Cross walk button comes to cyclists?
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ps2lc6ifst.jpg
This is near where I live on University Ave SE and 6th St in Minneapolis, MN.

Anyone have these around Minneapolis or anywhere else for that matter? I saw some light construction around this area but this was all of a sudden there. The road it is on is considered a bike blvd. It used to have a small bike sensor there that if you sat your bike over it it would change the light.

On one of the busier thoroughfares with newly constructed wide bike lanes there is a bike crossing signal. Not only that, but you have to cross in two stages. No longer can you make a turn on the left turn lane (because of the number of turning vehicles, including double buses, at all the intersections, and a bike would just be a nuisance to the motorists); you have to cross each road separately. But they give you a painted rectangle at the corner so you can sit there to wait for the second light. Stupidest thing I've ever seen.

Million dollar question. Does anyone actually use it?

The Sabo cycling/pedestrian bridge over Hiawatha has a cross walk at one end that crosses over 30th (I believe it's 30th) and leads to the Greenway.

There's a button you can press that will activate an overhead signal but I've never seen anyone actually press it.

There's an intersection on my commute that has one of these and I think it's awful, mostly because of the placement. It's about three-quarters of a car length back from where cars stop at the intersection (Google Street View for the curious: https://goo.gl/maps/hYbfF8qdCkD2). Probably 75 percent of the cars that use the right lane at this intersection are turning right. Because of the way the curb is constructed for the right turn, a bicyclist has to effectively leave the traffic lane to push the button, and if a car arrives while you're doing it you're stuck in that no-man's-land between the curb and the traffic lane. It feels unsafe to me. If I get to the intersection with no cars ahead of me, I try to approach the button at an extreme angle so that my rear wheel sticks out into the traffic lane, but that usually doesn't stop cars from going around me and then hugging the curb for their right turn.

The worst part is that this particular light is triggered by camera rather than induction loop and it doesn't pick up bicycles very well, but if I complain to the county they tell me I should push the button. If the button weren't there I could probably get them to adjust the sensitivity of the camera.

There are a couple of intersections on my commute where I used to roll onto the sidewalk and press the pedestrian button. But they now have cameras that pick up my bike. But I still have intersections where during rush hour I ride up onto the sidewalk and use the crosswalk after pressing the button just because some drivers be crazy and stuff.

Where I live, Its No Big Effort to go where the Button Is, and push it and re cross the sidewalk to be pointed the right direction, ready to go,
before the light changes.

I also have the sequence of 1 _ 5 way intersection pretty well figured out so can go with the flow..

I would personally love those.

Not that I condone this, but there are one or two intersections in town that I'll stop at the light, wait a few seconds and if no one is coming, just go. The light will never detect me and the last time I checked, the crosswalk button didn't work, so there's no use in me trying. (The buttons often freeze here in the winter.)

they seem to put the pedestrian buttons on the wrong side of the sidewalk, so using them is really inconvenient. Probably because nobody can drive around here and they would be taken out by some texting student

Is there any legal requirement for a cyclist to press a pedestrian button? I don't think there is.

I do wish all the sensors would detect my bike though. I don't like going on red even if it is legal. I'd use a ped button if it was convenient.

They are common on the bike routes in Vancouver and surrounding areas. The ones around here are very convenient and generally trip the lights immediately or in short order.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.21696...!5m1!1e3?hl=en

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...hmentid=491592

Portland has them on the bike thoroughfare SE Salmon (or it may be Taylor that far east) where it crosses 39th Ave, a very busy street. At rush hour they are a real help.

Ben

Stupid. Just, no. If traffic engineers really respected bikes and cyclists as actual traffic, they would set up signal detectors to work for cyclists, instead of putting a BS button over at the side. If I'm going straight or turning left, and the pole on the corner with the button is 25-30 feet away, no way am I going to risk trying to move laterally in front of other vehicles trying to turn right, just so I can hit a button, then try to get back over to where I was. Or worse, try to cross at or near the actual crosswalk only to have to re-negotiate my way back into the traffic lane on the other side, or do the same thing over again to make a "box" left turn.

But no, obviously they don't care about cyclists and instead just take this ridiculous shortcut way out, and expect that to be sufficient.

The whole thing is idiotic.

