DallasSoxFan

I can shrug off the close buzzes, the potential right-hooks, and lots of other stuff. I understand that there is rarely malicious intent and when there is that is nothing I can do anything about.

The one thing that bugs me happened last night. I was in the front of the line at a red-light that uses an induction coil which my bike won't trip (I've called and complained about sensitivity, tried magnets, put the bike directly over every place I can think of, etc.) It is also around a blind curve crossing a 50MPH parkway, so i can't just run it. The car behind me, trying to be considerate, gave a 3 car buffer behind me, with all of the other cars stacked up behind him and thus no heavy steel over the coil. I turned around and waved the car to pull forward, but I got the "You're okay, don't mind me" wave in return. We all had to wait literally 5 minutes until a car came from the opposite direction to trip the light on the other side.

M_S

That bugs me too. I think it's interesting that the only people I know who seem to realize this is how many lights are tripped are cyclists.

Glynis27

Since you were there for 5 minutes, why didn't you go back and talk to the guy and let him know the deal?

frpax

That's what I would have done.

CliftonGK1

I've had a similar issue, with it ending up two lights down the road having to explain the "malfunctioning signal" law to the driver.

Driver won't get close enough to trip the light, my bike won't trip the light, so I waited until it was clear and made my left turn. Two lights down the way, the driver ended up in traffic next to me, rolled down his window and said "You really should wait for the signal to change." So I had to explain that we could have sat there until the following morning and that signal never would have changed. He had the "Hrm. Learn something new every day" look after I told him about the law regarding malfunctioning signals and legal left-on-red turns.

Standalone 

it amazes me that people do not figure out how lights work, with all the driving that they do. I mean, don't lab animals learn stuff like that in experiments? "push the black square to get a treat, orange circle to get an electric shock..." not too different from "when your car goes over the funny little lines in the pavement, the magic light changes color..."

rumrunn6

yeah I hear ya. sometimes I move way over to the right and then wave them on and point like I'm a cop telling them where to go, and then I point to the light and point to where they should pull up to. this always seems to work. I guess there are some people that are just not aware of these sensors.

I had a situation today where the sensors must have been frozen or something and I eventually just ran the light - which was OK today cuz traffic was light but any other day would have been impossible

ItsJustMe

I've had to get out and walk up and talk to the person in the car in front of my car before. We have lights at expressway cloverleafs here where there are a lot of trucks (3 truck stops on the same corner for one of them) and the trucks need a lot of space. Thing is, the intersection is DESIGNED with a ton of space - the stop lines are way back, the road is 5 wide lanes wide, the intersection is a good 120 feet across. But once in a while somebody will stop 50 feet back from the already far back stop line "to be nice to the trucks"

And at the offramp to a cloverleaf, there IS nobody on the other side to trigger it. After 3 minutes and the entire offramp was full of cars, I finally got out, rapped on the guy's window, and said "if you don't pull up onto that sensor, that light will never change." We were rolling 20 seconds later.

As RumRunn above says, the person wasn't aware that there was such a thing as a sensor on a light. No idea how someone can drive a car these days and not know that lights have sensors.

neil

I assume you've tried tipping the bike sideways, as well? I only have one sensor that I'm aware of on my regular route, and that's all I have to do. Both bikes are steel, though.

But yeah. 5 minutes means walking back and talking to the guy. That's just silly.

DallasSoxFan

The problem with walking back and talking with the guy is that the sensor is also used to go back to red. In other words, if the light did change, it would go back to red. There also was a steady stream of people coming up to the intersection and making rights on red, not tripping the signal, but giving me hope.

genec

I've run into this situation many times also... many of the roads I use are high speed arterial roads, so not smart just running them.

I often try to signal the motorist to move forward... One of the more frustrating situations occurred when I was in a left turn only lane, and unable to trigger the light and I tried to get the motorist to move forward. Well he was having nothing to do with communicating with some crazy cyclist. For the most part he simply ignored me... and then ultimately he drove into the oncoming traffic lane (light was red, so no on coming traffic) and drove around me, running the light. He made it, but just.

The driver never got a clue as to what I wanted him to do... which was just pull forward.

Some folks just don't get it.

genec

Just goes to show that some drivers don't even pass the "lab rat" test.

rumrunn6

...

jeffpoulin

Even easier would be to dismount, walk the bike behind the car waiting behind you, then let them pull up to the front.

DallasSoxFan

DOH! I'll do exactly that next time.

Mos6502

When this happens to me, I get off my bike, walk to the corner and press the crossing button.

The problem is then made perfectly clear to the driver behind without having to say a word, and you've gotten the light set up to change.

Urban Turkey

The thing that really bugs me is a variation on this. The driver pulls forward way past the "stop" line and into the crosswalk. In some cases they can pull forward enough to not trip the light. At least in the OP's example the guy was trying to be nice. Why you have to be 6 feet closer to the light I don't know. It's also inconsiderate and dangerous for pedestrians as well.

Doohickie

I had a weird situation last night. I was at a T-intersection, on the road that ended. I was making a left turn, in the lane, etc., and there was a car in the right turn lane. She apparently did understand about cars tripping lights and all that because she waited.... and waited.... and waited.... trying to get the light to turn so I could do my left turn. The signal cycles twice to allow motorists to turn left onto the street I was coming from. And still the lady waited (even though the left turn signal for the other road protects her right turn). Finally when it changed the third time to allow left turns onto the street I was leaving, I waited for the car to turn, then snuck out after him (against a red light). The lady made her right turn. The light never did change. :\

rumrunn6

this morning, since there was no traffic, I stopped in the middle of a lane at a light on Route 20 in Sudbury - I am usually on the right side. I usually have to wait for a car to pull up before the light changes. I was fully prepared to run the red when I had a chance. but I think since I was in the lane - the sensor "saw" me cuz as soon as I pulled up and stopped, the lighting sequence began changing and off I went! can bike sreally set these off?

ItsJustMe

It's common around here for impatient people to creep forward on red lights so far that when it does turn green, they're too far out into the intersection to see it, and they wind up sitting there even longer until someone behind them honks.

This sort of thing from drivers scares me if I think about the amount of brains they're clearly not using while driving. Best not to think about it.

ItsJustMe

Sure, in fact they're SUPPOSED to be set to detect bikes. If they don't, they're not adjusted right. Most are not adjusted right. But certainly they can.

In fact you can trigger most lights if you put your rim right on the correct spot in the sensor.

crazybikerchick

Besides the hassle of getting off your bike and no longer being in a good position to start up from, many signal-trip lights don't have pedestrian crossing buttons. Particular on high-speed no-sidewalk roads.

paul2432

The one light like this on my commute actually has a bicycle painted on the bike lane with white rectangles indicating where to put your wheels. It works fine.

Paul

tjspiel

There's one long light on my commute where I do that frequently. Cars don't even seem to trip it consistently. I've had drivers both roll down their window to thank me and roll down their window to ask if I would hit the button.

Jtgyk

I just loop around behind the car and let him trip the sensor. I've don't even try to get them to move forward any more.