waiting, I stop. To suggest I endanger myself so that motorists don’t get annoyed, is just idiotic. I like to be moving long before the sales rep with a mobile to his ear gets going.
As a keen cyclist of 25 yrs and a jobbing plumbing and heating engineer I see a lot of bad cycling and driving. Here in Cambridge the worst drivers {as a driver and cyclist) are the bus drivers. But if there’s one thing that I find unacceptable is the hand full of cyclists who feel that it is fine to jump red lights. Most of all it let’s a few people give a very bad name to cyclists, it is dangerous as other road users and pedestrians are not expecting it and when you do hit a vehicle as has happened to me everyone worries about the cyclist and I end up paying £700 to have my van repaired.
If it was their fault, why didn’t you (or your insurer) make the cyclist pay for the damage?
And why do those bad cyclists give a bad name to all cyclists, yet the far more dangerous red-light-jumping motorists don’t give a bad name to all motorists? There’s some deeply disturbed psychology at work here…
You try and take a partially injured cyclist to a court to prove they jumped a red light!
If I was to contact my insurer and the result went the wrong way or knock for knock I would end up loosing my nine years plus non claims bonus which on a £20,000 commercial vehicle is a huge rise n my premium for the next 3-4years.
Do you drive? Have you ever had a cyclist running their brake levers down the side of your pride and joy and riding off into traffic?
The issue is we are mainly good cyclists & good drivers but there are many more cars using the roads than cyclists, motorcyclists (I also ride one) & lorry drivers therefore cyclists are a minority group and not the norm & so as is common minorities often get attention drawn to themselves.
The law is the law we can’t pick and choose what we personally feel does not affect us personally.
Yes, I drive and yes, I’ve had the side of a vehicle scraped by bike handlebars with a rider who didn’t stop. I claimed on the insurance and the premium didn’t go up much. It shouldn’t happen but no-one else is to blame for choice of insurance deal or non-protection of no-claims discount.
It sounds like the problem in your case is that it was hit-and-run. Hit-and-running is awful, no matter what vehicle type… and yes, I’ve had an earlier car suffer a hit-and-run by a car 🙁
Hay back off the sales rep, pal. Full time high milage experienced professional drivers,who mostly for health and safety reasons will have cars kitted out with “hands free ” for their phones,by their companies.
You are now guilty of stigmatising a whole group of people,some of whom are also cyclist.
I hope the police officer will be impressed with your “advisory approach”to the law at red lights.Some of them are cyclists too.
As a matter of fact some pedestrians are also cyclists,,traffic lights are designed for all road users of which cyclists are thankfully a growing number ,theres more than you out there buddy !!!!!!
I fully endorse that Jackart. I cycle along the A12 to work and certainly won’t dream of red-lighting any of the major (or minor) roads. Advisory, caution & common-sense are the key words to watch out for.
Every cyclist says that they go through red lights cautiously.
As a fellow cyclist and also a pedestrian at times, I have had numerous near miss encounters with cyclists and also have been hit by a cyclist jumping the red lights. Just hang around Dalston Junction in the mornings and you’ll see what I mean.
The traffic lights are there for a reason. When the lights are red and the green man sign is showing, pedestrians do have right of way to cross.
We cyclists, have to obey the laws on the road just like any other traffic vehicle. Can you imagine if other vehicles started doing it more regularly?
It’s also my personal opinion that jumping the red lights gives the perception that all cyclists do so. And that’s something I don’t want to see.
Cyclists, for the most part, like being treated like a vehicle in a legal sense. But you can’t have it both ways. If you approach an intersection with a red traffic light, you are required by law to come to a complete stop…just like vehicles.
I almost never do, however I did yesterday as I had waited for the lights to change a full five cycles (i.e. all other lanes of traffic had each been given five green lights, while we had been kept on red). This was clearly something to do with the detector system above the lights not being able to detect cyclists, and only working for motor vehicles. The road is run by Lambeth Council (junction of Akerman Rd and Mostyn Road) who claim to have an order of priority putting cyclists way above motorists – so having a censor that only works for motor vehicles is particularly bad on their part. I tried to find a number for their highways department to call them to get the light changed to green so I wouldn’t have to jump a red, but they don’t work saturday so in the end I had to after waiting for almost ten minutes on red – which was actually pretty dangerous as it’s a blind junction and a car could have rushed the corner.
I agree
I don’t live or cycle in London but this morning in my home town of Whitley bay North Tyneside I waited at a red light through two cycles of green for other traffic. Because no car had pulled up behind me the road detector had not registered me there and I was stuck. Hence I proceeded cautiously even though my light was red.
An email to our cycling officer will follow.
Two things here,
Firstly, contact the council, it will be a sensitivity issue in the equipment and they will want to change it (it should happen quite quickly).
Secondly, I presume the lights had a pedestrian crossing? If you are that worried about rolling through a red, get off of the bike and you become a pedestrian, you can legally just push your bike across the crossings, remount when you are back where you need to be. There is a junction on my A20 commute out of London where if you arrive as the light turns red you save minutes by hopping off the bike and crossing as the lights cycle round the other junctions. All perfectly legal.
