I'm a bicycle commuter in London, formerly Minneapolis, Santa Fe and Sunnyvale—Palo Alto corridor.
I agree that running red lights is bad in the general case, however I do have some exceptions. In certain circumstances waiting for the light to turn is leaving me in a vulnerable position, or a place where I'm going to block traffic and piss off a lot of drivers. In these cases sometimes I dismount and walk, sometimes I ride out slowly as a pedestrian (London intersections tend to be 3-phase with the walk cycle being all directions, also there are no turns-on-red).
This makes some people angry who want to stick their head in the sand and pretend a bicycle is the same as a motor vehicle. The problem is that it's not. If you are a fast rider in a dense urban area such as London you can at times approximate being a vehicle, but slow riders or fast uncongested roads you can't.
For me it's all about safety and courtesy. I am courteous to pedestrians and I am courteous to motor vehicle traffic. For instance, I move over to let cars pass and I don't take any more space than is necessary to be safe. If a car is stuck behind me I try to go as fast I can until it's safe to make room for them to pass. Similarly if I'm stuck in an unsafe position I may do a technical illegal maneuver to get out of it. This pisses some people off sometimes, usually drivers who have never pedaled in an urban environment ever, but you know what? It's my ass out there on the line and being at times a driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian in equal shares, I have a better idea what is safe and considerate than most.
I agree that running red lights is bad in the general case, however I do have some exceptions. In certain circumstances waiting for the light to turn is leaving me in a vulnerable position, or a place where I'm going to block traffic and piss off a lot of drivers. In these cases sometimes I dismount and walk, sometimes I ride out slowly as a pedestrian (London intersections tend to be 3-phase with the walk cycle being all directions, also there are no turns-on-red).
This makes some people angry who want to stick their head in the sand and pretend a bicycle is the same as a motor vehicle. The problem is that it's not. If you are a fast rider in a dense urban area such as London you can at times approximate being a vehicle, but slow riders or fast uncongested roads you can't.
For me it's all about safety and courtesy. I am courteous to pedestrians and I am courteous to motor vehicle traffic. For instance, I move over to let cars pass and I don't take any more space than is necessary to be safe. If a car is stuck behind me I try to go as fast I can until it's safe to make room for them to pass. Similarly if I'm stuck in an unsafe position I may do a technical illegal maneuver to get out of it. This pisses some people off sometimes, usually drivers who have never pedaled in an urban environment ever, but you know what? It's my ass out there on the line and being at times a driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian in equal shares, I have a better idea what is safe and considerate than most.