Southern California - Wow, it works!

So the SFVBC had a warning out that cops in Agoura and Simi are cracking down on traffic violations (both vehicles and bicycles), and mentioned that turning on a red arrow just because it won't change isn't necessarily legal. They recommend (if you have a steel bike) finding the sensor and swaying your bike back and fourth across it. I tried this at a light today when no cars were getting behind me and I think it worked! I might have found a new reason to stay with steel forever!

I've had pretty good success activating traffic signals with my bike despite a minimum of steel on the thing. Parking right over the edge of the sensor often does the trick. Extort has shown me how having a tire physically on the sensor often works, too. (Perhaps even better than trying to get what little ferrous material I have over the edge of the sensor.) I don't have a 100% success rate between those two methods, but it works most of the time.

Cool, by edge do you mean the edge closest to the intersection?

You usually can see an outline of the sensor on the road. You get right on the edge of that outline--doesn't matter which edge--rather than in the middle of the sensor. The sensors are tripped by minute changes in the electrical currents running through them. So putting a ferrous part over the edge can do the trick. Manipulating the current by pressing a tire against the sensor can do it, too.

I just carry a 10lb magnet in my shorts.

It doesn't have to be ferrous-- just conducting. The sensors will produce eddy currents in an aluminum rim and detect the resulting fields.

some lights are more stubborn then others

When making a right turn if its not changing for me, or when theres a lot of oncoming traffic, ill just hop in the cross walk from the right turn lane then cross when the light changes and continue...

It doesn't have to be ferrous-- just conducting. The sensors will produce eddy currents in an aluminum rim and detect the resulting fields.
Okay... that makes a bit better sense.

I just carry a 10lb magnet in my shorts.

yeah, me too. a 10lb chick magnet:beer:

yeah, me too. a 10lb chick magnet:beer:
Where can I get one of those? Does Performance sell them? :o

haven't seen them at performance. not that i've looked or anything...

It doesn't have to be ferrous-- just conducting. The sensors will produce eddy currents in an aluminum rim and detect the resulting fields.


Thankfully I just took an electromagnetism course last quarter so I understood what you said...lol

yeah, me too. a 10lb chick magnet:beer:

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

Someone posted this at TE a while back...

http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/signals/green.htm

Where exactly is the sensor???

If there is a particular intersection where the light won't trip, you can contact the city to adjust the sensitivity.

Where can I get one of those? Does Performance sell them? :o

Hi-Tech Bikes has them...strangely, in their "Ultra-Lightweight Parts" section. Odd.

...or get one of these. (http://www.themirt.com/) :p

...or get one of these. (http://www.themirt.com/) :p

The problem with that is that most cities around here don't have the sensors. According to a cop I know, Buena Park is the only city in OC that uses them.

I recently asked a Cypress cop if I was likely to get a ticket for blowing red left turn arrows and he told me that none of the guys he knows would bother. Only reason I asked was because I was about to run the light when I saw him coming up behind me, so I stopped.

Where exactly is the sensor???
You'll see a circle or an octagon in the asphalt, the outline being a crack or rubber strip. The light I tried this on actually has 3 of them, probably to tell how many cars are waiting.


I just carry a 10lb magnet in my shorts.
Oh, so THAT'S what that was. The gals will be disappointed.

I put my chainring directly above the outline of the sensor. Works about 80% of the time.

Cool Greg Moore tribute video. The good old days of CART.