April 07, 2006

Stop at Red - let's pledge and make a better world.

I pledge to stop at red. And to look both ways before crossing the road. And to say "thank you". And to eat my peas.

posted by Koant 18 years ago
  • BY GOD THEY'RE RIGHT
  • I can't sign the petition as I live at least ten miles from the nearest traffic light, and if I rode my bike there, believe me, I'd be just fine with stopping. (Also, the site isn't Firefox-friendly. When you click on the nav buttons on this site, in FF, little scroll bars temporarily appear below. Weird.)
  • Their first step is to stop deluding themselves that traffic law violators are "an unrepresentative minority" of cyclists. Otherwise, this is a good initiative
  • Awesome idea.
  • I always stop at red. Which is very rare in MontrĂ©al, probably the capital of jaywalking and jaycycling. I also have lights on my bike. I also had a bike accident last year and because of the resulting shoulder injury I can't ride my bike. :-(
  • I think it would be nice if cars stoped at red lights, too. There are an awful lot of drivers in PA who regard the first few moments of a red light as a sort of transitional period during which it's okay to keep driving while you sort out your feelings about the new traffic signal.
  • (Why do typos only become conspicuous after you post them?)
  • When I was a kid, we had so much bike safety training in school that I didn't care if I ever saw a bike again. US Monkeyparents, are kids getting this these days? It seems to me that there are an awful lot of bikers out there that don't seem to know that they're supposed to follow the rules of the road just like cars.
  • hmmm...I too think this is a good idea, but one I would be unlikely to implement in my own life. I ride in an urban area, so I have always taken a very defensive stance. I don't stop at reds but I do believe it is entirely up to me to keep myself safe and I don't expect cars to accomodate me (even when they should). that said, yeah! how 'bout those flipping CAR drivers actually stopping for red lights and even those crazy little stop sign thingys. yeah!
  • That's a great point, Lara. A lot of cyclists seem to consider themselves pedestrians when in fact most state laws consider them to be vehicles.
  • The cyclist saw me clock him, and how I'd stopped my attempt to cross, even though the light was against him. Just before he reached me, using my peripheral vision, I took a purposeful stride into the road, and acted like I was about to take another, which would have brought us into a nasty collision. Of course it was a feint, and it worked, he swerved violently away. I smiled inwardly, but presented no sign that anything had happened. Cyclists don't seem to have many curse words at the ready for moments like that. I believe that one finds beauty where one looks. Could of been a bloody dream though, after so much X it's getting hard to tell. So you really should stop at red.
  • *feels like he was just run over by a bike* Medic!
  • This group's original idea was for a website called www.stophatred.org, but once they realized the scope of their undertaking, they agreed that stopatred.org might be an easier undertaking.
  • The funny thing is that most cyclists feel so self righteous about having the right-of-way but always seem to neglect giving that same respect to pedestrians. I can't tell you how many times a cyclist has tried to run me down when I was walking in a marked x-walk. The same traffic laws that cars, motorcycles, and scooters must obey also goes for bikes. When I used to bike commute downtown, I would stop at every red light without even thinking. Now I don't see any cyclist even bother to stop at red lights.
  • Of course cyclists need to give pedestrians the right of way. But as for cars -- if they had to use inertia the same way cyclists do, this would be an issue. But since a bike's continuity of motion is much more significant than a car's, I will tell these people to go (rocka) themselves.
  • In Cambridge where I used to cycle commute, there seemed to be a conspiracy between car drivers, who wanted to kill cyclists, and the cyclists, who wanted to help them. Me, I wanted a handlebar-mounted device to flick limpet mines with timer fuses at the worst drivers. I stopped at red lights, breathing murder and hatred for those who treated ones mode of transport as a signifier of status.
  • Wow, I totally don't understand this website. Does the mainland really have a huge problem with bikers running red lights? If so, this problem would be taken care of real fast, since they'd all be dead already.
  • But they're not dead already because the cars stop for them. Usually. I take the bus.
  • I fly simply everywhere. I sing songs and fly.