20mph and red lights

So, I've been reading on another forum and lots of people were moaning about cyclists jumping red lights etc and many not believing others about cars jumping red lights. Am I going mad when I see cars jumping red lights/accelerating through amber almost continually on the junctions of Hanley/Stroud Green and Tollington/Stroud Green.<div><br></div><div>Equally, are the 20mph signs I see on Crouch Hill not enforceable? The amount of times I'm crossing the road there and cars must be doing 40/50/60! Sorry I love a good moan.</div>

Comments

  • Cars are forever going through amber, yep - and even red. Far worse than cyclists around here. 
  • edited September 2014
    yes, the 20mph limit on crouch hill seems largely ignored and never to my knowledge enforced. a pointless waste of paint and signage unless accompanied by serious enforcement and re-education of motorists.<br>
  • Cyclists jump red lights. Motorists jump red lights. Pedestrians wander across when the lights are red, often while texting/tweeting on their phones, paying no attention to what's going on around them. And yet somehow the ones who get all the criticism and ire seem to be cyclists. 
  • They have faces visible, so it feels more personal. Nonsense, of course, but then so are most instinctive reactions.
  • Rikki, some of the speeding on Crouch Hill can be quite dangerous too as the road gets very thin at certain points.
  • The Londis corner is dangerous - cars often barely able to stop in time when people are on the crossing.  They can't see round the corner at the bottom of the hill.  I've also seen cars go round the W3 trying to complete the overtake before the corner and stopping in the middle of the crossing, shocked that someone had the audacity to cross in their blind spot.  The bus stop is right before the crossing and so once you overtake the bus you're committed to overtaking on zig-zags you've forgotten were there.
  • Sorry - W3 overtake is downhill in the opposite direction.<div><br></div>
  • I drive as well as walk around here (no, I don't jump red lights), and see many more cyclists than cars jumping the lights. I disapprove of both, but cars annoy me a bit more because the potential for harm is rather greater. The 20mph limits aren't enforced because the police have refused, and the councils won't/can't pay for speed cameras.
  • "<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">cars annoy me a bit more because the potential for harm is rather greater"</span><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This about sums it up for me. The attitude of (some) motorists seems to be "I can do more damage to you so you need to watch out," when surely it should be "I can do more damage to you so I shall be more careful". And it's towards other motorists, not just cyclists. Bus/lorry drivers will just force their way across cars because they can. I drove from Tynemouth to Cambridge on Monday and the number of time I had to slam the brakes on at 70(ish)mph as a lorry travelling at 60 decided to pull straight into my lane was ridiculous and highly dangerous. </span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There seriously needs to be a change in attitude so that those in the bigger, more dangerous vehicles take more responsibility.</span></div>
  • One does try to be careful, but other road users don't always help themselves...the number of pedestrians who cross the road behind a reversing car, for example, is astounding. I've taken to doing 3-point turns in my cul-de-sac most of the time, rather than reversing out, because people don't seem to realise that a driver's field of vision is rather more restricted in reverse.
  • Well I was on my bike and was wacked by trailer in Great Queen Street earlier this week.<div><br></div><div>I had a green right of way going straight on at the lights and the guy in the van  jumped the red and turned right in front of me and forced me onto the pavement and the trailer he had on the back caught my foot.  I was pretty lucky really and wasn't hurt much.</div><div><br></div><div>The driver drove off and when I caught up to ask why he had jumped the light he and his mate just started shouting about me coming up on the inside.  Madness really and I was wearing very bright orange. </div><div><br></div><div>The driver just had absolutely no awareness of teh consequences of jumping the light </div>
  • edited September 2014
    There are lunatic drivers.  They think you have no right to go faster than them on the inside. I notice now vans with the cyclist advice 'don't-overtake...' use it to be reckless.  One of the benefits of cycling is that you can bypass hold-ups in traffic.  I don't over take buses and trucks but surely if you're neck and neck with a van or car they won't accelerate and cut a right on you.  I think the signs are now used to make you feel you should always give us the right of way and if you don't you're at fault.  Which I think is illogical.  
  • vetski, i'm intrigued by your comment that the police "refused" to enforce speed limit. i'd like to follow this up. have you any further info/documentation?<br>
  • I read it ages ago in an article about Islington becoming a 20mph borough, @rikki. Sorry, but I have no idea which paper/website it was on anymore!
  • It's widely known (amongst borough transport planners) that the Met police have consistently said they won't enforce 20mph speed limits - the Met's formal response to the Islington Consultation on 20mph would say this.
  • thanks vetski and n19 - i'll try following it up with richard watts.<br>
  • Although supposedly there was enforcement of Islington's 20mph limits last month.<br><br>http://www.islington.gov.uk/islington/news-events/news-releases/2014/10/Pages/PR5999.aspx<br>;
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