Are bikes allowed to go through red lights on major roads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine what it would be like if cycling was actually popular in DC?

PARIS — On a recent afternoon, the Rue de Rivoli looked like this: Cyclists blowing through red lights in two directions. Delivery bike riders fixating on their cellphones. Electric scooters careening across lanes. Jaywalkers and nervous pedestrians scrambling as if in a video game.

Sarah Famery, a 20-year resident of the Marais neighborhood, braced for the tumult. She looked left, then right, then left and right again before venturing into a crosswalk, only to break into a rant-laden sprint as two cyclists came within inches of grazing her.

“It’s chaos!” exclaimed Ms. Famery, shaking a fist at the swarm of bikes that have displaced cars on the Rue de Rivoli ever since it was remade into a multilane highway for cyclists last year. “Politicians want to make Paris a cycling city, but no one is following any rules,” she said. “It’s becoming risky just to cross the street!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/02/world/europe/paris-bicyles-france.html#:~:text=In%20Paris%2C%20parts%20of%20the,bike%20lanes%20weave%20through%20traffic.

Yes, imagine if all cities had done what Paris is now doing! We might not be living on a planet that just recorded its hottest month ever and might not be on track to completely wrecking the prospects of people being able to live here into the 22nd century. Also, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people killed after being hit by drivers would still be with us today. Just imagine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biker here. My rule of thumb is to roll through red lights and stop signs PROVIDED that it has no effect on any traffic that would normally have the right-of-way. If a car has to slow down (or jam on its brakes) because I'm crossing against the light then that's a big mistake on my part. However, sometimes the most efficient path is to roll through a stop sign if the driver to my left or right is starting to slow for a stop - by the time they are actually stopped, I'm long through the intersection and they can actually get going more quickly than if I come to a complete stop.

There's some simple physics also. It's a PIA to get a bike going again after coming to a complete stop. If you have to do that every block, it gets really bad. Better for everyone if I slow down, verify that there is no oncoming traffic, and then keep the momentum going.

The real answer right here.

Bicyclists don't ignore stop signs because of cockamamie arguments about how it's somehow safer to ignore traffic safety laws.

They ignore stop signs because physically it's too tiring for them to have to constantly stop and start their bikes.

Those are all weak arguments for them. Some of them are arrogant and entitled too. I've had cyclists yell at me as a pedestrian with right of way at a crosswalk when they were supposed to yield. Given I also ride (but do follow laws) it's embarrassing to have fellow cyclists who do stupid things.

Are there bicyclists who are jerks? Yes, because there are people who are jerks. They're jerks when they're driving, they're jerks when they're bicycling, they're jerks when they're walking, they're jerks when they're taking an airplane or taking a bus or taking Metro or...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

I bike in the city. Drivers aren't looking for anybody in the crosswalk. Biking in the crosswalk is no less safe than biking in the road, for everyone who isn't John Forester.

[Anonymous]

As long as the biker give the stop light or stop sign the finger as they blow through it is legal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

I bike in the city. Drivers aren't looking for anybody in the crosswalk. Biking in the crosswalk is no less safe than biking in the road, for everyone who isn't John Forester.

Please, especially if you have kids, learn some basic safe biking skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

I bike in the city. Drivers aren't looking for anybody in the crosswalk. Biking in the crosswalk is no less safe than biking in the road, for everyone who isn't John Forester.

Please, especially if you have kids, learn some basic safe biking skills.

Please stop pushing vehicular cycling on people. It's not 1976.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine what it would be like if cycling was actually popular in DC?

PARIS — On a recent afternoon, the Rue de Rivoli looked like this: Cyclists blowing through red lights in two directions. Delivery bike riders fixating on their cellphones. Electric scooters careening across lanes. Jaywalkers and nervous pedestrians scrambling as if in a video game.

Sarah Famery, a 20-year resident of the Marais neighborhood, braced for the tumult. She looked left, then right, then left and right again before venturing into a crosswalk, only to break into a rant-laden sprint as two cyclists came within inches of grazing her.

“It’s chaos!” exclaimed Ms. Famery, shaking a fist at the swarm of bikes that have displaced cars on the Rue de Rivoli ever since it was remade into a multilane highway for cyclists last year. “Politicians want to make Paris a cycling city, but no one is following any rules,” she said. “It’s becoming risky just to cross the street!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/02/world/europe/paris-bicyles-france.html#:~:text=In%20Paris%2C%20parts%20of%20the,bike%20lanes%20weave%20through%20traffic.

