A cyclist in Chicago nearly paid the ultimate price for preempting a green light and going through the junction when the light was still red. He had seen the light turn yellow for the crossing traffic and because a car had stopped at the light, and he knew the green light was coming he decided to go through the red light. Unbeknownst to him though there was a car coming from the east side who decided to run the yellow.
Here is his description of events and why he posted the video.
I Almost Got Myself Killed…
“I decided to upload this video to hopefully get a message across to other cyclists, don’t go through red lights, please. Chicago street lights are different compared to other towns’ street lights. There are some intersections where the lights only gives a one second break where all sides are red, then instantly turns green (like this one), and there are some where there is a longer break in between. I can assure you this, I don’t blow red lights like some of those crazy messengers. Surprisingly, I am usually patient enough to wait until the light turns green, but this time, this one time where I decided not to, I almost got killed. I have to also say, this isn’t entirely my fault. For one, the Mazda was speeding excessively and he also blew through a red light. I know I will get a lot of shit for this, telling me to pay attention more, don’t go through red lights, etc. The only reason why I decided to do this was because it was the type of intersection where it turns green as soon as the other street goes red. And I noticed that the Volvo was already stopped, which made me look at the street light which was yellow making myself think “Oh hey, nobody is probably coming from the east, so I’m just going to go now”. I made sure he didn’t stop to want to talk to me, which he drove off, so therefore I decided to move on as well.”
It’s not even a near miss. The car was miles away