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Comment by YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 | Hacker News Reader

I've always thought the reason many cyclists treat red lights and stop signs mere warnings instead of rules is because it's annoying to have to speed up from standstill with your own power.

IMO it's a flaw in human-powered vehicles, although some purists will certainly vehemently disagree such a thing can even exist.

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Well.. though I'll admit to cycling aggressively, I don't think I've ever ignored a traffic light unless there was literally no traffic around (and even then only when I was in a hurry), and I don't think many cyclists I know do ignore traffic lights very often.

I definitely get not wanting to stop, and I'll try and optimize. For example in Amsterdam there's traffic lights with counters, and as a cyclist you can usually safely go when there's 5 seconds left, but I don't count that as ignoring the traffic light.

Cutting a red light into slow traffic would be very rude.. I don't think that happens a lot here.

As a cyclist myself, I would never run a red light or stop sign, and I have a history of shouting at fellow cyclists that do. Running traffic signals is an utterly stupid thing for a cyclist to do.

You got it the wrong way around. We only have lights and stop signs because of cars. They are a necessity for motor traffic, not bikes and pedestrians.

The flaw is strictly in the box that extends two more metres forward of the actual driver vision and all around offers terrible visibility.

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