We always talk about how badly car drivers behave, and rightly so because controlling such heavy vehicles carries a lot of responsibilities.
But what’s your typical local group behavior regarding common rules we should all comply with on the road ?
For example traffic light. I feel like a red light is just a hint to slow down a bit, look right and left, and then continue. It’s one thing to do it alone, but in a group I feel like this is dangerous behavior, because no one want to be left behind.
I also feel like pedestrian are treated as an annoyance, and most riders won’t make any gesture (like slowing down) to let them know they can safely cross the road, but rather the opposite.
This is mostly city specific riding, but it is a good chunk of my weekly ride, and I’m wondering if this was just part of the implicit rules that you’re also observing in your local groups.
It is mandatory for our weekly group rides to stop at all red lights. If it is a questionable / changing the light, the overarching edict is to stop, but depending on the timing and size of the group, we may roll through.
It is up to the lead rider to make the choice and they call it out clearly and it is then repeated down the line so everyone knows what to do.
Anyone who breaks the rule is not chased after and then talked to after the ride.
Way too much traffic around us to risk our lives over a dumb light. We also are usually going hard enough that no one gets
Sounds like you either need to speak to the group you ride with, or ride with others. That type of behaviour isn’t standard on group rides (but does exist).
People I ride with observe the rules of the road and make sensible decisions (and these can still be fun, fast group rides)
If nobody says anything about poor riding then everyone assumes everyone else is ok with it. Just have a polite word is my advice. If people don’t appreciate that then I wouldn’t want to ride with them.
All rules of the road apply to everyone using them. It absolutely boils my blood when cyclists do not adhere to traffic lights etc. And even worse, it gives even more fuel to the motorists hating on us.
This is one of the many reasons I don’t do big group rides. On a ride with a small group of friends, it’s easy to control this. With a big group, there’s always someone at the front who doesn’t follow the rules and once one or two people display poor behavior, everyone else jumps on board. This is true in all things in life, not just cycling.
Group rides (and club races) it’s stop for traffic lights.
Commuting, I normally proceed with the pedestrian cycle - slowly and giving way to pedestrians. Which is actually what I see most people on bikes do.
I guess it’s whataboutery, but with advanced stop lines I can generally see the lights for the other entries to the junction. It’s really shocking how many accelerate well above the posted limit to go through a clear red. Actually often times we’ve a green. So really motorists can FRO as far as I’m concerned with their faux outrage!
I regularly ride early morning. I often come across red lights with zero cars around. I’m stopping 0/1000 times. I’m not sitting there for a few minutes waiting for it to change (if it even detects me).
Obviously if there’s cars, that’s a different story. I just don’t believe it’s that clear cut.
If I’m in a group ride, and the people with me are doing something I don’t feel is safe, they can go on without me.
Knock on wood, but in over 100k of riding I have had zero close calls with cars. I would like to keep it that way.
When I am riding, I am also aware of the fact that I am an ambassador for cyclists in general to the general public, whether I like it or not. So I’m not going to do things that piss non-cyclists off without a good reason too. Otherwise maybe they’re gonna clip the next cyclist they see.
“When I am riding, I am also aware of the fact that I am an ambassador for cyclists in general to the general public, whether I like it or not. So I’m not going to do things that piss non-cyclists off without a good reason too. Otherwise maybe they’re gonna clip the next cyclist they see.”
^^^^ This.
Sharing an experience that my wife witnessed when a group ride blew through a red light near our house. There’s a pedestrian light that stops traffic to protect a designated cross walk across four lanes of traffic. It’s only red when activated by a pedestrian. It’s frequently used by families because the street separates a residential neighborhood from a popular playground. Anyways, one weekend morning a mom with her two kids got stranded in the middle of the road because a group ride blew through the red light. Only two or three riders stopped and profusely apologized to the Mom who sat there shell shocked with her small kids.
At first I didn’t want to believe her until a few weeks later when a cyclist disregarded that same light as I was crossing the street with my two kids. He slammed on his breaks and came to a screeching stop about a foot from us despite him having a red light and us having a cross signal. He did not apologize.
I’m over the entitlement that is displayed by (hopefully) only a small number of cyclists in our community. But those small few are certainly giving us all a bad rep.
I think there are states and cities that allow cyclists to continue IF there is no opposing traffic from any direction, but it’s still a good idea to stop for them. But I’ve been on group rides where someone was blowing through a red light, and sometimes doing it with oncoming traffic, but it wasn’t right in front of them. There was some distance. But yeah, three or four abreast, riding closer to the center line, cutting corners, not good. Yelling at pedestrians and other motorists isn’t exactly a good look either.
And on the subject of noxious club rides/riders, the sexism is horrific too.
But them we’ve been yelled at too, had trash thrown at us, been ‘brushed’ with inches to spare, and been road raged: brake checked, ‘coal rolled’, honked at, frightened…
I’d be in favor of a ‘bike highway’, excluding all motor vehicles, and make them so that people could ride between city to city. Not that I’d like to ride from LAX to San Francisco to catch a plane ride, but some might…
In special circumstances you can make exceptions. E. g. When I worked late at uni (the campus was in the middle of nowhere), the closest traffic light would only turn free if I triggered the induction switch. Which bikes don’t trigger.
However, it is temping for this to become a habit, even unconsciously.
Seems like everybody around you treats traffic lights like you. Traffic lights are not mere suggestions to stop, red lights are legally at least to be treated like a stop light (depending on your locale and whether you want to make a right turn).
There are plenty of bad reasons why many drivers hate on cyclists, please don’t give them any good reasons.
I always stop. But if it hasn’t changed / detected me after a reasonable period, I precede with caution. As per the rules around defective traffic lights.
Same in Australia. I have been stuck out in the middle of the road in a lane that allows both a right turn plus straight ahead, waiting for a red arrow to change green (spoiler: it didn’t), with cars approaching behind me at 60kph. In such a situation I’d cast doubts over the conscience of an officer who would charge a cyclist for running a light.
In other circumstances I’ll stop, & maybe look for a pedestrian crossing button to press.
In large groups that I’ve been in, yellow means stop, either at the intersection or shortly after to wait for whoever’s trapped by the red.
That’s a bit different of course. But 99/100 there will be cars there. Which is the whole point I think. If there is literally no other road users in eyeshot…does a falling tree make a sound if there is no one there to hear it?
But the problem is, too many cyclists do it for the whole world to see.
Ditto. Although I’d say that’s a deliberate decision in the context of a particular situation.
In Japan you are not allowed to turn left as a cyclist if there is a separate lane for that. On the countryside sometimes you technically have a second lane for literally 3 meters (enough space for one car to fit in) so that other vehicles can pass.
But that’s different from making a habit of ignoring traffic lights or thinking of them as a suggestion to stop at best.
The issue with that thinking is that if you ingrain that as a habit, your default becomes that nobody is there. I have seen and been involved in accidents (as a passenger) that were caused the driver making wrong assumptions and following their automated programming.
Stopping at a red light should be the automated habit, the action you have committed to muscle memory, and overriding that habit should require explicit intent (e. g. “I cross this red light because it is triggered by an induction switch my bike won’t trigger.”).
