Imagine a cyclist hitting some little old lady tottering across the pedestrian crossing?
I can imagine it, but to re-iterate it simply isn't bore out by reality. Cars kill on average 9 pedestrians a day, bikes about 2 a year in the UK, and that includes the recent high profile case. If you can find a statistic that shows significantly more victims of bike/pedestrian collisions then, by all means, share it, but then you'd have to compare it to all the car related serious injuries too. Like the advert says at 30mph the pedestrian has an 80% chance of surviving (Vs 20% at 40) , it doesn't say in what state they're in afterward though.
I admit to running red lights, particularly at busy junctions. Cycling infrastructure in this country is at best an afterthought and at worst a joke, so as a cyclist approaching a busy junction you have several choices.
1) not filter, sit there breathing in the fumes and miss out on the hole point of being on your bike (that it's quicker than a car at commuting times).
2) Filter and sit at the front, you then have to compete with the first few drivers, who are focusing on working out which other streams of traffic are on green, accelerating, and with alarming regularity; eating their toast! I've watched one driver set off and drive straight into the back of the bike in front (thankfully at walking pace so no one was hurt).
3) Filter, cross the white line and wait 10m up the road at the actual junction. Avoid the traffic (I'm usually well across the junction and back into a cycle lane if there is one by the time the car behind catches up). It's by far the safest way to deal with most town center junctions at rush hour on a bike and lets more cars through because the junction is free of bikes. It's just like an imaginary ASL* box at every junction).
*the big green/red box at the lights, usually with a bike painted on it and a car in it, not because the car has decided that on balance crossing it's white line (i.e. it's run the lights already) was good for it's own safety, just because they're completely selfish.
P.S. Interestingly enough, the UK is the only country in Europe (including east European countries) in which cyclists are not protected by law. Every other country has some form of "In case of an accident the dude sitting in the moving 2 tons of unstoppable force has to prove its not his fault".
Only applies to civil cases though, i.e. in a bike + car collision the car drivers insurance has to pay out unless they can prove the cyclist was at fault. In criminal cases (death by dangerous driving etc) it's still innocent until proven guilty.
Although some countries (Norway I'm fairly sure for one) have an absolute right of way for pedestrians (the opposite of jaywalking laws in America), it's the driver's responsibility to look out for people crossing the road.
