Cyclists’ red-light running behaviours: An examination of risk-taking, opportunistic, and law-obeying behaviours

•We investigate bicyclists’ red-light violation (RLV) by conducting a videotaping survey.•Mixed logit model was estimated to investigate the influential variables on three bicyclists’ RLV behaviours: risk-taking, opportunistic, and law-obeying.•T/Y junctions, short red-light duration, electric bike users, and unhelmeted cyclists are the determinants.•Several variables (pupils in uniform, speed limit with 60km/h) appear to have heterogeneous effects. Literature has suggested that bicyclists’ red-light violations (RLVs) tend not to cause accidents although RLV is a frequent and typical bicyclist's behaviour. High association between bicyclist RLVs and accidents were, however, revealed in Taiwan. The current research explores bicyclists’ RLVs by classifying crossing behaviours into three distinct manners: risk-taking, opportunistic, and law-obeying. Other variables, as well as bicyclists’ crossing behaviours, were captured through the use of video cameras that were installed at selected intersections in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. Considering the unobserved heterogeneity, this research develops a mixed logit model of bicyclists’ three distinct crossing behaviours. Several variables (pupils in uniform, speed limit with 60km/h) appear to have heterogeneous effects, lending support to the use of mixed logit models in bicyclist RLV research. Several factors were found to significantly increase the likelihood of bicyclists’ risky behaviours, most notably: intersections with short red-light duration, T/Y intersections, when riders were pupils in uniform, when riders were riding electric bicycles, when riders were unhelmeted. Implications of the research findings, and the concluding remarks, are finally provided.