BikeRadar recently posed the question, Do dangerous cyclists put us all at risk? Which produced an interesting range of views, both in its main posting and in the follow-up comments.

Keef Sloan's remarks about red light jumping puts me in mind of a comment I saw in an online debate on that topic a few years back. I can't find the original to quote but it went something like, cyclists are not going to benefit in a society where road users pick-and-choose which road rules they are going to obey. To my mind, that's the end of the red light jumping debate.

A follow-on from this is hinted at in Dr-Chars's comments about inexperienced cyclists being a problem. I'd say that inexperience per se is not the issue—we're none of us born with experience or street smarts. Rather the problem is when risk-taking/confidence/coolness exceeds ability. As bikesnobnyc put it:

These days, aggressive urban riding is in vogue, and I attribute this to the spate of fixed-gear movies featuring people riding in traffic (such as MASH, Macaframa, and the upcoming Empire). It is now de rigeur to weave heedlessly through traffic, and apparently it is a forfeiture of your masculinity to stop at a red light under any circumstances. (Though apparently you can salvage a bit of it by at least doing a trackstand at the light.)

Unfortunately, while many of these riders have the look down they don't have the ability to match. Lately, I've been getting stuck behind riders who have misjudged the distance between cars and been forced to stop. (It's a sad sight, really--like watching a cat get its head caught in a shoe or something.) I've also been finding myself literally being circled at red lights, since the people who can't trackstand just ride around and around instead. (Imagine being circled by a shark, but the shark's riding a Pista, wearing a u-lock holster, and looks mildly afraid instead of coolly detached.)

When it's a minority of commuter cyclists who fail to stop at red lights (in Melbourne at least) yet somehow red light jumping gets seen as the norm, then less experienced cyclists may follow suit because they have the misapprehension that this is how 'serious' cyclists behave. Sure, people need to take responsibility for their own actions, but let's not underestimate the power of the schoolyard which reaches out across the years (or decades, for some of us) driving on supposedly intelligent and responsible adults to do stupid things in order that they will be seen as 'Cool' or 'Hardcore' or 'Serious' by some random in the street, just as if they were a gormless fourteen year old. And I'm not just talking about men here either.

As for me, I'm happy to comply with traffic lights and scrupulously wait for crossing indicators—if I'm to be damned and abused at least it will be for doing the right thing (yes, the moral high ground can be a pretty comfy place to sit). And like Dave Moulton and woowoowoo I've become more "patient and forgiving to other road users", experience having taught me two things: how to see and avoid a lot of trouble on the road, and that (unsurprisingly) no-one will thank you for correcting them (less so if your advice is shouted and punctuated with abuse). And the result is that I get a breather when I'm stopped at traffic lights and overall I enjoy my riding more.

Comments

Adam

"I've become more "patient and forgiving to other road users", experience having taught me two things: how to foresee and avoid a lot of trouble on the road"

This is key. It got me thinking on my way in this morning about all the decisions I was making based on patience, experience and courtesy and how that keeps me safe without adding noticeably to my journey time.

I don't think dangerous cycling is seen as the norm. I think its more that people think of cycling as being a step away from walking and the rules that pedestrians live by, pushing through traffic like they might push through a crowd of people. I think a lot of inexperienced cyclists fail to realise that they are road users rather than just pedestrians moving at speed.

The more cyclists think like road users, stay visible and communicate with other road users the safer we'll all be. Somehow we need to educate not just inexperienced cyclists but everyone so that the bike is respected as a vehicle.

James

To me, it's a statistical thing. Your risk on the road is higher when others can't predict what you're going to do. I double (say) my risk by running a red light? Well that's easy enough to fix.

eccles

There is also the consideration that when drivers see one cyclist go through a red, they seem to mentally tar all cyclists with having the same attitude to the road rules. Which leads to more "you shouldn't be on the road!" abuse in my experience.

Laurence Guttmann

I agree with the sentiments in your "rant". One of the problems is that people who do the wrong thing stand out (be they cyclists or drivers). Once you witness something that inflames you, it is often a very short step to painting the whole group with the same brush. I wrote a post the other day (coincidently, the same day this post was written) that is highly pertinent to this discussion; http://theweeklycycle.blogspot.com/2011/03/do-drivers-really-hate-us.html