This morning's commute and other commuting stories

He then sped up behind me, cut me off into the gutter, got out of his van and offered to fight me. I told him that if I can touch his van then he's too close and that if I told him to fuck off then it meant I didn't want him near me, let alone fight him.

This sort of altercation fucking depresses me. Like when that first (and almost certainly intentional) close pass happened, you're just meant to suck it up and not make any sign that the driver was doing something invasive. The proof is that they immediately were looking in their mirrors at you when you gestured 'wtf?' - basically baiting you.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't :/
Just another day in the office

Disappointed that there's no game to the commute I do in manc nowadays. My old one was all half-cut students drunk from the night before racing to get to lectures, new one is sensible bikes and clothes and sitting on wheels for a free ride into work.

Precisely why I ride with cameras. Report to roadsafe is the best course of action.
Free to react too if you feel like, recording someone getting aggy is amusing in hindsight.

Rode like a weapons grade bellend this morning, need to have a word with myself. Still, set a new STRAVA pr on the way in, so not all bad....

I wish I didnt take it on with the rlj lot. I swear I feel worse afterwards than they do. Now at my desk and undecided whether I'm a knob or just misunderstood.

Still posts available here on the commuter page of the beast, exorcise all your daemons will stocks last.

Fight the good fight dude. They'll think twice next time.

Save your energy for the real problem: Dangerous drivers.
I rlj certain sets of lights every day - can't think of anything that anyone would say that would make me stop.
Apart from "You're Nicked" I suppose

but it was quite nice this morning.

Why?

(Don't want to derail thread but complaining about RLJing is pretty common here.)
If no peds are crossing and no cars are coming why not?
I'm riding a bike, I'm not motorised traffic.
Why wait patiently at red lights when it's clear to go?

To be clear, I won't go through lights when peds are crossing nor when cars/lorries may hit me and I know by heart the sequences of every single set of lights I go through. I also prepare for the sequencing to suddenly be changed. However it's still technically RLJing.

How about the three or four people at the front of the stop line when you got there, that have already overtaken you 3/4 times in the past few sets of lights and now again you've wobbled over in front of them for < 7 seconds of being in front again. Do you consider their safety or just your own and pedestrians?

polis no cathced u?

If no peds are crossing and no cars are coming why not?

Because its still the law and you are not above it?

Clearly it's the wrong thread for this...just wanted to provide a counter view to all the anti-RLJ talk here. There are degrees of RLJing.
I haven't been stopped by police for a long time, and I've never been fined, but then I only do it at selective lights. I don't wobble and rarely get overtaken that much.
See you in the RLJ thread...

What about junctions where obeying the law and personal safety are mutually exclusive?
Stick to the law and increase the risk of injury or proceed when safe to reduce the risk?

I have one set of traffic lights that I regularly jump on my commute. It's a fairly quiet junction but the junction afterwards is 4 lanes of traffic and I need to be in the 3rd lane so getting over is much easier if you go early.

Generally I don't agree with jumping lights because you can't be bothered waiting or whatever but sometimes it makes it easier where the cycle infrastructure is non-existent.

I'll just tell my kids not to worry then when walking to school. Nankatsu knows what he's doing.

Oh fuck there I go again. I promised myself.......

i mean when you're jumping through red lights purely on the basis of your own safety, that shows a lack of disregard for the safety of anyone else? a guy on a black charge with restraps this morning on albert embankment went straight through the pedestrian crossing before lambeth bridge as a woman and her pram were crossing and had to move to avoid her, that's just being a dick? I'm all for using your head and considering each situation but most of the time it's:

1. selfish.
   
2. not worth it.
   

Flamewar on page 666...

What junction would you be at risk of injury by stopping at a red light?

You mean you've never seen a poorly designed junction in London?

Wow, take those rose tinted Oakley's off and look around a bit more.

Correct this is not the thread for it however, I used to RLJ every lights I came to, traffic coming the other way? Don't care, squeeze through a gap. I was like the less cool, more english mash sf crew. Then I got fed up of nearly dying, running into people and getting shouted at so I started stopping at reds and running empty ped crossings or junctions with no traffic around.
But then you get that person who is just walking down the road looking like they're quite content with the side of the road they've chosen to walk on but when they reach a crossing they make a sharp 90 and step out without looking. Or a seemingly empty junction you think its safe to proceed through, the lights are about to change to green for you anyway but the BMW driver down the road the other way sees this as a challenge and runs the amber/red into you.

Extreme cases, I'm sure the lights you're talking about are straight roads with no pedestrians in sight but you know what I mean, its just not worth it.

Not to mention the "collective blame" or whatever its called. Some people say its bullshit, either way its certainly wrong but I think if drivers see you jumping through lights while they have to sit in traffic, they gon be pissed. At you and at cyclists because we're all the same right?