Sean, what u did was legal. U waited five times for th lights. U didn’t get green, which means technically they are faulty and u should proceed with caution
I cannot find the rule in the highway code – but I believe if a traffic light is not detecting you, then it is faulty, so should be treated as a ‘give way’. But obviously beware, as traffic from other directions will be seeing a green signal, so they will not be expecting traffic to enter the junction from your location!
that is correct. if you sit through a few phases and the lights dont give u green then it is “faulty” because it hasnt detected you.
this is th ONLY time anyone should ever jump a red light
Generally I do stop at all reds and I do not cross pedestrian crossings on the green man for example (wish peds would stick to crossing on green though). There is a ‘but’ (which I have seen called ‘Idaho Rules’) – on making a left turn when traffic is emerging at a T junction.
Turning left into Great Smith Street from Parliament Sq when traffic is coming out and pedestrian crossings at red, is one I do (same for turning from Euston Rd into the road between StP and KX).
The other place I do this which is not covered by the above “excuse” is turning into south end of Russell square from the A4200. In this case the alternative is waiting in the middle of a junction waiting for a gap in heavy traffic northbound traffic while heavy southbound traffic passes on your right, There is a problem with the phasing of lights here because they do not recognize the heavy east west flow of vulnerable bicycle users in the morning and evening and there is a phase in each rotation where absolutely nothing moves and the crossings seem to be a red (if you are turning right) which almost encourages RLJing
last para should read…
The other place I do this which is not covered by the above “excuse” is turning into south end of Russell square from the A4200. In this case the alternative is waiting in the middle of a junction waiting for a gap in heavy traffic northbound traffic while heavy southbound traffic passes on your LEFT, There is a problem with the phasing of lights here because they do not recognize the heavy east west flow of vulnerable bicycle users in the morning and evening. They are also phased oddly, in each rotation there is a point where absolutely nothing is moving and even the crossings seem to be a red (if you are turning right) which almost encourages RLJing
sorry meant my other right!
I too ignore the red light at the south end of Russell Square, for the same reason. This is a very poorly designed junction.
I also occasionally jump the red light westbound where the cycle path crosses St. John Street just below Angel in Islington, out of sheer impatience: it is not the length of time you have to wait so much as the length of the time you have to wait *pointlessly*, because the phasing of lights guarantees that there is no traffic.
I never do it, unless there’s something wrong with the sensor and it’s clearly not going to change (happened to me once in the last five years)
The main I reason I don’t is also perception, and because when I’m on foot cyclists jumping reds massively annoys me!!!
There are lots of situations that I could come up to a red light light in a car, stop, look carefully, and then go safely if nobody was crossing/coming. That’s especially true at pedestrian crossings. But I don’t do that in a car. So why would I in a bike?
I don’t jump red lights but every morning i go the wrong way around a mini roundabout whilst singing Breakin the law by Judas priest.
I don’t like the term “jumping a red light” because that’s what motorists do when they don’t slow down or even speed up as the lights change from green to amber.
I prefer the term “crossing on red”, which I do at walking pace only if there are no pedestrians crossing or about to cross, when I won’t inconvenience other road users and when it is safe for me to do so. That means only at pedestrian crossings and T-junctions. Crossroads are rarely safe to cross on red unless you’re turning left.
“Safe for me” is, I accept, a judgement, but I’m 68 years old, passed my driving test 50 years ago and am pretty good at anticipating other road users actions and deciding what’s safe.
Also, believe me, I’m not going to risk a collision at my age, even if it’s with something fairly soft like another human being.
As for the £30 fine, the risk is worth the convenience of getting ahead of the traffic and not having to clip out and then back in.
Why cycle with clips in busy city traffic? That’s something I haven’t understood yet.
what is there not to understand? if you are used to the clips they are as safe as any pedal. shouldn’t start using them in the traffic though, a holiday in the Alps on a mountain bike is much better suited to safely learn all the skills you need 🙂
Aside from the law itself, there’s no real reason why cyclists shouldn’t turn left (or go straight on when there’s no left) on red, PROVIDED they have clear sight lines and give way to everyone else (including pedestrians!). In the US even cars are allowed to do this (or rather, the equivalent right turn), but it is especially useful for cyclists because they can often filter into the secondary position beside a stream of stationary or slow-moving traffic. I’m not condoning breaking the law while it stands, but what’s really needed is for the law to be amended to permit this, followed by rigorous enforcement with on-the-spot fines for failing to give way.
I don’t pass reds, generally speaking. I have been known to on an empty road in the middle of the night.
I’ve heard various arguments along the lines of “lights are designed for cars not bikes” and “I always check it’s safe to,” some of which are given above. On listening I always find myself thinking that these examples would often be just as safe if a car jumped the red, yet no one would condone that kind of blurry line.
As for it being safe to avoid a heavy goods vehicle at the junction – this nearly always stems from being in the wrong position in the first place. By jumping a red you’re getting out of one sticky situation into another. It’s best to sit in clear view ahead of the HGV or behind it. I realise the advanced stop lines often create this issue but I do not feel light jumping is an answer to it.
the difference is that cars kill people if they jump a read light. A cyclist only kills himself (or in the extreme may injure a pedestrian, see article above for the stats…) if he is reckless and careless, none of which I have seen for a long time. The cyclists I see jumping read lights are generally slow and careful and do give way to pedestrians…
I’ve never seen a pedestrian get hit by a bike running a red light (although it obviously happens)
What I HAVE seen though, many many times, is pedestrians who step out and then step back in fear, or freeze while crossing the road because a cyclist is coming through, or NEARLY get hit because the cyclist swerves around them.
