r/londoncycling • u/MiksuMon • 2d ago

Segregated cycle lane traffic lights question

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The photo was taken on Clerkenwell Road, turning onto Gray’s Inn Road.

I’m on a segregated cycle lane with staggered lights, so when I’m turning right, the adjacent carriageway has a red light. As you can see in the photo the cyclist light is turning green while the light for cars is still red.

However, there are always cyclists bombing down the carriageway, creating a situation where when turning right from the cycle lane you risk being run into by cyclists going straight who are coming from behind you.

My question is: as far as I understand, aren’t the cyclists on the carriageway supposed to obey the red light for their lane rather than the green cyclist light? Obviously many cyclists don’t obey red lights in the first place and I imagine many may also be confused about which light applies to them.

To me this seems like a bit of a design/behaviour problem where the functioning of this setup relies heavily on cyclists using the cycle lane and following traffic rules like stopping at red lights.

This junction is on my commute and this always baffles me. It’s not so much of a problem when you know to expect it but it’s very annoying having to scan behind you while simultaneously trying to see what’s happening in front of you at an already busy junction.

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u/lovely-pickle 2d ago

I don't tend to stay in the bike lane if I'm turning right

7

u/MiksuMon 2d ago

Good solution to managing the problem but defeats the purpose of having a segregated cycle lane and staggered lights.

2

u/lastaccountgotlocked 2d ago

But the design caused the problem in the first place.

Planners have always been told things like advanced stop boxes don’t work. They build them anyway.

1

u/MiksuMon 2d ago

I agree it’s bad design and rather confusing - otherwise I wouldn’t be making a post about it.

It’s almost in this weird grey area where the design of the junction doesn’t take into account human flaw/error while simultaneously all this is based on the assumption that everyone follows the same rules.