A Public Display of Hesitation

My Franklin Blvd. intersection with Mack Rd. was listed in the top ten most dangerous intersections in Sacramento, while our fair city was named among the most dangerous in the whole state.

In my opinion, the absolute best preventative measure anyone can take, in any intersection, is to wait two seconds after the intersection clears to enter. The vast, vast majority of intersection crashes occur within two seconds after a changing light. Doing this would significantly reduce your odds of an intersection crash.

But it will also totally infuriate the drivers behind you. It will also infuriate your passengers.

The thing to do is to let off the brake as soon as the light changes...wait two seconds, then proceed. The action of releasing your brake lights lets the impatient asshole behind you know that you recognized the green light -- this will minimize the actions they might take against you down the road for being such an idiot. That you decide to take the intersection with an intentional delay, that you decide to take the intersection having checked that it was cleared...well, that most certainly would piss off the pope were he behind you, wouldn't it? Remember -- anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac. You are always the most perfect driver...isn't that right?

As a bicyclist, timing the green light and beating everyone through the intersection is a bad, bad practice, but man if I don't see this a thousand times a year by other bikers. What's absolutely fascinating to me, however, is that when I intentionally delay my entrance into an intersection, the first cars in the traffic lanes also hesitate...that is, they cue off me when to start accelerating. I do this all the time. I pretend to start the moment the light changes but suddenly I hesitate; every time I do this there is an obvious hesitation by the first cars as well. They mentally process it as "that bicyclist isn't going...he sees something I don't see...it must not be safe to enter...so I'll hesitate too." They will eventually begin moving forward, and only when they get half way through the intersection will I begin to move forward. They will be the ones t-boned by a red light runner, not me.

This is an amazing dynamic! Something so trivial that only a moronic blogger late at night would bother to mention but it happens...and I have to say that I think I, as a bicyclist, make intersections marginally safer because my intentional public display of hesitation forces drivers to delay their entrance into dangerous intersections.

As a bicyclist, I am what would be known as an obstacle to traffic. Drivers are forced to acknowledge my presence, another hazard to be dealt with, and this works to slow them down. The safer you feel as a driver, the more you ought to be on guard because roads that feel safer always kill more people. Roads that feel dangerous are always safer.