These incidents don’t turn up in statistics but they are exactly what turns people against cyclists. Obviously it’s not the actual accidents – there are hardly any – but that’s not the point.
Any time you make a pedestrian stop, change speed, change course, get startled, get scared, not know what you’re going to do etc. you’re adding to the problem. It doesn’t matter if you actually hit them or not.
Like it or not, we ARE all lumped in together. And that’s because a) we are still an outside group to most people and b) so many of us jump reds that it’s clearly not a tiny minority.
AJ > What I HAVE seen though, many many times, is pedestrians who step out and then step back in fear, or freeze while crossing the road because a cyclist is coming through, or NEARLY get hit because the cyclist swerves around them.
+1. Which is why I gesture then to cross, although I shouldn’t have to since pedestrians have priority.
Another reason is that people in the UK ride bikes a lot less than in Denmark/Netherlands so most pedestrians are not cyclists themselves.
Don’t. Just don’t. If you behave yourselves, the populace won’t have reason to despise you and yell obscenities.
That didn’t stop them for the 8 years I did stop. No respect gained at all from abiding the law. Now I have almost traffic-free cycling.
Also, there are a huge number of drivers that break the law (speeding, red lights, parking, dangerous overtaking, mobile phone use…) and the general populous seem not to yell obscenities at anyone because of it…
+1
There’s no valid reason for a cyclist to jump a red light. The ‘I am safer’ argument simply isn’t true. Get sufficiently ahead of the truck or stay behind. Or find another route. Yes, I know, you shouldn’t have to find another route, but hey, you’re a cyclist, sadly the roads were not built for you.
That said, I am only against red light jumpers for two reasons. One, the blog above covers, it gives drivers an excuse to discriminate against all cyclists. Two, is when I see cyclists crossing lights with a green man when they clearly alarm pedestrians.
Wait. You will not die. You will not arrive much earlier than if you had ignored the red light. You will however have earnt the respect of all other road users. Oh, and the law.
The fine for jumping a red light has, as of the end of last year, increased from £30 to £50!
Ooops thanks for the heads up – will update the article now!
I only pass red circles if the detector seems broken and I’ve been sat there while nothing’s going the other way.
Red bikes where cycleways cross roads are advisory only and it’s bad advice because they’re always synchronised with the pedestrian red man and riders cross much faster than walkers, so I look and decide for myself.
I don’t cross on the red. In saying that I’m a very cautious rider.
My main reason for not crossing on the red (other than the law) is out of respect. We ask that the car’s stop on red, and so should we. It makes no difference if we are a cyclist, horse & cart, motorbike, car, truck, van or bus. It’s in the interest of everyone’s safety. We can’t ask car drivers to treat us in a safe manor if we show them that we feel it’s justified to break the law.
Of course we can. The minor traffic violations of others are not justification for one’s own dangerous driving.
There’s a huge difference in the amount of danger that a cyclist (100kg) and a car (1500kg) bring to the roads – treating them as the same is non-sensical. Treating cyclists and pedestrians as the same is better as it acknowledges the vulnerability of the person, and the laws of physics.
couldn’t agree more, Dan!
+1
I always wait at red lights, drives me mad when I see other cyclists go straight through. Invariably it’s the really really slow cyclists that you always get stuck behind too so you end up overtaking them repeatedly (I’m on a hybrid so not mega fast myself but 15 – 20mph on average)
But last week I had two near misses when pulling away from traffic lights, this despite being in the cycle box and wearing bright yellow and with 3 rear lights and as much hi viz as humanly possible! Both times white vans came within inches as I pulled away, so maybe people do go straight through red lights for safety reasons.
I’ll still stick to the laws of the road though and will take even more care than usual when pulling away
Another consideration:
Stopping on red at pedestrian crossings or ogre signals allows for a break in the traffic flow which means that vehicles and cyclists can safely turn out of junctions. Yes it’s bad planning that these should be used as traffic calming but having a cyclist zoom through puts all at risk.
Oh, and in Shoreditch it’s pretty much the away-with-the-fairies cyclists who never look over their shoulder with massive headphones on who cruise through red lights.
Jumping a red light sets a dangerous precedent. The rules are there to be followed not interpreted and this goes double or triple for inner London.
In order to ride /drive safely through London the behaviour of other traffic needs to be predictable. This includes expectations of the traffic you will see at a junction. For example, if you are crossing a junction on green you don’t expect to see other traffic of any type to be in the same area.
I appreciate that cyclists may say that they are not impeding traffic but in a way you are. If I see a cyclist moving over a junction when they shouldn’t be there they have to be taken account of. This in turn changes my position in the road and this will cascade to additional actions around me. Without rules, without predictability, the roads just become the wild west and more accidents will start.
