Cyclists don’t have a fantastic reputation for waiting for lights. I’d like to say that this is blown out of proportion by drivers, but anyone who’s been to a big city can see that’s just not the case. Riding in London, I see a cyclist running a light every few minutes. And when I do, I find myself taking on a certain aloofness. I tut. I exchange glances with other cyclists. I look back apologetically at the irate drivers behind. I rile myself up about how this selfish minority are ruining cyclists’ reputation.
But I have a confession: on occasion, I too make a guest appearance in the selfish minority club. Most days, I’d never run a red. But sometimes, when I’m in a certain kind of crazy, anti-establishment mood, I go from being regular old, law abiding James, to my disenfranchised anarcho-marxist alter ego: Jed. As far as Jed is concerned, a red light is nothing more than atmospheric mood lighting as he cuts through the traffic. Jed doesn’t care what people think, and he doesn’t care about being an inconvenience. He just cares about riding, going fast, finding flow and breaking out of our ‘system’. So put that in your stuffy old top hat telegraph newspaper pipe and smoke it, Dad.
To Jed, the city lays itself out like an elaborate game map. Each junction, car or curb is an obstacle. The whole thing becomes a set of closing gaps and open spaces. As legendary New York fixed gear rider Cooper Ray says, it’s a process of osmosis: you move naturally into spaces and are pushed out of tight spots. Naturally, Jed rides a fixed gear bike too.
Jed sees right through the signs that ‘the man’ pushes onto us. To Jed, a pin stripe suit does not indicate importance. A silhouette of a man and a woman does not make him think of a toilet. And a red light does not mean stop. It’s all made up, dude, says Jed.
Riding like this is irresponsible and dangerous, and it gives cyclists a bad name. It’s also very fun. And if you see Jed whizzing past you as he burns through his 9 lives, just know he’s not just impatient: he’s making a political statement, like Marcel Duchamp or John Lennon would.
