Why cyclists should be able to roll through stop signs and ride through red lights

[HappyMartin]

The thing with rules, particularly in SA, is we have and still have so many stupid ones that we get used to breaking them. Then it becomes a life long habit.

 

When I was younger it was against the law to sleep with a person of another colour. It was against the law to have a copy of Black Beauty because some idiot thought it was about a black woman.

 

Now we have roads full of potholes, traffic lights not working for weeks at a time, road markings so poorly thought out that you have to disobey them if you want to stay alive and actually get anywhere. All of this causes me to not take rules very seriously.

 

Last year in July I hit a patch of sewer water running across a road in Bedfordview. I broke and dislocated my thumb. It took 2 operations to sort out and as a self employed person lost 6 weeks of income. That sewer is still leaking across the road. I now cross a solid white line to avoid it when no cars are around. Then I hop onto the pavement to avoid a large pothole that has been around for ever remembering to look out for the manhole cover that was stolen some years back. Next I get to a traffick light that sometimes works. It's hard to say until you have stopped at it for a few minutes.

 

My point, rather tediously made, is all of this leads me to not take rules so terribly seriously. I look around and if it harms no one else I do as I see fit. I don't buy the logic that says if I skip a Red light someone in a car will then disrespect cyclists so much that they get pissed and ride another cyclist over and drive off leaving them to die on the side of the road.

Edited May 12, 2014 by HappyMartin

[Guest DieBees]

 

 

and you should pay tax and vote for the ruling party..........

And only speak when spoken to............

[Rider3000]

I see it as … if we stop also.. then the cars will see our respect for road signs also…it can only help our cause??? A stop signs reads STOP… it doesn't say "stop cars".

[Guest DieBees]

I see it as … if we stop also.. then the cars will see our respect for road signs also…it can only help our cause??? A stop signs reads STOP… it doesn't say "stop cars".

 

Agreed!

Edited May 14, 2014 by DieBees