To be clear, I would rarely jump if the lights had just changed Red - more if I was approaching and the crossing was clear - at a pedestrian crossing if everyon

To be clear, I would rarely jump if the lights had just changed Red - more if I was approaching and the crossing was clear - at a pedestrian crossing if everyone who wanted to cross had passed, or at a cross roads type junction where there were no cars in motion, or their lights had just turned red, but ours hadn't yet turned green. Also if I was doing a left turn at a light though that was rarer given my route. Very rarely, if there was a jam and traffic was stationary across a crossing I would go, but again that wasn't a common one. Mainly I did it as it meant I could keep my speed and stay away from cars - if you come to a stop at a light (at the front of the queue) then you are accelerating from the front of the pack as the cars are itching to get by you - this way when they caught up with me and passed me at 30 (if they were lucky) I was already doing 20. As I said, I stopped relatively soon in my commuting career and just got better at holding road position, and at my own fitness so stopping and starting had less of an affect on me. Also slowly over the year traffic seemed to get more bike aware and less hectic. But I do understand why people do it, even if it does make all cyclists look bad. I was 'knocked off' (though not actually off) my bike 3 times, and all three was thankfully scary but not painful. Once I taxi passenger opened their door into the bike lane and nearly doored me, I was able to just skid into the door and shout so loud the passenger didn't actually get out so wasn't hurt, and twice drivers just turned left into my lane in 2 (or 3) lane traffic - luckily our speeds were similar - once I was able to keep myself up by hanging from the vans wing mirror, and once I was just knocked a bit. Horrible - but all helped me take the road space I needed and actively stop cars overtaking me when it was not safe (and inversely pulling to the side when possible to let more timid drivers pass).