Should the laws be amended to allow cyclists to run red lights?

Redesign road intersections instead of making new laws

In most situations where the discussion centres around "there are some examples where cyclists can safely jump a red light" rather than changing the law, often it is an easier to discuss redesigning the road layout, e.g. with slip roads and paths which are not red light controlled, amending a junction to be pedestrian controlled, building a roundabout.

Changing a law, even at a US state level, to allow for special provisions for certain user groups is quite hard, expensive and open to all other groups to pressure for other changes.

Campaigning for redesigning road layouts to be more sympathetic to the different demands of cyclists and to encouraging other less motor-centric forms of transport is still hard, but has some history of success - e.g. search Google for 'copenhagenisation'.

Ensure that semi-actuated traffic lights detect bikes

Many of the under-the-road sensors which detect waiting traffic and control traffic lights have had their sensitivity adjusted in order to detect bikes: at least on bike routes.

On my commute there are I think only two or three intersections where those sensors don't notice me and consequently I might wait 'forever' (or until a car comes along behind/beside me). During the day this doesn't matter (there's enough other traffic to keep tripping the sensors): so I only notice it when I'm on the road alone, at night.

I could get off and press the pedestrian crossing button; but instead I stop (completely), wait until it's safe (no cars within 100m), and then cycle across against the light.

This type of traffic light happens where a minor residential street crosses a main road. I don't see how that intersection could be redesigned: without a traffic light, in daytime where there's nearly continuous traffic on the main road, the occasional cars on the smaller road would never be able to cross the main road. And it wouldn't be worth putting roundabouts there IMO.

In Britain all vehicles are required by Law to be MOT'd (an annual safety check cost £35-£50) Taxed (a variable amount dependant emissions average car £130) and Insured (after maximum discounts for no claims £300 or more) and to drive a car a full licence is required which is much harder to pass than when Itook it over 30 years ago. Cyclist pay none of this and are being provided in major towns with bike lanes or the right to use bus-lanes. In London (not an easy place to drive) there is a presumption that a driver is to blame for any accident involving a cyclist. With heavy congestion any cyclist can easily average a higher speed than a car and yet they DO NOT obey the rules of the road and are very unlikely to be stopped by the Police even when they ride through red lights. Needless to say the average car and van driver tend to consider cyclists as vermin.(Exageration).. The problem cyclists really started when supermarkets started selling bikes and they started to be viewed as toys.This was when BMX and Mountain Bikes became popular and car ownership increased. In my opinion Cyclists need to be seen as responsible citizens The easiest way being to act in a considerate and law abiding way..Then car drivers will start to realise that every cyclist is one less idiot car driver in the way and welcome changes to the road layout that encorage more cyclists.

No, they should not be allowed to run red lights.

Many fatalities in London are caused by cyclists being squeezed between railings and large vehicles that are turning left where the cyclist tried to get in front of the vehicle which was at a red light, and as the light turned green the driver couldn't see the cyclist as the cyclist was in the driver's blind sopt. Allowing cyclists to go through red lights would increase the occurrence of this as they would be more likely to try and squeeze past vehicles to then go through the red light.

What is really needed, as Unsliced mentioned, is better designed road intersections.

Whether or not it is "legal", the fact is cyclists DO run red-lights. There are solid pragmatic reasons for doing this in certain circumstances and there are situations for which this is NOT a good idea.

The problem is that laws traffic laws have trouble handling nuance, so not all jurisdictions can hope to get away with specific laws/exceptions to accommodate cyclists.

I think it is OK for the laws to not be changed even though it means that on rare occasions a cop who is feeling persnickety might decide to enforce the "letter of the law" on a cyclist who proceeds through a red-light at a clear intersection.