I truly believe that if all cyclists ensured they did not cross on red that there would a be a positive change of attitude towards them.
I myself am a motorcyclist. I’m not sure where they sit in the psyche of cyclists? Above or below trucks for danger?
I make a point of keeping to the speed limit and obeying the rules. I have to as I film my journeys and that film can be used against as well as for me. So I would like to think I am unbiased.
In all honesty I would prefer cyclists to be physically separated from everything else.I would happily pay additional tax etc for this to happen. This isn’t “All cyclists should not be on the road” but if anything they are the most vulnerable group and would benefit everyone. I’m not talking about stupid blue paint on the road but dedicated roads or skyways.
Skyways are the most stupid idea possible, adding gradients and lengthy detours to/from access ramps, plus you’d still need to be on the roads to get to places not served and presumably those roads would be at least as unfriendly as now.
Personally, I like most motorbikes and mopeds when cycling. Their drivers are in the outside world like I am. If we’re stopped at a junction, we can talk easily. If we’re passing each other (usually them passing us), both cycles and motos can go single file and share a lane.
“if you are crossing a junction on green you don’t expect to see other traffic of any type to be in the same area” Sadly, when in London, I do expect traffic to be there. Cars and vans jumping red lights and pedestrians stepping out without looking are far more common. Unless I’m really sure, I ring the bell when entering a junction, even on green, and I look around, which is what I was taught when learning to drive, because you never know if there’ll be a 999 vehicle on blue lights.
I think that you have missed the point on the skyways. The emphasis is on segregation by what works for all parties.
What bit of plans like http://road.cc/content/news/65718-plans-boriss-elevated-cycle-paths-start-take-shape am I missing? Looks like some nightmare scenario for London cycling. I’m glad the recent proposal is much better.
Also, I want protected space, not segregation. We still need access to the roads, else many journeys become difficult to impossible.
I always wait at red lights. For the reasons stated and its the law. The only time i go through red is when not picked up on detector and its safe for me to do so.
I pretty much never do, but I do jump off the bike and walk it over the pedestrian crossings at certain lights in the mornings a lot if they’ve just changed and I know there will be quite a wait until they go green again.
My only exception is the north end of the Clapham Common bike lane, which has a set of lights solely for cyclists to leave the park and access North Side and Cedars Road – if there’s nothing coming along the roads, and as long as the green man isn’t showing, I’ll jump those.
I’m not sure where the heading ‘how to jump a red light’ is going, but I don’t think its a positive message.
Red lights are designed for any transport on the road which road include cyclists. All should generally obey. I’m a cyclist and motorist, I often see cyclists jumping where it really isn’t appropriate. Sometimes having a very poor judgment of the road (not that drivers don’t either). As a general rule red lights should be observed for the safety of ALL.
Changing the law cannot be done as there are so many variable at differing junctions. One rule cannot apply until changes have been considered everywhere.
I never jump red lights, I personally think it is a very selfish action to take. In a busy city like London we have to co exist, and that won’t go smoothly if we decided to follow our own rules (I have cycled in Vietnam where there are no rules, and a lot of deaths).
I cycle every day thru Central London.
If there was something wrong with the lights, as suggested by posts above, I would just get off my bike and become a pedestrian.
I am a big advocate of the perception argument. So yes I have to be better than all other road users, as the only other argument, gets us nowhere. I.e, when I get some respect I’ll give some back.
I just don’t understand what the big rush is about having to run a red light, if you feel unsafe, walk the junction.
Cyclist hate being branded, so there is a danger that we are doing the same to other road users, when we state things like “car drivers are always on mobiles and speed”.
There will always be bad/selfish/thoughtless behaviour on the roads so the more we can raise the bar of behaviour the better we are in a position to have a say on The future of cycling.
If I get off the bike, I’m wider, wobblier (especially if carrying cargo) and generally less able to get out of the way. On the few occasions I pass red (faulty detectors), I’ll stay on the bike for my own safety.
Until recently, I have treated red lights as advisory. A couple of weeks ago, I jumped the light when I felt bored waiting for it to change; another cyclist caught up to me at the next light and said: “If you want us cyclists to be treated with respect, you should respect the rules.” I agreed with him and thanked him for that.
Let’s be a respected part of regular traffic. For that, we might as well respect the rules, signs, and red lights!
That cuts both ways: some motorists jump red lights, so why should anyone give them any respect? Happily, it’s junk reasoning (I’m not responsible for the actions of other cyclists) but there are many other reasons not to jump red lights.
I agree with the perception point and that’s the main reason I’m pretty fastidious about not jumping red lights. I do think it’s important to not seethe with rage at cyclists who do it, though. Remaining zen on the road is very important.
Most of the arguments for light-jumping are selfish ones that take into account the cyclists own safety and / or convenience but fail to account for others.
My perception (and this is not backed up by empirical observation) is that light-jumping has decreased quite a bit in the 13 or so years I’ve been commuting by bike. When I first started it seemed like every cyclist completely ignored lights whereas now it seems a much more even split.
The only place I do it is Farringdon road (A201) turning right onto Clerkenwell Road.
