Daily Telegraph: Jumping the Red Mist at Traffic Lights
It is a hackneyed topic, guaranteed to get everyone riled, that of cyclists jumping red lights. So often they are portrayed as mindless morons or, more revealingly, as cheats with ideas above their given lowly status. The debaters are divided into two camps, those believing that the rule of law should always prevail, and those who believe human beings have the right to exercise their sense of judgement. Between the two lies a minefield.
Chris Harvey of The Daily Telegraph attempted to negotiate the mines with a well argued piece centred on a confrontation with a smarty-pants policeman who remonstrated with him for running a red light. Harvey is quite open that he often jumps the lights because the road ahead is empty, or because the pedestrian crossing is giving phantom signals, but on this particular occasion he was trying to get ahead of the traffic before going through a risky lane constriction. In other words, he had made a judgement call for the sake of his own safety.
I know the feeling well. Despite being an automotive obsessive I actually spend the majority of my time on a bicycle, commuting to and from work. I am not interested in shaving a few seconds off my best time, my main concern has always been to get there in one piece. When I first started the journey I was meticulous in obeying the rules of the road with the express aim of staying alive. That idea lasted about a week. I had found that traffic regulations are designed for vehicular traffic, everything from Fiat Pandas to fabulous pantechnicons. By law, bicycles must share the same road space and so by default come under the same rules but without any special provision being made for them. Getting mixed up with cars and trucks on roundabouts and traffic lights I reckoned my life expectancy could be measured in weeks. One of the most depressing statistics is that women cyclists are proportionately more likely to get killed on the road than men, the explanation being given that they tend to stick too rigidly to the letter of the law. Yet even the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) puts the law above judgement when it comes to cyclists’ safety.
On my commute to work I prefer to engage in that age-old human tactic of using my brain to keep my body out of harm. If a junction is clear but the lights are against me, I do not sit there waiting for everything weighing over a ton to catch up, I get across the junction while it is still safe for me. At one notorious location there is a controlled crossroads on a major high road. I cross it from a small residential road with a busy road coming in from the opposite side. Almost all the opposing flow is turning left or right on the main road. Since I am heading straight on the opposing traffic turning right cuts across my path. Almost without fail they turn in front of me without any regard for my presence. I have learnt to get across the junction before the lights have changed to green for the simple reason that I do not want to sacrifice my life upholding the law.
Despite the fact that I am the only one apparently looking after my frail existence there are many car drivers who take angry exception to my reasoning. At their most extreme they seem to espouse the divine right of the law as if the Highway Code was brought down from the mountain by Moses rather than being patched together by politicians and civil servants. There are an infinite variety of road conditions and a huge range of vehicles, how can all situations possibly be categorised by a limited range of speed limits? A 70mph limit on a motorway during busy daylight hours is sensible enough, but if the road is completely clear then higher speeds should be equally safe. Conversely, there are occasions when only a fool would drive anywhere near the posted speed limit, such as during poor weather or where the road is crowded. A driver should crawl through residential areas because that is the correct judgement just as they will bust the speed limit where they consider it safe.
The inherent problem with any legal code is that it is very difficult to take account of the quality of the judgement. With a couple of decades of driving experience, from motorbikes to trucks, I am quite confident that my abilities are higher than those of a kid who has just passed their test and is enjoying being independent behind the wheel for the first time. The law may be an ass, but it has to treat us all as morons.
There is still room for some judgement making. It is an open secret that the real speed limit on British motorways is 80mph and similar latitude is allowed on other roads. So why can’t I be given the right to set my own road behaviour? Because I am probably still overestimating my driving skill and underestimating the risks from other drivers. My judgements are kept in check by progressive fines that increase with the speed transgression. This means that while the driver’s judgement that they are safe at 80mph on the motorway is unofficially sanctioned, the judgement is bounded by the knowledge that they risk losing their licence if caught above 100mph. The same applies to cyclists, protecting us all from those bicycle morons who think their judgement is always correct. Ultimately, we need to position our decision between the law and the conditions we find ourselves in.
Since I know that the penalties exist I need to include them in my judgements. On a bicycle I know that the law is there to control the flow of traffic, it has little regard for protecting my life. The other week I watched as a cyclist, no helmet in sight, lay dying in the middle of the road after a collision with a car. No one was charged, so I assume it was all quite legal and satisfactory. But I don’t want to die, legally or otherwise, so I wear my high-visibility vest and I strap on my helmet. And when it comes to using the road, safety must always take precedence over the law. So I will pay the fine in the knowledge that my life is worth more. If that still does not satisfy the drivers who cannot cope with the feelings of envy as cyclists apparently cheat at the traffic lights, just remember that we still get home later and wet too, if it is raining. Feeling better now?
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