texasdiver

I have 2 traffic lights on my new commute that give me problems. They are basically car-only in that there is no cross walk or push button for pedestrians and as I am riding on the low traffic side street and crossing a through street the light never changes until a car comes along to trigger the sensor in the pavement.

If there are cars around it is not a problem as the signal gets tripped and I get my green light. But when there are no cars I could basically wait forever.

So I've taken to just riding through them after making sure it's safe. But after years of bike commuting and cycling advocacy it just seems wrong.

I'm thinking of contacting the city and requesting that they install push buttons. But this being Texas, who knows how they'll respond.

Anyone else have a similar situation? How do you deal with it?

10 Wheels

If its clear I ride on.

mtalinm

I will go through a red light when
* it is a three-way intersection, so there is no chance of an unseen car barreling through
* the WALK sign is lit in the direction I want to go (in fact I think it is safer to take off at this point rather than waiting for the light to turn green)
* as you say, if I am unable to trigger the sensor. I once waited 10 min for one of these, but never again

gremlin76

I do it on my bicycle and motorcycle. It's legal in many places, as long as you wait for the lights to cycle through twice (not sure why).

bmt074

+1

I go in all of the situations mentioned below. My favorite is when ALL the lights are in a walk signal state (and there aren't any pedestrians crossing). There isn't a safer time to go.

But yea, in your case I would absolutely go.

texasdiver

Yeah, these traffic lights are in a semi-industrial area so no walk signals, no cross walks, no anything but the traffic light and highway sensor. Both are 2 land side streets crossing a 5 lane arterials. So I can wait some time before I see an opening safe enough to blast across all 5 lanes.

One is actually not far from a school so I think I'll bring it up with the authorities and see if there is some sort of process to request an upgrade to walk signals and push buttons. Anyone else here done that? Be nice to know if someone else has done all the homework.

colleen c

I would treat it as a stop sign where you have to yield to the cross traffic.

JoeyBike

Yes. If I can go, I go.

LesterOfPuppets

I hardly ever push crosswalk buttons. I just do what I can to attempt to get the sensor to see my bike. A lot of them these days will trigger if you line your rims up with the cuts in pavement (assuming the sensor wasn't installed prior to paving). Sometimes it helps to lay your bike down on the drive side so the mass of metal in the crank/bottom bracket area gets seen.

Both techniques are likely less effective on bikes with carbon fibre rims, cranks and frame.

If no green light trigger, I just go when safe.

SamAdam

Whoops. Should have thought about that one for a second. Of course it's an inductive loop, and magnets aren't going to do anything.

If you want this to work, attach a large copper coil to the frame of your bike! Couple hundred pounds extra weight, but worth it.

vik 

Yes I blow through red lights if there is no traffic...I don't look for a walk button.

DataJunkie

I blow through red lights regardless of a walk button if it is safe.

cyccommute 

Rats! And I thought we'd almost killed the 'use magnets to trip lights' idea

Magnets, even strong ones like neodymium, don't do diddly squat for tripping traffic light sensors. The magnet field of any magnet that you carry on your bike will have no effect on the induction loop. It's just not strong enough. You might as well mount the magnets on your car's fuel line. The effect will be the same...nothing!

Here's the Reader's Digest version, and the long winded, technical, but quite good explanation of how to trip induction loop light actuators. These techniques work most of the time. I have about a 90% success rate of tripping the light if I can find the coil wires in the road.

DX-MAN

If I can't trip a light, I don't wait for someone else to do it for me.

cyclokitty 

Early Sunday mornings there is a stoplight near me that stays that way until a car triggers it. But it's so quiet at that time of day that I treat it like a 4 way stop and go thru it.

idiotekniQues

in nyc and jersey city, my friends and i treat red lights as stop/yield signs generally speaking. there are lights every block in some cases so it makes sense. we never 'blow' through lights as in hit them at high speed, we slow down, look both ways and go or stay. most streets here are 1-way, we usually don't do this at busy 2-way streets like say 34th st. or 14th st. etc...

cyclefreaksix

I blow through 'em if no cars are present and it's safe to do so.

chandltp

In Pennsylvania, the law specifically allows for bicycles to treat red lights with sensors as a "malfunctioning light" and I can proceed through it as long as I have stopped and verified that it is safe. I think there's some other stipulations there, like waiting for X amount of time, but from experience I know if the light doesn't trip as I roll up to it, it's not going to.

In practice I have 2 lights that I ride by at 5:00 and 6:00 AM that I rarely stop at since I'm usually the only one on the road. I slow down, look, and prepare to stop if needed.

ItsJustMe

It's legal to treat red lights with defective sensors as a stop sign. That doesn't mean "blow through" as you say, it means stop and then proceed when safe.
I stop even at 4AM when there's not a car on the road.

travelmama

Yes!

JeremyZ

I ride through every light after I make sure it is safe.

Doohickie

+1. In fact when I did it this morning, the next car back (several hundred yards back) was a cop car and he didn't do a thing. Around here I think their philosophy is that as long as I'm not violating the right of way of another vehicle, he's not gonna mess with me.

Gamecoug

I have one deserted light on my route, but I guess it has a good new sensor. As soon as I roll over it, the light the other direction goes yellow-red, and I get a green about 2 seconds after putting my foot down. It lasts long enough for me to get 2 cranks into the intersection, and then it's yellow, but i'm always impressed with how sensitive the sensor is. or maybe i'm just that fat.

JeremyZ

The sensors are hall effect. (magnetically triggered) Does your bike have steel wheels and a steel frame? If you have aluminum wheels, you're right, that is a nice sensitive trigger. If you have an aluminum or carbon frame, I'd be absolutely amazed that it triggers. Maybe it is radar triggered or something...

ItsJustMe

No they're not. They're inductive, basically it's a giant metal detector. Totally different technology than hall effect. They're sensing the presence of conductive material, not magnetism. Aluminum works pretty much as well as steel to trigger them. My bike is all aluminum except for a few screws and it triggers lights just fine.