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Saved from a red light runner by a bicycle

MHC

MHC

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This morning I split a lane up to the front of a light like I usually do when I want to keep away from a group of cagers who will inevitably be jockeying for position once through the intersection, and not be held up getting on the freeway.

Just as my light turns green a bicyclist just rides right out into the cross walk in front of two cars and me who are already beginning to move out into the intersection. As the bicyclist makes his way across a car blows right through the red light doing 30-35 easy.

The timing of it all was just so that if I had moved out into the intersection with the light I would have been creamed by the red light runner!

Scary. Red light runners are one of my biggest fears riding around the streets. I feel like I see it a lot too, especially during the morning commute.
 
MHC said:
This morning I split a lane up to the front of a light like I usually do when I want to keep away from a group of cagers who will inevitably be jockeying for position once through the intersection, and not be held up getting on the freeway.

Just as my light turns green a bicyclist just rides right out into the cross walk in front of two cars and me who are already beginning to move out into the intersection. As the bicyclist makes his way across a car blows right through the red light doing 30-35 easy.

The timing of it all was just so that if I had moved out into the intersection with the light I would have been creamed by the red light runner!

Scary. Red light runners are one of my biggest fears riding around the streets. I feel like I see it a lot too, especially during the morning commute.
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Good on him/her! I would have chased him down and thanked the rider.

Before the light turns green (which you can kinda time) always look left...right...left again...right again... I actually do it 3 times each side just to make sure. Its the best you can do to prevent that car you missed in an earlier scan but sometimes its just luck as you encountered a car makes it through.
 
Wow you owe him a beer or two. Or the red light runner a beating. Which ever floats your boat. Glad to hear you weren't smeared.
 
Seriously!

Being that red light runners do scare me so much, because I feel like I see it a lot living in Berkeley/Oakland area, I am very cautious about just going out in to an intersection after the light changes. I always look right and left first. Usually all lanes are stopped and all is well. This was one of those rare situations where everything was just so. Cager went through the light three or four full seconds after his light was red.

The bicyclist honestly looked pretty out of it. Old dazed hippie type, not reckless emo fixie kid or angry commuter guy that you usually see going toe-to-toe with cages.
 
i was gonna say, folks in my area tend to see red lights as mere suggestions. i am always super cautious in certain parts of oakland (west o., pill hill, other spots) b/c running red lights in cars w/o plates seems to be some sort of ghetto pastime.

MHC said:
Seriously!

Being that red light runners do scare me so much, because I feel like I see it a lot living in Berkeley/Oakland area,
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let this be a warning to you... to stop doing that. get to the front of the pack and look both ways before proceeding into the intersection.
 
You feel that moving to the front of the light by lane splitting is a bad idea because of the risk of red light runners?
 
When I split up front on a red light, I don't blast out of there for this reason. I'd let the cars next to me mvoe and I'll ride next to them. I figure, if a red light runners does come, at least the cars next to me might absorb some energy. Don't know if this is really a good idea since I've never tested it.

There are also roads that I don't split up front at all because too many red light runners: I never split Page Mill/El Camino, De Anza/Sunnyvale, Capitol/Tully. I just know there're too many runners there from my experience driving a car.
 
MHC said:
You feel that moving to the front of the light by lane splitting is a bad idea because of the risk of red light runners?
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Dont enter the intersection without looking.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231506&highlight=mercedes
1RUN said:
.........As the light went green I proceeded ahead of the Prius which actually wound up going straight on Scott (the fact that he went straight partially blinded my vision of traffic to my right). It wasn't until I was clear of the Prius that I saw the front end of a gold late '90's E class mercedes (in the "slow lane" of Cal.) about to take me out at a high rate of speed. I tried to clear his path of travel, but instead was hit hard in the right rear of the bike. I remember some serious hang time as I sailed somewhere between 30 to 40 feet :wtf (according to witnesses) and landed HARD on my back in the middle of a sidewalk.

I was released from the hospital last night around 8....
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also you might want to read posts before commenting on them.
metrorollah said:
get to the front of the pack and look both ways before proceeding into the intersection.
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I've had a similar situation where i was on a bicycle riding across the street, and I got a slow start because I was in too high of a gear. as I'm making my way across the street this guy goes tearing through the intersection almost clipping my front tire...had I been in a lower gear, I might have been just a few feet ahead and been creamed...it scared the shit out of me..

things always happen for a reason....
I'm glad to hear that you escaped unscathed. :ride
 
I feel that I am careful about it. Today was just one of those situations that would have been beyond anyone at the front of the line had it not been for the bicycle. It just happened to be me today.
 
yeah, keep doing it.

1RUN said:
....I sailed somewhere between 30 to 40 feet :wtf (according to witnesses) and landed HARD on my back in the middle of a sidewalk.
I was released from the hospital last night around 8.
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:rip
 
metrorollah said:
also you might want to read posts before commenting on them.
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You where saying?

MHC said:
I am very cautious about just going out in to an intersection after the light changes. I always look right and left first.
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I felt your post was a little vague in its reference to what you advised to stop doing. I do appreciate the advice, truly. :thumbup

I am posting this story mostly as a reminder to all of us to keep a look out!
 
ok, so you were cautious, but somebody else saved your ass... :rolleyes


denial aint just a river in Egypt.
 
Thanks, thought it might be only me thinking metrorollah was on the attack.

If I hadn't been there, the bicyclist still would have saved the car to my left.

This red light runner wasn't the usual "I am going for it" catching the last of the last of the yellow. This guy blew the light several seconds after it had changed!
 
It was in Oakland. No pedestrian timers, big three lane road, McArthur, I was on Oakland Ave about to cross McArthur to get on the freeway on ramp.

Yes the bicyclist most certainly blew his signal, we all had to stop and wait.

Sorry I was not clear on the location, and failed to add more detail to my account.
 
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