Running Red Lights: Not Safe

A while ago I wrote an article about my views on running red lights and speed. Basically I came to the conclusion that running red lights in no way made you faster, but being a faster cyclist (even when stopping at red lights) did. At the end of that article I said that I would write another one about the other common reason I hear for why running red lights is better, people will often say to me “Running the red lights is safer.” As stunning a statement as that is (breaking the law, and violating the rules of the system is safer!?) many people actually think this.

(this is a pretty common sight here in Boston).

We will set aside for a moment the other consequences of running red lights and deal solely with the safety aspect of it. As far as I can tell, the main thrust of the argument for why running reds is safer goes something like this:

“When I am on my bike, if I stop at a red light and wait for it to turn green all the cars take off really fast, and I am taking off slower so I feel in danger from these cars, so If I run the red light I can avoid this situation.”

I have heard other variations on this from “I feel a little wobbly when I start” to “I feel strange about making the cars wait for me to get going” but mostly it boiled down to the idea that a co-start, in which the bikers and the drivers all leave the line at once, is in some way dangerous.

The problem is that this argument breaks down for a couple of logical reasons.

1. If you position yourself properly at a red light you should not be competing for space with cars as they get going.
2. If you are worried about cars passing you as everyone starts because of a speed difference, how will that be less dangerous when the cars pass you moving much faster further down the road?
3. By running the red light you put yourself in the very real danger of being hit by a car going through the intersection at high speed.
4. You potentially endanger pedestrians and other cyclists crossing with the light.

Before we move on, let me just say, the stuff I am about to tell you, could be, in some situations, not completely totally legal…That being said what I am about to tell you is only very slightly illegal, and I feel it does nothing to garner ill will of other road users, or place you in danger. Thus I am comfortable with it. So what is this slightly illegal thing I am gonna propose you do to address the points made above?

When you stop at a red light, pull in front of all the cars and park yourself in front of them. Plop yourself down right in front of the cars, even if this means you have to go slightly past the stop line (that is the slightly illegal part). When you are doing this remember that because cars don’t always stop on the stop line by putting yourself in front of them you may be in the cross walk, this is also slightly illegal, but if you position yourself as far back as possible you should still leave plenty of room for pedestrians.

We will cover how you get to the front of the line in another article as “filtering” as I like to think of it, is it’s own special skill. For now just slow down, watch for opening doors, and watch for people walking between cars. You will also want to keep a keen eye on the light itself, as nothing is more annoying than seeing someone spaced out far after the light has turned green, and by putting yourself in front of all the other cars you are now “that person.” Don’t be that person.

The reason for doing this, as apposed to say staying over on the right, is that when the light turns green, you can control the lane until you cross the intersection and then you can move over and let the car pass you. Cyclists should really stop thinking about the road as a place they borrow from cars, and instead think of it as a place they control until they are ready to let cars use it. By controlling the lane through the intersection you get to choose when and where the car passes you. If you don’t dawdle too much, and make it clear you are moving over to the right after you get through the intersection the person behind you will pass you easily and safely.

I do this almost every time I stop at a red light, literally hundreds of times a week. Let me present a couple of common scenarios.

1. There are already cars parked at the red, I want to go straight:
I approach the line of cars from the right, and then move slightly to the left so that I am directly in front of the car in the right lane. The light turns green, I stay in the center of that lane until I make it to the other side of the intersection and then I move to the right. The cars then pass me, I am up to speed (and thus more stable on my bike), and I have delayed the cars roughly 5 seconds. They get a good look at me because I am directly in front of them at the red, so there is no “I didn’t see you” bull shit. I am also protected against people making un-signaled right turns off the start line, as I am in front of them. Be aware that at “right on red” intersections people might be turning right before the light turns green.

2. The light is red, the lane is empty, I want to go straight:
I check behind me, signal a left move, move to the center of the right most lane, and wait for the light to turn green. If cars approach from behind and it is a “right on red” light, I will move further over to the left to allow them to turn. The reason why I put myself in the middle of an empty lane, is because empty lanes don’t stay empty. There is a good chance that cars will line up at that red, and if I let them they will try and squeeze past me (actually dangerous), if I am squarely in the center of the lane when they arrive they have no choice but to line up behind me. When the light turns green I proceed across as in the situation above.

3. I want to make a left but get stuck at the light:
Usually when I make a left I will check behind me and make a series of moves over to the left side, thus getting myself into the left turn lane. Sometimes however when doing this I get stuck at a light. In this case I plop myself right in the middle of the left turn lane, when the light turns green I stay in the center of the left turn lane until I am completely through the intersection and then move over to the right to let cars pass. This lets cars that are lining up behind me know that I plan on controlling the left lane, and keeps them from pushing past me.