Yes, imagine if all cities had done what Paris is now doing! We might not be living on a planet that just recorded its hottest month ever and might not be on track to completely wrecking the prospects of people being able to live here into the 22nd century. Also, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people killed after being hit by drivers would still be with us today. Just imagine!

This is why bikes need to be licensed and displayed that license is such a way that it can be read automatically. Every stop sign and stop light needs to have the ability to ticket bikers. Also have to enforce the speed limit(many streets are 15 mph or school zone). If bikes do not display the license it should be impounded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine what it would be like if cycling was actually popular in DC?

PARIS — On a recent afternoon, the Rue de Rivoli looked like this: Cyclists blowing through red lights in two directions. Delivery bike riders fixating on their cellphones. Electric scooters careening across lanes. Jaywalkers and nervous pedestrians scrambling as if in a video game.

Sarah Famery, a 20-year resident of the Marais neighborhood, braced for the tumult. She looked left, then right, then left and right again before venturing into a crosswalk, only to break into a rant-laden sprint as two cyclists came within inches of grazing her.

“It’s chaos!” exclaimed Ms. Famery, shaking a fist at the swarm of bikes that have displaced cars on the Rue de Rivoli ever since it was remade into a multilane highway for cyclists last year. “Politicians want to make Paris a cycling city, but no one is following any rules,” she said. “It’s becoming risky just to cross the street!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/02/world/europe/paris-bicyles-france.html#:~:text=In%20Paris%2C%20parts%20of%20the,bike%20lanes%20weave%20through%20traffic.

Yes, imagine if all cities had done what Paris is now doing! We might not be living on a planet that just recorded its hottest month ever and might not be on track to completely wrecking the prospects of people being able to live here into the 22nd century. Also, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people killed after being hit by drivers would still be with us today. Just imagine!

This is why bikes need to be licensed and displayed that license is such a way that it can be read automatically. Every stop sign and stop light needs to have the ability to ticket bikers. Also have to enforce the speed limit(many streets are 15 mph or school zone). If bikes do not display the license it should be impounded.

Ticket them for...following the laws?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are bikes allowed to ignore every single traffic law?

Legally, no.
But the law is rarely applied, and sometimes it's safer for cyclists to cross an intersection when cars have stopped.
Perhaps you're not mature enough to understand this, or the fact that there are a ton of laws in every state that for various reasons are not enforced.

It's not that it's safer for cyclists to go through stop signs and traffic lights -- that's obviously crazy. It's that it would suck if they had to stop and start at every single intersection. That would be really tiring and be so slow.

The worst is when it's rush hour, and you have a slow biker blocking traffic, but due to oncoming traffic it takes you forever to pass them. You finally get past, then hit a red light, and the biker blows by you again as they completely disregard the light, and then you are stuck driving 10 mph yet again as you struggle to get around them once again in traffic.

.

Rush hour sounds annoying in a car. Glad I use alternate modes of transportation such as cycling. You realize that even if you get ahead of me, you'll get stuck at every light and stop sign and repeat your madness?

I recently had to drive and pick up a friend by the armory, and noted how miserable the driving experience is. You know what that did for me? Made me even more motivated to bike!

When you do the math, urban driving is often no faster than bike speed (10-15mph). Create safe parallel routes where bikes don't have to keep stopping, and people will get out of their cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

Cycling in the crosswalk is completely legal and perfectly safe provided drivers exercise the usual precautions. Any driver who doesn’t have the visual acuity to notice a moving object in a crosswalk they are about to drive through and/or the wherewithal to verify that no one is about to enter the crosswalk before proceeding across it should not be driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine what it would be like if cycling was actually popular in DC?

PARIS — On a recent afternoon, the Rue de Rivoli looked like this: Cyclists blowing through red lights in two directions. Delivery bike riders fixating on their cellphones. Electric scooters careening across lanes. Jaywalkers and nervous pedestrians scrambling as if in a video game.

Sarah Famery, a 20-year resident of the Marais neighborhood, braced for the tumult. She looked left, then right, then left and right again before venturing into a crosswalk, only to break into a rant-laden sprint as two cyclists came within inches of grazing her.

“It’s chaos!” exclaimed Ms. Famery, shaking a fist at the swarm of bikes that have displaced cars on the Rue de Rivoli ever since it was remade into a multilane highway for cyclists last year. “Politicians want to make Paris a cycling city, but no one is following any rules,” she said. “It’s becoming risky just to cross the street!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/02/world/europe/paris-bicyles-france.html#:~:text=In%20Paris%2C%20parts%20of%20the,bike%20lanes%20weave%20through%20traffic.

