Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
Post Reply
beardy
Posts: 3382
Joined: 23 Feb 2010, 4:10pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by beardy »

More of an amber gambler, he was almost on top of the red light when it turned.
Sleeper Service
Posts: 32
Joined: 1 Nov 2015, 11:01pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by Sleeper Service »

He's about two seconds after the light goes red. If there was a traffic camera there he'd have three points and a sixty quid fine to look forward to, so hopefully someone will forward this to the police.
Mike Sales
Posts: 7883
Joined: 7 Mar 2009, 3:31pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by Mike Sales »

beardy wrote:More of an amber gambler, he was almost on top of the red light when it turned.


Amber means stop, unless unsafe.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
beardy
Posts: 3382
Joined: 23 Feb 2010, 4:10pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by beardy »

Mike Sales wrote:
beardy wrote:More of an amber gambler, he was almost on top of the red light when it turned.


Amber means stop, unless unsafe.


Day follows night.
Mike Sales
Posts: 7883
Joined: 7 Mar 2009, 3:31pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by Mike Sales »

beardy wrote:
Day follows night.


Gnomic beardy.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Flinders
Posts: 3023
Joined: 10 Mar 2009, 6:47pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by Flinders »

In Stafford drivers used to be quite good about not jumping lights. Then we started to get a lot of roadworks about 18months-2 years ago. Then the RLJing started. Due to monumental mismanagement by the council, we have had roadworks and road closures coming out of our ears for more than the last year, sometimes every arterial road has had them all at the same time. Journeys that took 10 mins now routinely take half an hour at peak times, and often far worse than that on the worst routes.

It's now normal practice for at least two vehicles to shoot the lights at the end of a sequence, esp, the temp lights, where it is most often three. Diamond crossings are frequently blocked at peak times, making things even worse, and non-diamond crossings are blocked as a matter of course. It's completely insane. Drivers ignore lights now so much that I have twice seen vehicles go through a temp red light which they have approached at red from a distance late at night when there was no other traffic. Due to the bends, no way could the driver see if there was any traffic coming the other way on green.

Temp lights are treated as optional now, and even permanent ones are routinely jumped. It's atrocious. I am told that the police were warned about this situation as it was developing and they just said they hadn't had as many accidents here in the preceding year as in some other places so saw no need to do anything. Whoooosh. Preventative policing at its best- 'we didn't used to have a problem so we aren't doing anything' seems to be the idea.
MikeF
Posts: 4339
Joined: 11 Nov 2012, 9:24am
Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by MikeF »

But, but only cyclists jump red lights, according to most drivers that I know. :wink:
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by iviehoff »

You could easily film numerous incidents like that just by hanging around at many junctions in London. Buses in particular think that they can cross the junction up to 3 seconds after it has turned red. I've had a couple of cases recently where I have established that my light is green, the vehicles coming the other way seem to have stopped, and have set off, only to find that another vehicle still approaching the junction didn't think it was red enough yet and has ended up crossing the junction behind me.
GrumpyCyclist
Posts: 216
Joined: 7 Jul 2015, 9:05pm
Location: Bolton, UK

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by GrumpyCyclist »

Nope, as an HGV driver I can say he had plenty of time to stop there. Unless....and this is the sticking point because it isn't really clear in the video....he had someone very close behind him and it was a split second decision to take the light rather than risk someone colliding with his rear end. Unlikely since you can just see that no one follows him up to the line but it's always possible they had slowed in time, even though he could not be sure they would. Personally I think he was just going for it whatever but when video is cut off or the angle changes it's always difficult to judge completely.

As a sidenote though, the article headline says "cuts across cyclists". While I dispute that a little, it really wasn't that close, I'm not trying to be awkward but they could see him turning - whether he should have been or not - but they all just moved off when the light went green. Even green means "proceed if safe to do so" so they really shouldn't have been getting that close to him cutting across their paths. Just because a light is green doesn't mean carry on regardless, whether motorist or cyclist.
Weight 8th July 2015 111.9Kg : Weight now 93.8Kg. Mostly due to cycling. Wish I'd started much sooner :( #LoveTheBike
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by mjr »

Sleeper Service wrote:He's about two seconds after the light goes red. If there was a traffic camera there he'd have three points and a sixty quid fine to look forward to, so hopefully someone will forward this to the police.

Why don't we have more red light cameras? It's worse than silly out there now.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Blatant red light jump - by a lorry

Post by iviehoff »

mjr wrote:
Sleeper Service wrote:He's about two seconds after the light goes red. If there was a traffic camera there he'd have three points and a sixty quid fine to look forward to, so hopefully someone will forward this to the police.

Why don't we have more red light cameras? It's worse than silly out there now.

In part, because the government changed the rules on where you could put cameras, and also on apportionment of fines income, and that basically caused most red-light and box junction offence cameras and the like to be decommissioned, as well as many speed cameras. Now in part some police areas were carrying out entrapment with cameras, and that needed to be closed down. But the clamp-down was excessive.
Post Reply