The secret to all of these situations is that you have to be directly in the middle of the lane, you can’t leave space or they will try to edge past you. This can be a hard thing to get used to. You are not in danger by being in the middle, if anything you are keeping the cars from squeezing past you (which is dangerous), but your mind is not going to realize this. Your brain is going to say “holy shit there is a big car behind me!!!” but after a while you get used to it and it’s old hat.

The issue here is that with a little lane positioning, and some practice you can remove all the “danger” from stopping at red lights. I say “danger” because there really wasn’t that much danger to start with. Even if you position yourself way over to the right, people do not do squealing tire starts when they see the green light, you are not going to get killed by a car going from 0 to 10 miles per hour (average speeds for moving through intersections from a stop). The real reason I think a lot of people feel so confident that running red lights is “safer’ is because they like having a non-selfish excuse. The idea that they are breaking the law “for their protection” rather than “because I didn’t want to stop” sits better in their head. Lying to yourself can be very easy, which is why so many of us do it.

In my opinion, running red lights is neither safer, or faster, yet people still do it. If we are being particularly honest with ourselves we will have to admit that the reason we run red lights is because we don’t want to stop. It’s the bicyclist manifestation of the same behavior we all get so pissed about in motorists. If you have ever been on your bike and gotten mad because a motorist honked at you for “being slow” or screamed “get on the sidewalk” or passed you going too fast, or found yourself saying “why are they in such a hurry to get to the next red light?” you know what I am talking about.

Yet this same impulse, to go as fast as possible, damn the consequences, is what I think is driving most people to run red lights. If we were being super honest with each other we would have to admit that stopping at red lights is only going to slow us down a little (plus why are you in such a hurry?), and is far safer, and better for everyone, than running them.

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You Can’t Trust Anyone These Days

Someone said to me the other day “You know you just can’t trust anyone these days.” as they locked up their bicycle with a large sturdy U-lock. The obvious implication was that we needed a huge chunk of hardened steel to affix to our bicycle in order to run quickly into a store because if we didn’t our bikes would instantly be whisked away by the scoundrels just waiting to take them. This got to me thinking about trust, and transportation and bicycles.

The idea of public trust has been stewing in my brain for the last couple of days, something just struck me as wrong about my friends statement. On the way into work a couple of days ago it struck me what I didn’t like about that statement. You can in fact trust people these days! In fact we put more trust in total strangers these days than ever before. If anything our lives are so wrapped up in trusting strangers that I started to get nervous with just how much trust I was putting in complete strangers. First I thought about money (how we just trust that people will take it and that it is worth something). Then I thought about food (how many people touch it before it gets to me and what they could do to it). Finally I started to think about biking, that’s when I really started to freak out.

A few examples:

White paint on the ground
There is a little strip of white paint down the center of the road, on each side cars race by at 50 mph. That little white stripe is about 1 millimeter high, and most likely worn lower by time and tires…it is not going to stop anything bigger than a dust mite. The only thing keeping that massive truck bearing down on you from smashing into you, killing you and everyone in the car, is trust. You trust the driver of that truck not to cross that tiny little white line. Everyone else puts the same trust in you. The little white line doesn’t protect you, it is a symbol of the trust that does.

Light bulbs on wires
There are sets of light bulbs, one red, one yellow, and one green hung off wires at intersections. The light from these bulbs is visible for several hundred feet, but the force of the protons emitting from the bulbs themselves will do little more than tussle up some air atoms. They certainly wont stop the cars traveling in opposite directions about to smash into each other at the intersection. The only thing that keeps the drivers from smashing into each other is the trust that one will stop when they see the red, and one will go when they see the green. Every time you go through a green light you are trusting every other human driver at that intersection to stop for you. The same way they trust you not to run them down when they have the green. The light is only a symbol of that trust, not the actual thing that keeps you safe.

If you think about it almost all of our traffic control systems are either lights, or paint, or other similar “symbolic” control devices. You trust others and they trust you. On an average trip you are placing your very life in the hands of hundreds if not thousands of total strangers. Think about that for a second…I know I was a bit shaken by this revelation (especially considering how stupid people can be sometimes). The reason why you are alive to read this is because no one has crossed the center line, or run a red light, or any of the many other things they could have done easily and killed you.

