It finally happened… almost.
I was riding my bike back home at 11pm on deserted Valencia Street when I lazily came upon a red light stoping no one. I did notice the car behind me slowing to a stop but only out of the corner of my eye. So, like most sensible cyclists, I slowly coasted throught the light.
Then I heard the annoying “error” sound that police cars make at you when you’re in the way or something. Yep, that car at the stop light with me? A cop! But while they buzzed at me, they didn’t run through the intersection to catch me. I began to slow down thinking that they’d want me to stop or worse, think I was trying to get away.
When they finally caught up (“This is it!” I thought), the 22 year old driver yelled out “Stop at red lights!” I said “OK.” and that was that.
Everyone knows that cyclists, at best, treat red lights like stop signs, especially in a timed-lights city like San Francisco, but what you certainly don’t do, is do it so brazingly in front of a cop car! I thought for sure I was going down just for that audacity but maybe they saw that I had a helmet on and used lights on my bike and thought I was pretty much an OK guy. At least… I like to think so.
Kill your car! 