I've had to cross that junction most days for almost 5 years.
It's not a dangerous junction if you obey the signalling. While I would generally agree with Roxy that craven obedience to the red light can sometimes cause more harm than good, in the instance of this particular junction there is rarely a situation in which jumping the red makes sense.
Jumping the red at this junction means trying to feed into fast-moving traffic from the right - some of which traffic is also trying to turn right, straight into you. Great Eastern St is long and straight, which means the cars are often doing 40-50 if they're going straight over the junction - and yes, they often try to beat the amber light. You can see them going for it a quarter of a mile down the road.
Meanwhile back at the stop light there is a generally-respected bus lane to sit in, and if you feel like it you can creep forward of the traffic towards the pedestrian crossing during the second of the three light phases.
I tend to see a couple of people a week try to jump the light. If your timing is spot on, you can get away with it - but it requires having committed to jump the light before you can actually see clearly if there's anything coming, which is more than most people are willing to do. So I've seen quite a few near-misses.
I feel sorry for the guy who got hit, hope his injuries are not too severe and that they heal soon - but seriously, jumping this particular light is asking for trouble. As much as I respect Roxy's general position on red lights, in this instance I can't imagine that it was ever advisable to jump this particular light.
I've had to cross that junction most days for almost 5 years.
It's not a dangerous junction if you obey the signalling. While I would generally agree with Roxy that craven obedience to the red light can sometimes cause more harm than good, in the instance of this particular junction there is rarely a situation in which jumping the red makes sense.
Jumping the red at this junction means trying to feed into fast-moving traffic from the right - some of which traffic is also trying to turn right, straight into you. Great Eastern St is long and straight, which means the cars are often doing 40-50 if they're going straight over the junction - and yes, they often try to beat the amber light. You can see them going for it a quarter of a mile down the road.
Meanwhile back at the stop light there is a generally-respected bus lane to sit in, and if you feel like it you can creep forward of the traffic towards the pedestrian crossing during the second of the three light phases.
I tend to see a couple of people a week try to jump the light. If your timing is spot on, you can get away with it - but it requires having committed to jump the light before you can actually see clearly if there's anything coming, which is more than most people are willing to do. So I've seen quite a few near-misses.
I feel sorry for the guy who got hit, hope his injuries are not too severe and that they heal soon - but seriously, jumping this particular light is asking for trouble. As much as I respect Roxy's general position on red lights, in this instance I can't imagine that it was ever advisable to jump this particular light.