Yellow Light

[Nevermore]

Hi everyone.

It is the second time I almost get runned over because I stop at a yellow light.
I consider it dangerous to go at the limit with great speed and I break; but usuly my breakes are much better and that the ones of the car behind.
If I break much smoother I'll end up behind the trafic lights or in the midle of the cross road.

What if your advice on that? As more experienced riders what would you do?

P.S: I must mention I never go more than 60 km/h in the town and around traffic lights.

[AlanH]

In the UK, amber means stop unless unsafe to do so. Having a car behind that doesn't look like it intends to stop would mean it is unsafe to stop as you'd be risking an accident. Personally I wouldn't stop if there was any doubt and the light was amber. Even if the light is red, I'm always watching to see if the car behind is going to try to drive through me and I'm ready to take evasive action.

[grazie]

From the Highway Code...



151. Junctions controlled by traffic lights
You MUST stop behind the white 'Stop' line across your side of the road unless the light is green. If the amber light appears you may go on only if you have already crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to stop might cause an accident.

...you don't ride an RD03 then

[YEN_POWELL]

Start slowing down in plenty of time, forcing the vehicle behind to slow down too, so that if the light changes you both have a chance of stopping safely.

The same method works for me when I'm approaching a minor side turning and I want the vehicle behind to stop rather than rear ending me.

[AIRWOLF]

Start slowing down in plenty of time, forcing the vehicle behind to slow down too, so that if the light changes you both have a chance of stopping safely.

The same method works for me when I'm approaching a minor side turning and I want the vehicle behind to stop rather than rear ending me.

I'm with Yen on this. . . . . . in effect, control the vehicle behind.

[Nevermore]

Thanks for the advice.
I'll try to controll the vehicle behind from now on ... Darn: now I'm driving 6 wheels in stead of 2.
Issue is I got used to traffic lights with counter (tels you how many seconds of each light you have left) and they don't have that here in Germany.

On top of that yellow is the first thing which comes up, so I should start breaking on green just to make sure?

Im most of the cases I get the yellow light 3 m before the white STOP line mentioned by GRAZIE and I feel that is plenty of space for me to break; as a car driver I'd do the same. It just seems to me that since I'm on a motorcycle they expect me to be a speed maniac and push the rules to the limit (something that I don't want to do).

[Farky]

Id say go through the light if your aware of a driver behind driving too close to stop - problem with car drivers si that they calculate their braking zone based on a sight line which, although it includes you, usually excludes you because they can see past you on a bike.
In my experience in Germany (limited to 4 trips), the yellow comes on pretty quick from green and stays on a bit longer than ours do before red. Both on bike and in car I went through these as it seemed to be the done thing. I term driving to conditions to driving as per the locals when im abroad - within reason of course.

[AlanH]

Im most of the cases I get the yellow light 3 m before the white STOP line mentioned by GRAZIE and I feel that is plenty of space for me to break

You can't be going very fast if you can stop in 9 feet including reaction time.

[StumpyFingers]

In Germany, go for it the cameras take a picture from the front so when the light turns red the car driver will get done.

[YEN_POWELL]

Here you always get exacty 3 seconds of amber signal on a signal controlled junction, whether it's a 20mph road or a 60mph road.

If you get less than 3 seconds the lights are faulty. 3 seconds is a lifetime in driving terms and allows for Morris Minors to have a chance of stopping on 40 year old drum brakes, so you have no real excuse on a bike designed in the early 80s.

The problems start when people treat amber as a speeding up signal which it isn't.