The story of the boy who cried wolf is a good example. The little boy kept doing things that eroded the shared trust of the village (screaming that there was a wolf when there was none) and when he really needed help (a wolf did show up) no one trusted him and he was eaten. Breaking that shared trust doesn’t just get you eaten by wolves, it ruins the whole system. Imagine if a whole bunch of little boys were crying wolf. How could the village stay safe if they were always getting false reports of danger? The story is a perfect illustration of how shared trust effects a whole community and an individual member of that community. As grizzly as it sounds the community was actually safer after the boy had been eaten…because now they were not getting false reports, or to put it another way the public trust was no longer being eroded.

This is why I think people who drive cars get so upset when cyclists run red lights. It is not because cyclists are breaking the rules (everyone does that, and often), it is because they are breaking the shared trust. It is offensive to the group because that trust is what keeps them alive. If you are a cyclist and you run red lights this is not something you should brush off lightly. People react very badly to this sort of thing.

At the very least you can expect them to be upset with you, in extreme cases some very unhinged people might even try to hurt you for doing it. I think people that threaten violence against cyclists are crazy, but I can understand why they would get upset at you (even if you think you are not putting anyone in danger other than yourself). You are breaking the rules that keep them alive. It is a danger to the village, you are ruining the wolf detection system, you are mucking up the whole system. How can they go through green lights with confidence if they think someone might be running them? The reason they are upset is because you are making the entire system worse for everyone by breaking the shared trust.

This idea works for just about any person driving/riding any kind of transportation. Car drivers run red lights also, they also make turns with no signals on, bikers go the wrong way down streets, pedestrians walk out against the signals…etc…etc. The point is each and every time anyone does this, not only are they breaking the rules, they are breaking down the shared trust. I would say that one of the biggest problems that Boston has transportation wise is that over the years that trust has been severally eroded. Driving or cycling or walking in this town can be stressful because you always have to be on the lookout for trust breakers. Constant vigilance is very stressful. It is like everyone in Boston has been crying wolf for years. Will that car turn with no signal? Is that pedestrian going to go against the red? Is that biker going run that red? Wolf, Wolf, WOLF!!

So how do we rebuild this trust? The same way you build any other kind of trust. Slowly, and deliberately. Stop at that red light, walk with the signal, use your turn signals. It is going to take time, and it is going to happen slowly, and you will not be able to get anyone else to do it with you. You have to set that example. Every time you stop at a red light and you make it clear you are going to follow the rules, the person in a car next to you can see that at least some bikers don’t run reds. Every time you yield to a cyclist when you are making a left hand turn in your car the cyclist gets just a little grain of trust back in drivers. Every time you wait till the walk guy comes on to cross the street you show other walkers how it is done. It is the only way I can think of to make any real kind of steps towards rebuilding the shared trust in Boston. The nice thing about this system is that it is free, and the more you do it the better things get. There are other ways (better infrastructure, better enforcement) but they all cost a lot of money, and can not be implemented tonight on your ride home.

So the next time someone tells you “you can’t trust anyone these days” look them right in the eye and say “I trust you, and thousands of other strangers every day with my life” then smile at them.

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So This Is Why They Are So Cranky…

I got the chance to be a passenger in a car a couple of days ago. Just riding around town, getting stuck in traffic. Not epic traffic, just normal Boston traffic. We were not in any kind of hurry, and the company was good so we were upbeat and enjoying the ride. However I have to say, wow…driving is slow. I am sure other smarter people have thought about this before, but here is what I noticed.

Because cars take up so much space, you can get a road pretty packed full with only 30-40 of them. Which is in most cases 30-40 people (people drive alone). Because cars have to accelerate and decelerate pretty slowly in stop and go traffic (they don’t have the room to really gun it without smashing into the car ahead of them), and because they take up so much space, interesting things happen at red lights.

If the road were empty except for one car, that car would stop at each red light only once (by which I mean it would only sit at that intersection through one red light cycle). We can call that an X1 red light. Put more cars on the road and eventually you reach a “critical mass”, so that a car at the end of the line has to wait at the same red light more than once (one green gets most of the people through, then the cars at the back wait for the next green to go). Add more cars and you end up waiting at a single red light 3…4… or more times. We can call them X2 lights, X3 lights, etc. Get enough cars on a street with a 5 or 6 physical red lights and is like that road has 10-20 virtual red lights on it because each person stops at each red light multiple times.