Yes, imagine if all cities had done what Paris is now doing! We might not be living on a planet that just recorded its hottest month ever and might not be on track to completely wrecking the prospects of people being able to live here into the 22nd century. Also, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people killed after being hit by drivers would still be with us today. Just imagine!

This is why bikes need to be licensed and displayed that license is such a way that it can be read automatically. Every stop sign and stop light needs to have the ability to ticket bikers. Also have to enforce the speed limit(many streets are 15 mph or school zone). If bikes do not display the license it should be impounded.

Oh boy . . . Wait until you get a load of what drivers are up to . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

I bike in the city. Drivers aren't looking for anybody in the crosswalk. Biking in the crosswalk is no less safe than biking in the road, for everyone who isn't John Forester.

Please, especially if you have kids, learn some basic safe biking skills.

Please stop pushing vehicular cycling on people. It's not 1976.

Where did I say “vehicular cycling”? I said you need to bike slowly through the crosswalk. This is basic bike safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today, I was driving westbound on Macarthur Blvd, and I stopped at a red light. Two bicyclists, with children in tow, came up behind me, crossed four lanes of traffic to turn left onto Dana Place. I know bikes can do a rolling stop through stop signs, but is this correct behavior at a stop sign. It seemed very dangerous to me as cars were crossing Macarthur with the light.

That intersection has crosswalks on all sides. So it sounds like they were effectively turning left onto the crosswalk across MacArthur and along Dana. If there was traffic turning left off Dana onto MacArthur, they could have remained on the crosswalk and been protected by the right of way. If there was no traffic on Dana, then they can just merge from the crosswalk onto the Dana proper without any issue. A cleaner way of doing this would have been to come up onto the sidewalk of MacArthur before turning left onto the crosswalk, but either way this sounds like a perfectly safe move. Had they followed the law for cars, they’d be stuck in the left westbound lane waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear before they could turn left and would still need to worry about cars turning right from MacArthur onto Dana while running the risk of being rear-ended by a driver on MacArthur who was not paying attention. I’ll take what they did any day over that risk.

This is likely what happened. My only disagreement is that biking in the crosswalk actually can be dangerous because you’re less visible.

Less visible than what? If drivers are unable to see people who are in the crosswalk, that's a real problem.

If you’re going to bike in the city (esp with kids) you REALLY need to learn this. Biking in a crosswalk can be unsafe because cars are only looking for people moving at walking speed. You can bike through a crosswalk but you need to go slowly and look out for turning cars.

Cycling in the crosswalk is completely legal and perfectly safe provided drivers exercise the usual precautions. Any driver who doesn’t have the visual acuity to notice a moving object in a crosswalk they are about to drive through and/or the wherewithal to verify that no one is about to enter the crosswalk before proceeding across it should not be driving.

Please take the WABA biking class and learn the most common crashes and how to prevent them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biker here. My rule of thumb is to roll through red lights and stop signs PROVIDED that it has no effect on any traffic that would normally have the right-of-way. If a car has to slow down (or jam on its brakes) because I'm crossing against the light then that's a big mistake on my part. However, sometimes the most efficient path is to roll through a stop sign if the driver to my left or right is starting to slow for a stop - by the time they are actually stopped, I'm long through the intersection and they can actually get going more quickly than if I come to a complete stop.

There's some simple physics also. It's a PIA to get a bike going again after coming to a complete stop. If you have to do that every block, it gets really bad. Better for everyone if I slow down, verify that there is no oncoming traffic, and then keep the momentum going.

The real answer right here.

Bicyclists don't ignore stop signs because of cockamamie arguments about how it's somehow safer to ignore traffic safety laws.

They ignore stop signs because physically it's too tiring for them to have to constantly stop and start their bikes.

Those are all weak arguments for them. Some of them are arrogant and entitled too. I've had cyclists yell at me as a pedestrian with right of way at a crosswalk when they were supposed to yield. Given I also ride (but do follow laws) it's embarrassing to have fellow cyclists who do stupid things.

Are there bicyclists who are jerks? Yes, because there are people who are jerks. They're jerks when they're driving, they're jerks when they're bicycling, they're jerks when they're walking, they're jerks when they're taking an airplane or taking a bus or taking Metro or...

Every time I see a jerk do something stupid while riding a bike, I gives that they are not driving a motor vehicle. Apparently, though, there are people in DC whose greatest wish is for the even greater mayhem that would result from certain jerks being put behind the wheel of a car. Go figure.