The filtering makes the junction stupidly dangerous, and it is much better to cautiously* go through when all lights on red. (*cautiously – very slowly and giving way to pedestrians)
I have written to both TFL and the council about changing the filtering here…
They are investigating (apparently…. – watch this space i guess)
I obey all other traffic lights – even at crossings, when many cyclists think it is fine to shoot across if no-one is using the crossing
I very rarely pass red lights as a cyclist. A few times I’ve dismounted and pushed my bike across Mortimer Street W1 while cycling down Wells St, because the light facing Wells St stay red for over two minutes with often very little traffic actually using Mortimer Street.
Although pushing the bike instead of riding makes it legal, I don’t think it makes it any safer than riding across would be.
I’ve noted above the two places where I am lax about red lights; otherwise, I agree, it is important to be seen by motorists and pedestrians to obey the rules. But it would be very helpful to do something about the rules, along the lines suggested by Mark above – the ability to get across a junction before motor traffic would really enhance cycle safety, I think
Off topic, but have you posted at all about the plague of cyclists riding across zebra crossings? In Hackney, it seems that many cyclists now believe they a right to do this; they cause alarm and inconvenience for pedestrians, and confusion and grinding of teeth for drivers. But the layout of some cycle routes – which are used by a lot of cyclists – makes it look like the logical thing to do.
In both cases, RLJ and zebra misuse, the root of the problem is that the law and the roads are designed to work for motor vehicles and (to a lesser extent) pedestrians, and the needs of cyclists are not taken into account.
It’ll surprise many but cyclists are indeed allowed to ride across zebras (wider knowledge of this was one thing to come out of Bedford Turbogate), but they must still give way to all pedestrians (same as most other places) and other vehicles are not obliged to give way to them.
The law on zebras is http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/2400/regulation/25/made and nearby pages if you want to check which bits say only “motor vehicles” and so on.
I don’t think its obvious exactly what the definition of “jumping a red light” is used for any particular statistic. I hit a 404 when I try to get to the TfL Study of Cyclists Jumping Red Lights so I’m not sure what definition they used.
For instance does a particular study consider a red light jumped when:
* The cyclist waits with their handlebars forward of the stop line?
* The cyclist waits with their front tyre contact patch forward of the stop line?
* The cyclist waits with their entire bike foward of the stop line, but behind the the space for potential conflicting road users?
* The cyclist waits with their entire bike forward of the stop line, but behind the the space for potential conflicting road users?
* The cyclist waits between a pedestrian crossing space and the perpendicular road?
* The cyclist waits behind the stop line but then starts on amber instead of green?
* The cyclist passes through the first stop line to get into the ‘bike box’? (This one is going to be legalized next year, and I think is effectively legal now)
Another interesting tidbit that would have nicely fitted in this article:
“The study, carried out for the Department for Transport, found that in 2% of cases where cyclists were seriously injured in collisions with other road users police said that the rider disobeying a stop sign or traffic light was a likely contributing factor. ”
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-accidents-study
There’s clearly a lot of people here not jumping red lights to improve perception of cyclists.
This clearly doesn’t appear to be working.
The truth is cyclists are a minority outgroup and often treated with contempt and discriminated against like any other minority outgroup. The red light jumping is just a convenient excuse for those who choose to antagonise and endanger cyclists.
If all cyclists behaved perfectly cyclists would still be a discriminated against outgroup. It doesn’t help. So make sure you’re a member of the london cycling campaign and help your local campaign group fight for better infrastructure, separated from traffic, as it is the only thing that has been shown to work anywhere in the world
How about we all ride our bikes, m/cycles, vans, and cars and intergrate into a community that can accept all road users??
> Why do cyclists jump red lights?
It’s strange that this part doesn’t include the main reason: Because it takes a lot more energy to start from a stand-still than after having slowed down to check that no pedestrians, cars… and cops are there.
Incidently, why don’t we change the law and be done with it?
In the absence of reliable evidence of patterns of disregard for red lights all I can assume is that disregard for traffic signals is evenly distributed across all road user types.
In my non-logical mode I have noticed two things. One is that motor cars are often driven across red lights at the end of a queue. The other is that cycles are pedalled across at the front of a queue.
I guess that this apparent but untested difference could account for the anxiety projected onto cyclists (they are looking “dangerous”) and the emotional indifference inspired by drivers (they are behaving normally and usually go unnoticed).
One thing I draw from such discussions is that no good ever comes of them. No minds are changed no improvements are made to road layouts and road traffic regulation enforcement stays a very low priority for Police. I tried to say something about this general idea in a recent blog that is so dull no one has read it:
http://samsaundersbristol.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/considerate-cycling-45-normal-people/
Nevertheless, I did enjoy reading your blog Andreas. Many thanks.
Pedestrian crossings where the pedestrian has pressed the button then crossed before the light goes red are fair game. No point waiting for 1 minute when the only person who “called” for traffic to stop has already nipped across the road as there was no traffic approaching.
Why do some pedestrians automatically press the button where the road is clear. this winds me up as a car driver more then as a cyclist.
I rarely cut red lights at junctions for obvious reasons. Common sense of course.
I think some pedestrians press the button anyway as a protest against these crossings being designed to give priority to motor vehicles over the users that were there before them. Why do most crossings show a green light to motors when the way is not clear because there are clearly pedestrians who may be crossing?