In essence traffic breeds more traffic. The more cars you have trying to fit through the same “pipe” the longer it takes for those cars to go through. You could solve this problem several ways. You could figure out how many cars it takes to reach the “critical mass” number for each street and not allow more than that number of cars on the street, London tried something like this with it’s “congestion charge”. You could put those 30 people on a bus, in essence putting everyone into one “car” then they would only have to stop at each red light once. You could also put them on a train, in essence removing all the cars from the road and making the red lights irrelevant.

I doubt that Boston is ready to implement a congestion charge, and because the city has no readily defined “core” it would be impracticable. The bus and train options are good, especially for morning and afternoon commute scenarios. You have a lot of people all going to the same place at the same time. Makes no sense to all be in separate vehicles. And as we see above, everyone suffers when everyone drives.

However what about when you are not commuting, what about Saturday, or middle of the day, or running errands. Erratic traffic, where you don’t want to go where the bus is going, or you have to go where the T stop isn’t? I would say that the best possible transportation option is then a bicycle. On a bicycle you are legally allowed to filter down the right hand side to the red light (you still have to stop at the red light). By filtering to the front you are removing the X red problem that cars have. You stop at each red light only once, it is as if you are a lone car on the road. Turning each X2 or X3 red into an X1 red. Because of this you will almost always go faster than each individual car (average speed and actual speed).

Ironically (as cars often think it is bikers slowing them down), you will also be helping the motorists go faster. Each person on a bike instead of in a car reduces the “critical mass” number by one. Remove enough cars and the X3 red light becomes an X2, remove even more cars and each car will be able to fully clear through at each red light. The remaining cars then experience the speed of having less cars on the road. The cyclist reaps the benefits of faster travel, cleaner air, less motorists (and thus less danger from them), a fatter wallet (bikes are cheap compared to cars/t-pass) a greener planet, and nicer calves. A classic Win/Win.

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A Matter Of Worth: Red Lights, Your Life, And Several Short Moments

I propose a theory, and it is thus: “Running red lights does not significantly make you faster, and often slows you down.” One day very soon I hope to have some data to prove this (anyone got a stop watch I can borrow?), but for now, a present the following tale for your perusal.

I was riding today (as I am wont to do), and witnessed a man on a mountain bike/hybrid about a 100 feet in front of me. I like to look down the street a couple hundred feet just to keep a mental snapshot of what is going to be dashing out in front of me in a couple seconds. Repeatedly I witnessed this gentleman do the following: he comes to a red light, slows way down, looks both ways, darts over into the cross walk, crosses the intersection and then continues down the street. In no way is it legal to run a red light on a bicycle, there is no legal loop hole that allows you to cross against the red if you ride into the cross walk. I have no idea why this guy felt the need to ride into the crosswalk if he was interested in going fast, he should have run the red light in a nice straight line…but I digress.

I, on the other hand, stopped at the red light, waited several seconds, and then took off. He never got away from me, his crazy “slow, look, slide, cross” technique took almost as long as simply waiting for the red light. While he didn’t go significantly faster (I estimate he might have shaved 4 or 5 seconds off each red light by running it), what he did do is almost get hit by several cars, piss off several pedestrians who were legally using the cross walk, and almost hit a rather large pot hole that was over near the curb (a place he would have never been had he been stopping in the bike lane and waiting for the red light). I even witnessed him bend way over to the side in order to ride under (!!) a large cherry picker/crane thing that some workers were using to fix something(I guess the fact that all other traffic had come to a halt didn’t phase him).

So I propose the question, what is a life worth? What is the goodwill and harmony of other road users worth? 30 seconds? 5 minutes? Because this gentleman gained no more than several seconds at each red light intersection, and in the process endangered himself, others, and pissed off a fair number of people who were in fact obeying the law. He could have easily “saved” the same amount of time by simply pedaling slightly faster, and still stopping at all the red’s. He would have also gained the good will of motorists (not that that’s worth much in this town) and more importantly not endangered several law abiding pedestrians (a rare animal indeed).

Anyone who rides a bike and uses the mental justification that running red lights gets you where you are going faster is using the same mental justification that motorists use when the pass too closely, or squeeze you over as they pass, or honk at you because you are going “too slow.” In essence saying “I can break this law because it slows me down” is the same as motorists endangering cyclists because they are in such a hurry (often to get to the next red light). If you have ever found yourself complaining that motorists just need to chill out, slow down, or not be in such a hurry, yet still run red lights cause they slow you down….well lets just say your mental jigsaw puzzle might not be fitting together properly. Put simply, running red lights doesn’t make you faster, being faster makes you faster.

(I really am going to try and get some data to show that you are not significantly slowed down by red lights. I will address the “I run red lights because it is safer” argument in a future post)

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Think Of The Kittens!

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