Re:A proactive approach to e-scooter safety
by wenc on Thursday February 06, 2020 @12:32PM
(#22258125)
In Illinois, bicyclists are allowed to proceed through a red light if the the fails to turn green after 120 seconds and after they've yielded to traffic [1].
I can understand the spirit of the law but in practice cyclists interpret this as "it's ok to red lights if I don't see any oncoming traffic". This turns out to be extremely dangerous because a situation can change in seconds especially when high velocity metal objects are concerned. Blindspots are always a problem.
This issue has salience with me because a cyclist who ran a red light at the intersection near my house got hit by a car that was following the rules of the road. There was a dramatic video on Youtube of the cyclist getting hit and flying off his bike. I don't know if he survived.
As both a cyclist and a driver, I can't emphasize enough: cyclists need to follow the rules of the road. It is not ok to run red lights.
I can understand the spirit of the law but in practice cyclists interpret this as "it's ok to red lights if I don't see any oncoming traffic". This turns out to be extremely dangerous because a situation can change in seconds especially when high velocity metal objects are concerned. Blindspots are always a problem.
This issue has salience with me because a cyclist who ran a red light at the intersection near my house got hit by a car that was following the rules of the road. There was a dramatic video on Youtube of the cyclist getting hit and flying off his bike. I don't know if he survived.
As both a cyclist and a driver, I can't emphasize enough: cyclists need to follow the rules of the road. It is not ok to run red lights.
[1] https://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/pdf_publicat...