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Old April 14th 09, 10:58 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.rec.cycling,uk.transport
JNugent[_4_] JNugent[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Sep 2008
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Default Cyclists allowed to run red lights?

Graculus wrote:

Boris's latest mad-cap idea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7998687.stm and other sources.


"Cyclists may legally be able to go through red traffic lights under plans
being considered in London.
"More than a third of fatal cycling accidents in London involve cyclists
being hit by heavy vehicles turning left, Transport for London (TfL) said."

Two things:

(a) Boris isn't TaL, and
(b) it doesn't stand a chance of being enacted by Parliament, as it would
mean that there were two completely different rules in force in thee UK.

So, the idea is that this allows cyclists to move off before lorries and
thus not get trapped/killed when they move off and turn left. And it is
cited that 13 deaths occurred because of this. What they fail to say is how
many cyclists would be killed when they see the red light as a proverbial
"green light" to run the red without paying any attention to what's
approaching from their right and get subsequently hit by some other vehicle
crossing the junction on green. I'm sure they would be meant to give way,
blah blah blah, but would that happen in reality?


Quite barmy!


That's Transport Against London for you.