Riding to work: Part 3

What you are looking at here is a 4+ lane road with the 2 near lanes going from left to right and the 2 far lanes going from right to left (just like in north America). Due to the traffic patterns, the nearside traffic, coming from the left, has mostly stopped, while the far side of traffic is still coming from the right. Because of the large break in the nearside traffic, many of the bike riders have crossed to the center of the road and are waiting there for the lights to finally change. There are still occasional cars cross the near side lanes, but because so many of the bicyclists are trailing into the car lanes, these cars, which still have a green light, must now swerve and slow down in order to go straight through the intersection.

This picture was taken from the edge of the intersection, where one would think the bikes should wait for the light to change.