I had a conversation with a couple of road engineers/installers near my house the other day. They were modifying the light controller and lights at this one intersection. The intersection has not had a left turn arrow in the past, and it appears that change is being added, along with a new controller box. (this effort BTW has taken nearly a year... )

I talked to these guys as neither one of the local intersection lights will sense my bike on a consistent basis. (I have submitted requests for adjustment many times). Turns out that the old systems are from the mid '60s and are relay driven and really offer little adjustment, and as one engineer stated, "sometimes the wires are installed too deep or are not installed properly..."

The newest system they are installing is one of those vision systems. They said it would "sense a human standing in the street" (at the right spot) and trigger the light. Of course I then mentioned... "where is the right spot?"

With the sensor loops sometimes you can see the loop and put a wheel right on it. (they mentioned the "hot spot" is right on the wire loop anywhere) But sometimes these loops are paved over and are invisible... so where is the hot spot?

That is one of the key issues... small targets, bicycles, may not be in the right location, and if there is no way to see the "right location" then it doesn't much matter how good the new systems are.

When they finally get finished installing this system I am looking forward to testing it.