Originally Posted by
gerv
I read somewhere that you should cross the frontmost (north) side of the square. Are you saying I would have more success crossing either the west or east side of the square??? Your "Reader's Digest" article seems to indicate this...
If you follow the blue lines in the above picture with your bike wheel your chances of tripping the light are much higher. The wheel has to be almost directly over the wires because the magnetic field is weak. If you ride over the red lines, you are only breaking the magnetic field momentarily and the electronics just sees that as noise.
Cars trip the signal because their entire frame covers the whole magnetic field and so sensitivity isn't an issue.