How Bicycle Stoplights Help Prevent Collisions

By dhahn ()

City of Boston officials have installed a traffic light specifically for cyclists heading east at the BU Bridge intersection, a hot spot for crashes. About 2,000 bicyclists pass through the intersection each day, according to city data. (A second [...]light for cyclists has been installed at the intersection of Comm Ave. and Carlton St.)

The new system gives a green light to cyclists so that they get a head start and avoid a “right hook”—the collision occurring when a cyclist moves forward as a car makes a right-hand turn. Such lights are a preferred strategy in Copenhagen, where 40 percent of the population uses a bicycle for any trip two miles or less.

Whether bicyclists and cars will honor them in Boston remains to be seen. But bicyclists can get a $20 ticket for running one of the dedicated lights as well as for running a regular traffic light.
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