Yeah and no. Cyclists should not roll through anything until they've completely scanned the intersecting traffic, which usually requires stopping briefly (but may not, for intersections with good visiblity and low information density and riders who are good at holding a line at slow speeds -- exercise good judgment). You put your life in the hands of others whenever you enter an area you did not already successfully vet for the absence of opposing traffic.<p>But, waiting for a red when there's no traffic is pointless. Also, there can be a lot of danger for cyclists, especially novices, when the light turns green, due to aggressive motor vehicles, so going through a traffic-free red can even be safer.<p>While you can argue that the same logic applies to cars, the potential for confusion/abuse and the fact that cars weigh much more factors against allowing cars to follow the same rule. So, when cycling:<p>Treat stop signs as stop signs (NOT yields), and treat red lights as stop signs (NOT yields). Come to a _complete_ stop, scan, and if there's no traffic in either direction, continue. Completely safe, but you save waiting for a red light to turn when there's actually no traffic spooled up.<p>(Don't forget to look both ways even on one way streets. If you run a red and get hit by a salmoner[1] you can't really complain, can you?)<p>Get over the dismounting thing. Going through reds is about saving time waiting for it to turn to green, not about saving time dismounting. A good city rider should be really good at dis/remounting seamlessly, as well as being able to ride at crawling speed without having to stop or swerve.<p>Try to get over the momentum thing too at least for a while. You'll become a stronger faster more skilled cyclist this way anyway, and there's nothing more pleasing than not just being /faster/ than a cab, but actually /accelerating/ more quickly than a cab despite all their cylinders and horsepower, and it's going to take a lot of stop and go practice to get you there, so don't slack on this. If you're using clipless this goes double -- you need to get really good at unclipping/reclipping so the worst thing you can do when you start is to jealously guard your momentum and never put your foot down.<p>Again, the key is, never go through an intersection that you haven't already gotten total visibility into. Whether this lines up with signal phases or not is irrelevant. You can get run over by a misbehaving road user when you have a green too, and you should beware then as well, treating greens as (very soft) yields, especially in intersections with poor visibility or high information density (eg in Manhattan, crossing an avenue while going crosstown)<p>And of course, I'm human, so I don't always practice what I preach. I often regret that later and wish I had.<p>[1] salmoner: slang for road user going the wrong way down a one way street (usually but not always a cyclist -- I observe that NYPD patrol cars also often do it, usually just because they can (no sirens) but sometimes to get to an emergency (sirens))