Nice to see a sensible, reasoned blog on this topic for once!
I don’t generally jump red lights. The only exception I make is for pedestrian lights when there isn’t a pedestrian within 20 yards of the lights, usually because they’ve pressed the button then just crossed over in a gap in the traffic without waiting, and one particular set of lights on CS7 just below the Elephant & Castle when the phasing of the lights is so bad that you can end up sitting there for 2-3 minutes looking at an empty road, as all the cars who might want to come down it are stuck on red lights on the Elephant roundabout itself.
I,ve nearly hit people who have jumped red lights and haven,t looked to see if there is traffic coming out of a junction.It,s just dangerous and you can get yourself killed or seriously injured.
As a taxi driver I really think ‘perception’ is key. Many of my customers will presume I’m anti-cyclist and start ranting about either red light jumping or ofton bizarrely non helmeted cyclists. I’m constantly defending and pointing out all the other cyclists who do the right thing. Unfortunately the relatively few cyclists who don’t abide the rules are selfishly antagonising a lot of the public. London is undoubtedly now a cycling city where provisions have to be made in any new road schemes the pay off being we all obey the rules(even taxi drivers)!
Yeah, because all taxi drivers obey the rules? There are bad operators of all types, sadly, but let’s not overgeneralise.
That was sort of my point. Try not to stereotype or generalize cos as with all forms of riders/drivers 98% are fine but it’s the same repeat offenders that spoil things for the rest.
I sometimes hop off my bike and walk it through a red light, this is not against the rules
I commute 42 miles a day from Watford to Central London and back again. Generally, I don’t jump red lights. However, I do get frustrated over the phasing of lights.
Traffic lights are normally phased to group cars into cohorts for the purpose of traffic management. Often what happens is that the light turns green, and the car gets through the next set & so-on. Whereas on my pushbike, I often find myself having to stop at every set of lights along a route.
Having said that, stopping at traffic lights still only accounts for 15-20 minutes of my 2.5 hour daily commute. If I jumped every set, I’d probably only save 5 or 10 minutes. I see that as a small investment in making the roads a safer place for me and everybody else.
Lucky you. If I ride to one local station to catch my train to London, I’d be delayed at least 7 minutes in 700 metres by red lights if I used the cycleway… so I ride to a different station, but this sort of think makes it seem like the traffic light designers are basically encouraging cyclists either to jump red lights or to switch to driving cars because it’ll be quicker. Something’s gone badly wrong in the highways departments.
if the majority drive cars then doesnt it make sense to give the majority green lights more often to keep them moving?
when the majority becomes bicycles then they will get majority, seems fair…..
No, it doesn’t make sense to prioritise motors so much if we want to encourage people to switch to bikes to help cut pollution and improve public health.
We need to stop making bikes wait excessive lengths of time and watch cars speeding by – or quite often, watch an empty road just in case there may be a car. We may not be able to “build it and they will come” but it’s pretty certain that if we don’t build it, they can’t come!
Oh and even if the lights responded more quickly to cycles, if motors are truly the majority, they’d still get the majority of green light time. The green light time and red light delay aren’t totally dependent on each other until the junction is saturated.
agree to encourage cycling cyclists and peds should get more green lights and motorists more red time.
but we arent at that tipping point yet. cycling is still too small a minority to do that (i think)
I agree that we haven’t reached the tipping point yet. Over the last decade or so, things have improved a lot in favour of cyclists. But cyclists are still second class citizens when it comes to road design and traffic flow.
A lot more could be done.
Prioritising cyclists would send a powerful message to other road users. Eventually there would be an expectation that cyclists have right of way, whereas today we are seen by many as having no rights at all.
I also obey red lights for reasons of perception – and I’d like to cycle another day.
I’ve done all the naughty things in my time, but anything we can do to move beyond a ‘them and us’ attitude, the better. That goes for car drivers thinking all cyclists are bad, to cyclists thinking that they are better and cleverer than other road users. If you use the road then you are a road user – and that’s it.
Many jurisdictions allow cyclists (and motorcyclists) to carefully proceed through a junction if they have waited through an entire light cycle (or a period of time) without being presented a green light (often due to road sensors not detecting bikes).
I can see some junctions, such as at a “Tee” where bicycle traffic proceeding straight through (in the direction that does not cross traffic) with its own cycle lane should not have to stop for (for example) right turning traffic on the green. This would be similar to segregated roundabouts where the far left-turning lane is segregated and therefore does not have to yield or stop at a red light (if so equipped). As someone mentioned above, this is a situation where you could hop off, walk the bike onto the pavement for 30 feet and then hop back on (legally).
I’m extremely cautious about jumping red lights. I would only consider it when traffic is very light and in places with good visibility. In London, the cycles are usually so short that it’s not really a bother to wait.
I’m extremely cautious about dodging the police, hey, I couldn’t give a monkies what my fellow cyclists think………………………….anyway, more about me.
The law is for all, those who don’t ….have no voice.
There is no logical reason for jumping red lights. None.
All you have to do is look through these comments – not a single person who does it has given a sound argument as to why its acceptable.
