Research says bicyclists should run red lights?

Dr. Anne Lusk made an interesting comment on red lights: (quote is here):

Female bicyclists in England are being killed at a higher rate than
males because females wait for the green light to proceed and then are
hit by turning trucks,” said Anne Lusk, a Research Fellow at the
Harvard School of Public Health and active supporter of the BCU. She
suggests that the majority of car drivers and bicyclists are
conscientious and that warnings, instead of tickets, would improve
safety, increase bicycling, and foster good will.

Lusk is neglecting issues with bicyclist behavior that lead to such a result. Consider the probable mechanism:

Scofflaw male cyclist runs red light, and usually gets ahead of first-in-line turning motor vehicle before it turns.

Law-abiding female cyclist waits to the left (in England) of that vehicle and gets left-hooked when the light changes.

So, Lusk is making an argument for — what? Running red lights? — based on different kinds of poor behavior by males and females, exacerbated by traffic lights that cause delay when there is no cross traffic.

Those of us who understand the risks neither run red lights nor position ourselves where we are endangered by turning traffic. My advice is to merge far enough from the edge of the road to forestall a hook turn, and if filtering forward, to wait behind the first vehicle, where the driver of the second one can see me and yield to me.

And that in spite of a healthy a level of testosterone!

About jsallen

John S. Allen is the author or co-author of numerous publications about bicycling including Bicycling Street Smarts, which has been adopted as the bicycle driver's manual in several US states. He has been active with the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition since 1978 and served as a member of the board of Directors of the League of American Bicyclists from 2003 through 2009.
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One Response to Research says bicyclists should run red lights?

  1. Eric D says:

    That English ‘pro Red-Light-Jumping’ research was a Transport for London commissioned report not intended for publication. (… and not yet leaked in full … )
    http://www.rudi.net/node/16395
    It is not clear whether the blokes were recklessly blasting all the way across the junction, or just stopping behind the stop line (or advanced stop line).
    This would put them beyond lorry+bus blind zones.
    http://londonneur.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/hgv-blind-spots-to-be-marked-at-junctions/
    We also have sturdy railings at the edge of the footwalks,
    http://www.alpharail.co.uk/optirail-high-visibility-pedestrian-guardrail/
    to stop pedestrians jaywalking (not illegal here, just unwise), and give them some protection from slow vehicles mounting the footwalk.
    Note the uprights are ‘staggered’ in ‘echelon’ formation so you can see through them one way.

    It is pretty unusual to see a pedestrian jumping the barriers – they are rarely >30 feet long.
    Some have been removed after lorries left-hooked cyclists against them – a rather unpleasant tomato-slicer effect followed.

    This happens, too:
    http://youtu.be/rAGJFufkj90
    Yay for shared spaces !

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