Monday 22 March 2010

Motorist runs red light! Shock! Horror!

With annoying monotony, every time anyone anywhere in Sydney ever writes about cyclists, within 5 minutes there will be a flood of comments from angry motorists about cyclists running red lights etc etc etc.

They have a point. Too many cyclists run red lights - and I'm not talking about stopping, looking and then going - I'm talking about those that just blast through regardless. I have been guilty of it from time to time - there is one particular set of lights out near Homebush that refuses to register the presence of a bike. The magnetic loops buried in the tarmac must be too deep down. After waiting through three entire light change cycles once, I jumped the lights. I now do it at that corner out of habit - I am not going to grow old and die waiting for a car to come along and trip the magnetic loops for me. Sorry, but you can just get fucked in that instance.

The thing is though, when a cyclist runs a red, the person most at risk of death or injury is.... the cyclist. When car meets bike, the bike always comes off second best.

And when a car runs the red? Why, that is the fault of the Police, innit?

It's not like motorists are immune from running red lights. If they were purer than driven snow, there would be no need for red light cameras, would there?

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