Re: [Ebbc-Talk] [Discuss] Do you run red lights on your bike?

If the traffic light is defective (i.e. won't detect bicycles), it is legal to treat the traffic light as a stop sign and proceed through the red light once the street you are crossing is clear of traffic. I do this every day on my commute for a certain traffic light in Oakland which has been reported on the EBBC online hazard report form but the City of Oakland in their typical ignorant of cyclist's complaints attitude has done nothing to fix it.

The right turn followed by a U-turn and another right turn manoeuvre is inherently less safe than treating the red light as a stop sign as U-turns expose the cyclist to more opportunities for collisions. I knew a cyclist who was killed while executing a U-turn in Morgan Hill in 2004 though there was no traffic light involved with that one. Several years ago a cyclist on the peninsula was killed while making a U-turn following a right turn at a traffic light.

Zach

On 11 Aug 2012, at 17:30, Jim Strehlow wrote:

> I will not run a red light, but I will do the following.
> When it is late at night/early in the morning when there is no one at all within a block of the intersection,
> I will turn right, make a u-turn in the street (where there is no meridian), then turn right at that green light.
> 
> I do not want to be a sitting target at some intersections where the light may take two minutes to change
> or the light is not being triggered by my weight (no road sensor)
>   (Santa Rita Rd and Las Positas in Pleasanton is one such light)
> My mother let me use some "street smarts" in order to survive.
> 
> Respectfully (of the law),
> Jim

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