do you ever go through red lights?

[lph]

Around here if you want to be respected like a vehicle, with the rights of a vehicle, and travel on surfaces used by vehicles.... you follow the same rules as the vehicles.

If I wouldn't run the red light or stop sign in my car, I won't run it on my bike either.

I agree, with one caveat - to accord you respect as a vehicle, someone has to be around to see it. I sometimes encounter 4-way intersections where all crossing traffic has passed, and there are are no other vehicles travelling in my direction. Then I'll admit to "making like a pedestrian" and riding over even on a red light (walking on a red light is permitted here). But I make a point out of coming to a full stop first and checking, for the benefit of any stray pedestrians I might not have seen. I could wheel my bike over and be in full accordance of the law, but that feels a little unnecessary when I'm already starting from a full stop.

Very very seldom - but still once in a while - I'll consider riding on a red when there are other vehicles around. For instance, there's a light-regulated pedestrian-only crossing on this one hill, with a bus stop 100 yards after it. If the bus is breathing down my neck as we wait for a green I'll try to move early to get across and past the bus stop so that the bus doesn't have to wait for me to get moving, or worse, try to pass me and then stop.

In practice, though, I wait through almost all red lights, pissing off many an urban cyclist I make a HUGE point out of stopping when a cab driver can see me, since I know they are cyclist haters number one around here.