[Mithaldu]

> No bell

Hey i ride without bell too. On the other hand, i don't mind staying at walking speed and taking it slowly if there's some congestion up ahead. I find bell users to be insufferable dicks at most times.

> they have the legal ability to go through red lights under safe conditions

Everytime bicycles come up on HN i learn some new insanity about the USA. Do you have a link to the legistlation for that?

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEPx0N_jAa8

From my point of view, NEITHER of these three people are fit to participate in civilized society. Especially not the cop who tells the lady to shut up because she might get shot by someone.

[cmartel]

There's something called the Idaho stop which is, very simply, allowing cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, and red lights as stop signs. Since traffic lights are not meant for cycling at all and often don't make it safer, this alternative has turned out to be quite the safe compromise.

http://bikeleague.org/content/bike-law-university-idaho-stop

That page also mentions other states where a cyclist can go through a red light, usually if it is supposed to be triggered by vehicles and the smaller bicycle can't achieve that.

[JoeAltmaier]

The red-light item is fictitious. There aren't traffic laws written that waffle like that. Its a cyclist's lame rationalization.