Where ever you’re going, what ever you’re doing can afford the extra 5mins it may take you to get there.
Going through a red light is a lot more unsafe than virtually any circumstance where you would wait at a junction. You may get away with it 999 times out of 1000 but that one time you don’t notice that car/lorry/bus (or even another cyclist) and splat – your guts/brains/general insides are spread over the road.
People who RLJ are at least one of, if not all, of the below –
1. Lazy – pulling off from the lights and exercising is obviously too much for them.
2. Stupid – Obviously the simple “cost vs benefit” equation of getting to your destination a few seconds quicker vs getting dead escapes their mind. Natural selection would have taken care of these people had they been born in earlier times.
3. Very, very Arrogant – for whatever reason they think the law, and the safety of others doesn’t apply to them.
Pretty basic to me: you want to be treated as a fellow road user, you behave like one. You ignore the rules of road you surrender the moral high ground to the tossers in cars and lose the support of the reasonable drivers
Can I just mention the data on this issue? For all vehicle types (including bikes) “Disobeyed automatic traffic signal” is cited as a “contributory factor” only infrequently. It might be all sorts of things, but in the scale of the nation’s road casualties, a complete year with no red light jumping would not make a lot of difference.
What would make a difference is looking where you are going and other road users doing the same. Don’t believe me. Use Google and track down the data for yourself. “Failed To Look Properly” is the King of Casualties.
For cyclists specifically the commonest danger by far is in “non-collision accidents” – potholes, ice, grit, rails, kerbs and so on – not recorded by Police Officers.
“How to jump a red light?” My understanding is that if you walk your bike past the red light then get back on, technically you haven’t broken the law. I do just that when cycling home from the local Chinese takeaway, which is just a few feet away from the junction. It means I don’t have to wait for the sensor to “see” me, and ensures the food is almost as hot when I get home as when I picked it up.
I only run a red light if it is clear that the sensor isn’t working and that I’d otherwise be stuck there forever.
My what a lot of comments and v. interesting.
I cycle and drive, like most of us I would think.
However, cyclists that do not obey traffic signals really do give a bad impression of cyclists generally.
I was overtaken when driving recently and followed for a short time a guy (booted and suited on a good road bike) who jumped every light and on one occasion crossed diagonally on a crossroads. It really annoyed me and I am sure other drivers too. So bad it seemed worth trying to have a word with him but the big muscles on the man deterred me.
I have discussed the problems of the car vs cycle problem with Andreas before and I think unless, despite the problems we with cars, we the cyclists observe the rules of the road we are heading deeper into the car vs cycle war with a bad outcome for all. We are the vulnerable ones.
However brave we are and prepared to stand up for our rights on the road, shouldn’t we all be thinkaing and acting in a way that shows we are doing things right?
Yes, we should, but what do you propose we do? Hunt down and beat the red-light-jumping cyclists to death?
I’m not responsible for other cyclists. Don’t punish me for what they do. We don’t punish motorists for the increasing number of red-light-jumping motor vehicles. Why isn’t there the same backlash there? Is it just because lawbreaking (speeding, texting, RLJing) is the new normal for driving motor vehicles?
great article and interesting discussions
my advice from commuting in London
1) stop at the traffic lights (doh)
to avoid fines, possible danger & to help the image of cyclists
2) walk and push your bike
if you must go through the red lights
I’ve found it’s worth knowing the sequence of lights
sometimes it saves valuable minutes
other times it’s hardly worth it. just wait for the green light
I don’t jump lights, but two other reasons why people might (aside from being morons):
(1) It takes more energy to accelerate than continue at a constant speed; starting is therefore the hardest part of riding and something people like to avoid.
(2) In some places with lots of lights on a stretch of road they are timed so that drivers don’t have to keep stopping – unfortunately this might not be the case for cyclists who may be moving a lot slower. If you’ve been stopped three times in two hundred yards you might think it’s easiest just to keep going.
But still the issue is, you need to obey the law!
Jump a red light…. travel at 50mph in a 30 limit, both breaking the law whoose right?
Neither, the world is not perfect so turn off Strava, take it on the chin and stop putting yourself & others at danger.
What’s Strava got to do with this? Jim’s comment was about wasted energy, not speed. Why should people who take their shopping home by bike be punished for not using a car? I know they’re both law, but the highway authorities who set up lights to give “green wave for cars, red wave for bikes” are also failing in their legal duty to public health, so why should poor Mrs Miggins with a basketful of shopping have to obey the law when the elected councillors aren’t?
Personally, I request and campaign for these bad lights to be fixed, but I can’t really blame people for jumping them. There’s one junction complex near me where a cyclist obeying every red light would take 7 minutes to do half a mile – there are ways to avoid some of them legally, but they’re not obvious so it seems like a big barrier to riders crossing that junction alone for the first time.
Anyway, driving a motor vehicle at 50mph in a 30mph is far more dangerous than a cyclist rolling through a red light – a motorist driving through a red light is about as common and also far more dangerous. Please let’s keep things in proportion.
I’ve come back to this discussion after admitting a couple of months ago to crossing reds.
