Has ignoring red lights gotten a lot worse?

Magicbastarder....try explaining that to a motorist who has driven tru a green light to be meet by a cyclist in the middle of a junction who has clearly not stopped at a red light .
As the cyclist is now under a car/ bus/ truck try saying
"It's not that bad mate "
It would have been far worse if I broke the lights .

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Magicbastarder....try explaining that to a motorist who has driven tru a green light to be meet by a cyclist in the middle of a junction who has clearly not stopped at a red light .
As the cyclist is now under a car/ bus/ truck try saying
"It's not that bad mate "
It would have been far worse if I broke the lights .

How often does that happen Ashleigh?

Do you ever break the speed limit yourself Ashleigh?

Kevin Irving wrote: »

So there's no point in trying, because it's all the motorists fault anyway?

By all means, try away - try to get motorists to stop killing 2 or 3 people each week and maiming many more before you come lecturing cyclists.

ongarboy wrote:

Just reading this heartbreaking story of a young boy who crossed at the pedestrian lights when the pedestrian man turned green and was knocked down and killed by a motorist with 32 previous convictions including a 3 year ban. Amazingly his family have forgiven the driver which just shows how amazing the human spirit can be.

The reason I'm writing is that I cross the junction of Guild Street and Mayor Street as a pedestrian every day in the IFSC in Dublin and it really angers me the way I see so many cars (mainly those coming from Beckett Bridge/North Wall Quay towards Sherrif St) breaking red lights. This morning, I observed the light going red and not one, not two, not three but 4 cars still proceeded to drive through the junction despite the pedestrian man being green and for which we all had to wait for the cars to pass before proceeding to cross.

I'm seeing this ignoring of red lights by motorists everywhere in Dublin these days. It used to just be amber gambling. Is this an upward trend associated with people's increased sense of impatience or has it always been there? More people will be killed like little Cian as long as this habit is not policed. I acknowledge that cyclists and pedestrians can similarly ignore ROTR but the consequences of a reckless motorist will always be so much worse in these circumstances.

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Just for ye tunnel vision cyclists ( the ones that don't see other cyclists (they are out there ) breaking traffic lights) .
Let's change the topic headline .
Has ignoring red traffic or amber lights by MOTORISTS (only) got worse .
Discuss

To be fair, you seem to be the only one here struggling with the topic set by the OP, which, if you read it through, referenced cars/motorists many times and specifically excluded red light breaking from cyclists from the discussion.

Seeing as the topic has been "expanded" shall we say to talk about cyclists breaking reds, I will say one thing:

There's a huge difference HOW motorised vehicles and cyclists break traffic lights. A cyclist will normally approach a red at his/her regular speed, say up to 25kph, and then make a call to continue through at that same constant speed.

A car or van will see the light going red, often from some distance out and make a decision that they are getting through that light come hell or high water, and accordingly will floor it to get through. So what you have then is people stepping up to cross, and 2 tonnes of metal coming crashing through the crossing in full charge mode, probably at that moment doing well over what would be an appropriate speed even if the light were green.

Take a moment, to decide, if you had to be hit by one of those, which one would it be. I know which one I'd pick. Then try to tell me that a car/van/truck/bus breaking the light is in any way equivelant in road safety terms to a bicycle breaking the light.

btw, i don't break lights on the bike (or in the car) myself, and I've no problem with someone on a bike who does being nabbed by a garda who happens to be present. In terms of active policing though, the emphasis should be on those creating the most danger on our roads.

In the same way, I would cheer if I saw some dirty fecker lobbing rubbish out their car window get collared by a nearby garda car, but I wouldnt think it a good use of resources if I heard the gardai were mounting a campaign to catch litterers, because annoying and disgusting as littering is, there's far worse going on in our cities.

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Duckjob.....the point is
Cyclists are by Irish law to STOP at red traffic lights .
They are not allowed to make a judgement as they approach lights to continue to cycle tru same RED lights .
It's simples if you use the road ( motorists / cyclists ) you adhere to the LAW !!

I wasn't aware that Duckjob's post was saying the cyclist should be given a pass? In fact, he states "I've no problem with someone on a bike who does being nabbed by a garda who happens to be present".

It's those killing motorists that kill pedestrians all the time I hate

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Duckjob.....the point is
Cyclists are by Irish law to STOP at red traffic lights .
They are not allowed to make a judgement as they approach lights to continue to cycle tru same RED lights .
It's simples if you use the road ( motorists / cyclists ) you adhere to the LAW !!

Pretty sure you're not adhering to English grammar rules with this capitalisation.

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Andrew ... As I've mentioned before
I've a 30 year accident free driving history .
I've no penalty points on my license.
To have both takes observation on the road .
Every hour of every day I see crazy driving from motorists including breaking lights ...
But guess what Andrew no matter what you throw up
I SEE CYCLISTS DOING THE EXACT SAME .

Its bit rich for a taxi driver to come on to a thread about motorists breaking red lights & complain about cyclists.
I travel to work sometimes by car but mostly by motorbike & by far the biggest offenders on the Road are Taxi drivers.

When I work evening shift I avoid travelling home the quickest way through Drumcondra because of the reckless driving of the Taxi drivers.
They think they are on the Nurburgring the way they speed in the bus lanes, changes lanes, never indicating & nearly always putting the foot down when the light goes red.

The vast majority of Taxi drivers probably don't have points on their license but that doesn't stop them breaking the rules of the road.

PWEI wrote: »

Its bit rich for a taxi driver to come on to a thread about motorists breaking red lights & complain about cyclists.
I travel to work sometimes by car but mostly by motorbike & by far the biggest offenders on the Road are Taxi drivers.

When I work evening shift I avoid travelling home the quickest way through Drumcondra because of the reckless driving of the Taxi drivers.
They think they are on the Nurburgring the way they speed in the bus lanes, changes lanes, never indicating & nearly always putting the foot down when the light goes red.

The vast majority of Taxi drivers probably don't have points on their license but that doesn't stop them breaking the rules of the road.

Probably 80% of the negative experiences I've had while on the bike have been with taxi drivers, usually involving needless and pointless aggression instigated entirely by them.