Seems like every time I opt to stay in traffic lanes for a turn or a stoplight, instead of going to the corner and hitting the button for the crosswalk, I have to wait for a car to come and engage the traffic light sensor.

Most of them are magnetic, looking for a disturbance in their self-generated magnetic force, such as all the metal in a car or motorcycle. Bikes just aren't enough. SO, today I begin an experiment.

Where I work, we deal with out of warranty hard drives that are VERY dead. To prevent their accidental re-stocking, we dismantle them and keep the cool parts. Including some VERY powerful magnets! They are only magnetic on one side, I think their metal backing is lead impregnated or something LOL. Anyway I am going to tape or zip-tie one of these to the BB, facing downward. I'll probably just end up with lots of magnetic material sticking to it, and have to keep cleaning it LOL.

I'll report back as soon as I have results.

Actually, they are not magnetic sensors. They are inductive. Any metal works (including non-magnetic aluminum) as long as there is enough of it in the right place.

I always make sure my bottom bracket is right over the center line on these sensors and have not had any problems since doing this.

You are of course correct. Whether a strong magnet will work remains to be seen. I want to try though :-)

I too find it a hassle to get off bike and press cross-walk buttons and then get back in lane. Sometimes I need to cross a few lanes to do so. In this regard I like commuting closer to 'rush hour' than very early in morning, because then I can count on a car to set off the sensors. Actually in the three cases that bug me most it is the school traffic that helped, so with school out for the summer I find I must dismount bike more often.

Some places the city has installed a button by side of road to press, but this causes problems as well. With left turns I need to still cross straight lane. Also this button is far back from stop line and one must nearly touch curb to reach it. This puts me out of traffic lane which immediately results in getting ignored by traffic. The location this bugs me is where there is a right turn lane with no inductive sensor and I am going straight, so I must navigate thru right turning traffice to press button then get back to straight lane.

The dismounting, while annoying is a good break from riding, a bit of leg stretching from walking and a very tiny bit of upper body due to carrying bike. Yes I am focusing on the postives, not the negatives (having to walk across lanes of traffic)

The problem also with laying bike down to trigger inductive sensors is that one does not get instant feedback if it worked, even after triggering it may take some time for the pedistrian signal (the early warning of a light change) to occur.

Not sure about the magnet as relates to how the inductive sensor works. Perhaps a thick steel plate would work just as well if not better?

Al

I simply ride up to the sensor, dismount, lean my bike to the ground, bring the bike back up, wait for my light, mount and go.

Apparently its a question many have:

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/question234.htm

Have fun with your magnets, but fyi, I got a tip on a thread a few months ago. On the ground, you can usually find some seems cut into the pavement. Oftentimes, they are rectangles. I stop with my front crank over one of these seems, as Paul alludes to above, and shift the bike forward and backward, and it normally is enough to get a signal without dismounting or laying the bike down.

There's one other trick I found. I have a wireless odometer (CATEYE). I've noticed that when I'm near one of the inductor gizmos, my odometer will generate between 10 and 40 mph. This is my clue as to where I need to be.

I noticed this same thing the other day. I was stopped at a light waiting for it to change and I looked down at my Polar HRM with wireless speedometer and odometer and saw that I was allegedly going 68 mph!

Thanks for all the tips :-) If the magnet doesn't do the trick, then I'll be trying these other things. I look for the seams but around here the roads are so beat up they are hard to spot sometimes.

My biggest issue is that even if the bike, properly positioned, does trigger the sensor, there is no instant feeback. Sometime 2-3min elapses before the light changes after a car triggers them. I've tried putting the bike over, waiting, waiting for light, nothing. Other times I've put the bike in position and the light does change. At least with pushing the x-walk button I know the trigger has been made (its still a 2-3min wait, but with guaranteed results)

Al

BTW my favorite trick is to come up behind a car in the left turn lane and stop over the second set of sensors back, thus forcing a green arrow (usually it takes 3 or 4 cars to trip a green arrow but if you know where the second sensor is you can get it with one and not have to wait for holes in the traffic to turn).