The main arguments against it seem to be a) it’s illegal and b) it’s dangerous, I can’t disagree with the first argument but I believe there are certain situations when crossing a red is perfectly safe, or at least no less safe than riding a bike at any other time. These are:
1. Proceeding straight ahead at a T-junction where other traffic joins from your right.
2. Turning left at any junction
Both subject to there being no pedestrains crossing the road who have priority and you giving priority to traffic coming from your right (who will have been given a green).
These two situations are no different from dismounting and proceeding on foot.
Consequently, if these two situations are safe (and I accept that there are those who would disagree with me) then what we need is a change to the law. And so those motorists who resent cyclists so much don’t feel left out, I suggest motor vehicles be allowed to turn left on red (like the US turn right on red, which incidentally works really well, with motorists stopping to allow pedestrians to cross the road they’re joining before proceeding).
However, I won’t hold my breath waiting for our legislators to do anything about it.
Les, what were to happen at a T junction with traffic coming from the right and unexpectedly to the driver you jump the light and join his Lane, he moves out to allow you more room and in doing so takes out the motorcyclist or cyclist in the process of over taking the car?
The other option is he sees the motorcyclist/cyclist and has to brake sharply so he does not collect you, in doing so it causes all the vehicles behind him to have to break heavily too and may cause a collision or just anyone who witnessed the manouver thinking “Bloody cyclists’?
I grant it’s not ideal, but those scenarios are basically the fault of “the motorcyclist or cyclist in the process of over taking the car”. Highway code rule 167 says “DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road …” https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/overtaking-162-to-169
In practice, I think a cyclist proceeding straight on while traffic turns right to join them would aim to merge smoothly, rather than end up alongside another road user.
This (proceeding thru a T-junction red light) makes sense *if* you consider the cyclist has their own “lane” – so by proceeding they do not interact directly with the turning cars. However, if you think of a cyclist “taking the lane” then this is not acceptable – it would be dangerous and would inconvenience the (faster) turning cars.
Ideally, in the rare locations this traffic flow exists, the authorities could splash on a bit of magic bike lane paint and allow cyclists to proceed in that space. Whoops! Sorry – was dreaming of Europe again
There really isn’t a safe place RLJ – just less risky ones.
I know because I see accidents and near misses all the time on my bike commute when some arrogant, obnoxious prick does a red light. Just the other day at a quiet ped crossing on a straight road a cyclist clipped a pedestrian’s pram standing by the edge of the road because they went through a red light at speed.
Going left at a red light isn’t safe either – as others have pointed out, the traffic in the lane you are merging into won’t be expecting you, and thus at the very least you’re just going to piss of drivers (who are driving perfectly legally). At worst, that white van man who hasn’t seen you or the lorry that can’t brake in time, due to its large mass, is going to end you.
If your dubious reason for RLJ’ing is simply because you want to fast on a bike – join a club, and get into racing like the rest of us do. Or get down the Stratford Velopark and use the road and indoor tracks.
But Like so many things in life – there is little point trying to convince the person performing the illegal action that what they’re doing is wrong.
They will twist logic, state that the ‘rules’ aren’t set up for them, or that they simply believe they know better and come up with all sorts of ‘facts’ and ‘good reasons’ why they should be exempt.
Then one day they will be splatted and/or squish someone else in the process.
Its highly likely someone in the world is sitting in a hospital bed right now thinking ‘hmmmm perhaps doing that ‘safe’ red light wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
Cycling is dangerous enough as it is – people who seek to make it more dangerous deliberately by RLJ’ing are evolutionary dead ends and natural selection will probably take care of a fare few of them. Lets hope they don’t have families.
I don’t agree with jumping mandatory red lights, but I think it’s more often an effort to conserve energy or to keep away from dangerous large vehicles stopped at the lights, rather than to keep up speed.
More importantly, cycling is basically safe – safer than many other activities – so if you find it dangerous, I suggest that you’re doing it wrong. There are plenty of offers of training in London if you’d like it – start by checking your local council.
Yeah – because I’m a careful cyclist, I’m doing it wrong. Yep the accident rate might not be massively high per head, but just like an air accident, when you have a serious one, its really serious. Cyclist vs Car/Lorry/Bus is never going to end well.
Whether its a commute, a club run, a race or a sportive I err on the side of safety , for others sake as well as mine. When I go rock climbing, ski-ing etc the principles exactly the same – its essentially a safe activity – as long as you behave responsibly. But take short cuts with your technique and safety procedure and you’re gonna have a bad time.
In other words MJ – Sod off.
Wow, so witty(!) No, it’s not because you’re a careful cyclist you’re doing it wrong. It’s if you’re happy to suggest that a safe activity like cycling is dangerous like in the above comment, then you’re doing it wrong – or rather, you’re assessing its risk wrong, like those comments about air “accidents”.
Of course, a serious collision is serious (tautologies R us) but they’re really rare and cyclists jumping red lights isn’t even in the top five cyclist-involved moves that cause death or serious injuries, which are (according to Transport for London for the period ending 2013): oncoming vehicle turns across cycle, door opens into cycle, sideswipe, left hook, and motorist jumps red light or ignores give way.
RLJing is antisocial and wrong but it’s not something that shows up as causing many collisions… which shouldn’t be a surprise because other countries allow it.