The only place where I have used such a device while on my bike is where a bike path (MUP) crosses a few busy roads, one of them being off-limits to cyclists according to the signage. That's the only place IMHO where these are justified.

Exactly!

QUOTE=PatrickGSR94;18366507]... The only place where I have used such a device while on my bike is where a bike path (MUP) crosses a few busy roads, one of them being off-limits to cyclists according to the signage. That's the only place IMHO where these are justified.[/QUOTE]

That nearly describes the situation I described above. Taylor and Salmon are quiet residential streets but bicycle highways that cross the 4 lane Caesar Chavez Avenue. At rush hour a huge pain to cross in a car. The bike buttons are right beside the street, easily reachable without putting your foot down (although you are going to have to unless you can trackstand for a while).

This setup encourages bikes but not cars to use the street. (Cars cannot activate anything. It is stop sign only for them. So when CC Ave is busy, it could be a long wait unless there are bikes!

Ben

That nearly describes the situation I described above. Taylor and Salmon are quiet residential streets but bicycle highways that cross the 4 lane Caesar Chavez Avenue. At rush hour a huge pain to cross in a car. The bike buttons are right beside the street, easily reachable without putting your foot down (although you are going to have to unless you can trackstand for a while).

This setup encourages bikes but not cars to use the street. (Cars cannot activate anything. It is stop sign only for them. So when CC Ave is busy, it could be a long wait unless there are bikes!

Ben[/QUOTE]

Well I was referring more to larger streets that both get regular traffic, although this one street I'm crossing in the afternoon has much more traffic, and the traffic from my direction is next to nothing (traffic opposite me is much more). I only get a green if there are other cars going straight with me, which often there are not. Left and right turning traffic do not activate the green light. There are no crosswalks or signals there, and no sidewalks, and the traffic light pole on the corner is very far away. So if there were a button I would not want to move across right-turning traffic in the RTO lane to try to push it.

We've got them all over the place, generally with bike lanes, and I use them quite regularly. What I dislike is when I have to climb onto a sidewalk to get to one, but they're generally fine on the street side.

A few streets now have those little diamonds, maybe 1' x 1' for bike specific sensors, which seem to also work without pressing the button. Usually placed at the intersection, so much for catching a bike on the fly (cars often have them 50 or 100 feet before the intersection so it can activate the light cycle before they arrive at the intersection).

I suppose my biggest problem is when I encounter those buttons on the Rosa Parks/Pioneer Parkway median strip MUP. I'd like to go when the traffic gets a green light, and activate them on the roll, say 50 feet before the intersection. But, as it is, to get the crosswalk to activate, I have to stop, push the button, and if I'm late in the cycle, wait for a full light cycle. I sometimes go by the traffic pattern. If I have traffic moving (green lights) on both sides of me, then there is no cross traffic.

We have one of those in Marina del Rey.

In Santa Monica they have additional sensor wires imbedded in the road in the bike lane with a "Stop Here" notation.

I have not noticed that they make the light change any faster, tho...

Well I was referring more to larger streets that both get regular traffic, although this one street I'm crossing in the afternoon has much more traffic, and the traffic from my direction is next to nothing (traffic opposite me is much more). I only get a green if there are other cars going straight with me, which often there are not. Left and right turning traffic do not activate the green light. There are no crosswalks or signals there, and no sidewalks, and the traffic light pole on the corner is very far away. So if there were a button I would not want to move across right-turning traffic in the RTO lane to try to push it.[/QUOTE]

That type intersection should have a bike sensor that is marked (and placed there you really should put your bike to be going straight.) Portland does that in some places.

Ben

Sometimes on the MUP, I'll just catch the post, balance with the post, then push off it when I get the cross light.

Indeed, a motion-based sensor would be even better. But my town doesn't do anything for cyclists. At the location I mentioned, if there are no other vehicles going straight I would *NEVER* get a green light, ever.

Huh, haven't seen them around before, but I'd certainly push it, just like the ped button, if it's convenient from the street. I guess I don't run into many situations where the light has NO sensors and I can't get it to turn green after a spell. I do like the University Transitway sensors, since they catch a bike/bus hundreds of feet before the intersection there's usually no slowing down you have to do once you get there :)