Cyclists and the Role of the Red Light

In Illinois there is a push right now to allow both motorcyclists and bicyclists to move through a red light if it is deemed safe enough and they have waited for an appropriate amount of time to consider their surroundings. This new bill would only affect municipalities under two million people, which is considerable but leaves out Chicago. The issue of contention for this bill lies in the amount of time that a cyclist should wait until proceeding through the intersection, and since it has yet to be clearly defined it has been vetoed by the governor although that was subsequently overturned. Unfortunately the article does not address where the initiative comes from or what sort of theory or evidence based approach backs law. We will keep an eye out to see if or when this comes into effect what changes in accident or traffic efficiency rates there are.