Bicycles: Stoplights and Safety

[XLFD]

Two things coincided to precipitate this thread. 

First, I was out riding my bicycle with a youth and we were stopped at the stoplight at Atkinson Drive (the Memorial Medical Center) and Ludington Avenue, waiting for the light to turn green at the right side of the right lane at around 4 PM.  Then three things happened at once:  the light turned green, I pushed myself off to get across the street without inconveniencing the traffic turning left across the street, and some young lady zoomed from behind me to make a right turn within a couple of feet in front of me-- forcing me to brake or collide with her. 

This lady was likely a worker at the hospital, and her driving seemed to suggest that she wanted to drum up more business for herself.  She had apparently timed the light perfect and didn't care about taking my right of way from me.  This happens often enough over the course of a year, but the place where it happened, the profession of the driver, and the fact I had a young rider with me, made me a bit upset.  Yes, the bird made another appearance.

 

Second, I was checking out a bicycle website and came across the following stories from England on something which makes perfect sense to me, but might surprise those who don't have to deal with careless (to others safety) drivers:

Women cyclists ‘risk death’ by obeying traffic lights

Male cyclists who jump red lights 'are safer'

 

An unmoving bicyclist at the far right of the lane is invisible to thoughtless or distracted drivers.  Many stoplights need an automobile to trigger them.  Is it then better to just blow through these?

Of course not.  But the safe thing to do is to either assert your presence by getting further out in the lane, and/or yield to traffic and then make a right turn followed by a U-turn (where both are permitted) done in safety to get you past these dangers and across the street.  You will live to ride another day and help normal traffic flow in the process.