[SDCBC] Defense against Red Light Runners: Not As Easy As You Think

[Tom Harvey]

On Thu, Sep 20, 2007 at 04:10:02PM -0700, Serge Issakov wrote:
> ...
> Even if the Mercedes driver had run the red light, defensive drivers
> and all cyclists should always check for red-light runners before
> entering an intersection.  Clearly someone ran a red light and someone
> didn't check for redlight runners.  Either way, the crash could have
> been preventable by the either... EXCEPT...
> ...

i am in complete agreement with serge that cyclists should carefully
watch for red light runners at all signalized intersections. but it
isn't as easy as it sounds...

a couple of years ago, i and my two young sons were nearly killed by a
red light runner who was westbound on del mar heights road at mango
(just west of I-5). we were cycling across del mar heights northbound on
mango with a green light and a walk sign. i consider myself an extremely
safety-conscious cyclist at all times--even more so when cycling with
my children--and i would have said i was watching carefully as i crossed
that day. but in retrospect, i paid too much attention to all the cars
that were stopped (and therefore not dangerous), and not enough to the
one lane that didn't have a stopped car in it. i _was_ screened out by a
line of stopped cars and the hilly terrain also added sighting
difficulty, but i could have done better. in this case, the driver,
about to blow through a red light at full speed up the hill, saw us at
the last second, skidded to halt about a third of the way into the
intersection, allowing us to just clear out in front of her. she then
decided it was in her best interests to finish running the red light,
and headed off to the west without any indication of remorse. i didn't
even come close to getting her license number, and none of the numerous
stopped motorists offered it to me.

for the next several months or more, as you might expect, i was
hyper-vigilant in watching for red light runners at every opportunity,
and thought about the problem a lot. some of my conclusions:

it is really really really hard to distinguish between one of the
frequent "hard brakers" and someone who is going to run the light at
full speed.  aggressive driving seems to be the norm around here, and
many drivers approach red lights with hard, late braking and rapid
deceleration.

"late-yellow" runners may be the least of your problems, although they
are certainly the most common. you are often stopped with a clear view,
and you have a good chance to hear their accelerate-on-yellow engine
noise.

middle-red runners are harder. they are either oblivious or murderously
aggressive. the oblivious ones may be going quite slowly, and you might
be fooled by that. they might be utterly undeterred by motor vehicle
cross traffic that is pulling out with you.

two years later, i can't say i'm still hyper-vigilant in watching for
red light runners, although i hope i'm holding at a higher level of
awareness than i was before my near-family-death experience.

so, summarizing: avoiding red light runners is harder than i thought,
and i wasn't doing quite as good a job of it as i thought i was.