2009-04-05 - Rider Down, Old Street roundabout Shoreditch exit

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.

"the guy got spun upon impact"

This happened to me last year.How far up did he go?I managed about 12 feet after I T-boned a black cab.It was totally my fault and I broke my wrist along with other injuries.
Ride safe!!

Have seen some properly stupid RLJ'ing at that junction. Dumb.

What a bell end. Chelsea boots on clipless pedals? Footwear fail. Should have rocked some stylish tan desert boots, or a nice pair of chocolate loafers.

Oh this was in Shoreditch? Generic while plimsoles then depressed

why the fuck plimsoles are so popular? because it's cheap as chip? they're incredibly uncomfortable and wear out faster than a steering wheel of an Honda mini-cab, I have the misfortune of buying one for my holiday in South France, should've brought a 2nd hand vans slip-on instead.

Vans slip ons aren't really that much more durable though, proper skate/bmx shoes ftw!

I have to agree with some people above, jumping lights there is not a good idea, although I do RLJ sometimes you just have to stop at red lights.

Plimsoles are popular just like skate shoes were 15-20 years ago, it's just a fashion trend, moccasins and white socks will be back soon.

Er, Did anyone call for an Ambulance ????!!!!

You didnt just cycle off and leave him did you !?

The thing is, we remember such incidents because they occur so infrequently as to be memorable and with enough human impact as to be newsworthy. I'd argue that citing such incidents are counter-productive to discussion as their anomolous status is at odds to what we will expect to happen.

I ride by my own experience and, as such, I'm mostly a boringly lawful cyclist who mostly observes red lights and most of the myriad laws that are designed to control the passage of cyclists on the streets. All I can offer on this discussion is that for the most part I don't feel unsafe by doing so and it's been a long time since I was taken down. I'm not a talented or especially good cyclist but I think very little of my survival is down to luck.

I also don't prejudge drivers either.

Best wishes to the rider.

I don't disagree entirely with what you've said. I only cited that example in direct response to the suggestion that there are no circumstances where RLJing (in its broadest sense) is safer.

Surely there's something to be said about taking any opportunity to remind people about HGVs and their blindspots - as dogsballs has pointed out, there are a lot of "newbie numpties" visiting lfgss these days.

That is a horrible junction. I go past it from Old Street roundabout to Commercial Street every morning.

On my first ever bicycle commute, the junction was swathed with Police tape and a broken bicycle was lying ominously by a stationary car.

Riding east, there is the initial nasty when cars switch suddenly and often without warning into the left hand lane. Coming to the lights there are almost always HGVs and particularly earth moving vehicles there. It seems to attract them and they are always in the middle lane, ie the left lane for vehiles moving towards Commercial Street. However tempting it is to move forward to move away from them, the phasing of the lights is something to be wary of.

As Mr Smith said, better to arrive late or leave early than risk life or limb there.

Hope he heals up, but tbh, deserved to get hit if he was not able to judge the situation.
There are times it is safe to hop a red, and time when it really is not, and this sounded like a time to wait, maybe he will learn from this and not be so dumb in future. See it all the time with what I affectionately call 'Mary Poppins' riders, these are dippy lasses with flowery skirts and flip flops riding through junctions without a look left or right when it's a red, just float along, a collision just waiting to happen.

Mary Poppins - what a great description. When I see those riders, I'm also reminded of late 70s/early 80s Cadbury's Flake adverts.

Yeah, they ride around in soft focus!! ha ha

It's vaseline on the lens, which probably means any vehicles would just slide right off them if they made contact.

oh well and what a shame

Hope he heals up, but tbh, deserved to get hit if he was not able to judge the situation.

no one deserve to have inflict harm thundering down upon them, they deserve to have a near miss that force them to realise they're riding dangerously but saying they deserve to get hit (especially when it's quite likely for him to get killed if he landed head first) is a low blow to be honest.

See it all the time with what I affectionately call 'Mary Poppins' riders, these are dippy lasses with flowery skirts and flip flops riding through junctions without a look left or right when it's a red, just float along, a collision just waiting to happen.

Mary Poppins are the reason the Kings Road has the highest number of cycle accidents of any road in London - they have no clue!

I thought the accepted and somewhat affectionate forum term for these riders was 'Nodders'

Thankfully all survived .. you have just gotta be careful out there...

I thought the accepted and somewhat affectionate forum term for these riders was 'Nodders'

Mike, please stay with the programme.

"Mary Poppinses" are a sub-set of Nodders, comprised of Sloaney or would-be-Sloaney girls wearing skirts. No hi-vis to them.

Talking of which, does anyone else find it curious that, although there were half a dozen Mary Poppins books, there was only one film?

"Mary Poppii"

greasy slag has "cherry poppins"

Mary didn't ride a bike in the film, it was a flamingo. get right please

whoever mentioned "luck" with not getting into a major accident whilst riding is spot on. some say you make your luck though.

Wasnt the flamingo in the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe?