I bike whenever possible so I drive too, so I’ve seen both sides of this coin.
Too many rubbish motorists get impatient while driving. Apparently waiting ten seconds is too big an ask for them. I’ve stopped at intersections waiting to turn right and idiots behind me honk because they didn’t see the “NO TURN ON RED” sign.
There is an intersection where there are two roads crossing at right angles—an ordinary intersection, but one of the roads leading into it has a steep slope, so when I go down that slope on a bike to catch a green light, I end up going pretty fast. The problem is that motor traffic turning right often fails to give way to me (or others) in the bike lane going straight forward. This leads to an unusually high number of collisions and near-collisions, luckily none leading to serious injury—yet. This is in a college campus so motor traffic is slow.
In my city there is a new light rail/tram line that, unlike all the previous lines, doesn’t have arms at any of the level crossings. So right turns on red have been disallowed along the line so drivers don’t unwittingly turn in front of a train.
Turns out drivers tend to have poor situational awareness and will ignore rules that seem mildly inconvenient. The number of cars that have turned directly into the side of a train is both hysterical and alarming.
So yeah, it would be much safer if we disallowed rights on red as a general rule, and had specific exceptions in places where an unaware or impatient driver won’t be putting anyone’s life at risk.
I bike whenever possible so I drive too, so I’ve seen both sides of this coin.
In my city there is a new light rail/tram line that, unlike all the previous lines, doesn’t have arms at any of the level crossings. So right turns on red have been disallowed along the line so drivers don’t unwittingly turn in front of a train.
Turns out drivers tend to have poor situational awareness and will ignore rules that seem mildly inconvenient. The number of cars that have turned directly into the side of a train is both hysterical and alarming.
So yeah, it would be much safer if we disallowed rights on red as a general rule, and had specific exceptions in places where an unaware or impatient driver won’t be putting anyone’s life at risk.
Almost like bikes and cars should not be forced to share the same infrastructure.