cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54045255

I have adopted the habit of ignoring red lights.

Rationale: If cars did not exist, cyclists would never have to stop. Every time I must stop at a traffic signal it is to cator for motorists who are mostly a self-serving detriment to public health and safety. #FuckCars.

I used to obey all the traffic rules but after coming to the realisation that much of my time is wasted and my journey is downgraded so copious lazy people can exploit a luxury (some demographics aside). Fuck that. I now run red lights like crazy.

Now I must consider that Tesla may fuck up my lifestyle because Tesla is a moving point of unchecked uncontrolled surveillance. Theoretically, Tesla could be grabbing the faces of cyclists. It could offer to report cyclists who run reds. It could sell that info to law enforcement. Am I overthinking this or is this a problem to watch out for?

OTOH, I am somewhat looking forward to a day when I can spot when a car is self-driving and (if I can ever gain confidence that they won’t mistake me for a tumbleweed) I would happily take liberties – to cut-off the car and force it to slow down and give way. I hope that tactic can go from dream world to real world.

  • evenwichtOPEnglish
    12·
    24 days ago

    lookup “traffic circles” and “roundabouts”.

      • evenwichtOPEnglish
        12·
        24 days ago

        Do you not yield to traffic in roundabouts??

        Depends on if the traffic is cars or cycles as far as whether yielding requires a stop. Cars move a lot of mass very fast so I must stop if timing forces me to. And that’s frequent. Roundabout traffic in the form of cycles does not require stopping. I’ve seen it 1st hand at Critical Mass events. You only need to vary your speed, unless the round about is so clusterfucked with bikes that you need to stop, which is rare and would never be a realistic scenario outside of Critical Mass. But if it were, I would argue that the civil engineers fucked up… that the roundabout is not proportioned for the capacity it needs to serve. Regardless, in the very worst of cases you never need to be stopped at a roundabout when there is no traffic. Stops also only last as long as necessary. They are not artificially imposed by the timing of a traffic light.