Dude! You rock! Ultra cool move...now if only the car in front had a clue...there'd be more appreciation for bikes!

some signals are easy to trigger some I can't do at all. one of the streets that have bike paths have lines where to have your bike to trigger the signal. thatd a nice feature.

On one of my routes there is a road that Ts into another. There is a trip sensor about 50 feet from the T in the intersection, that trips the light green for a left turn. This is so the semi-trucks won't have to stop at that intersection. If I hit the sensor at about 18 mph I always have a green light for my turn!

"I looked down at my Polar HRM with wireless speedometer and odometer and saw that I was allegedly going 68 mph!"
This probably explains how my computer mysteriously registered a 73 MPH maximum speed when I got to work the other day. I only have 2 signals that are regularly red & there is enough traffic most days to trip them. The few times I'm alone, I just have to stand with my bike at a slight angle to trip them.

None of the sensors here can be tripped by anything less than the amount of steel found on a motorcycle or car. They are, in effect, malfunctioning when approached by any other type of vehicle. Our main street is under reconstruction, and for the duration, the signals have been put on a regular cycle, and taken off the sensors. I hope to rally my neighbors to get the lights to be left this way when the construction is done. Except for the fact that it's torn up by the construction, it's much easier/safer to cross with regularly-cycling lights.

Since bicycles are vehicles by law, then the same law implies that traffic sensors must detect all legal vehicles, which includes bicycles. Call the agency responsible for the light, report the light as not working properly. The sensitivity of these things can be set. There was the very same problem around here, until local cyclists started calling in on regular basis, reporting bad lights. Now the sensors will pick up a single cyclist, provided he gets over the wire in the pavement.

Use the law, don't fight it.

Sounds better than my solution--treating red lights as rolling stop signs when there are no cars to trip the sensors. There are so many bad signals here I have lost track. I got sick of waiting 3 minutes just to find out my light wouldn't change.

Traffic light sensors
They don't work.

By all means call your local government authority and request something be done about the non-responsive signal, but don't hold your breath. There's a particular roundabout here on the Gold Coast with a poor surface that I've been waiting nine months to be fixed. In this situation, you really shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket. In most jurisdictions, there is a law somewhere about traffic lights with non-responsive sensors, basically stating that normal give way rules apply (i.e. treat it as a stop sign). You should read up on that particular law in your area, and make sure you can quote it.

I have the same prob. with one set of lights on my way home from work, rightly or wrongly if its all clear I just jump the red & turn right with caution , if my bike does'nt trigger the lights, then I consider the lights to be faulty as a bicycle is a legal vechicle & the mech. should be adjusted to operate for all possible vech. useing the lights, anyway thats my story & I'm sticking to it !

Placing the bikes on the sensors or not never triggers the lights around here. Usually I just wait around to see if another car is coming up or I go up and press the button.

Now I can't currently find the thread but this is an ongoing discussion on a motorcycle thread I belong to as well, as modern motorcycles actually have probably about as much metal in them as bikes so triggering lights can be a huge issue. There is a magnet type product out there that many swear by as being a solution to this problem. Alternatively in some states now this problem has been recognized and law is on the books stating that after waiting a "reasonable" amount of time that an individual on a motorcycle can proceed cautiously through a red light intersection. The rub of course is the definition of "reasonable" and will a cop pull you over regardless if he just sees the aftermath of you going through a red light however cautiously. I'll try to track down the link to the product talked up on the motorcycle thread. As an aside I'm curious if everyone adhere's to red lights when on their bike as its taken for granted in Madison that if an intersection is clear a biker will go through no matter the light, I've run a light in front of many a police officer and they don't pay any attention to it.

Riley

I agree with Riley's post. Here, in Southern California on the surface streets, the cars seem to cluster and the lights get very rarely tripped by a bike. I'll wait a little, and when I determine that the light sensor is obviously ignoring me, and no cars are there to help me with tripping of the sensor, I just ride across, as soon as the car "peloton" races by. Works pretty well, easier than dealing with highway department bureaurocracy.