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Traffic Signals Not Changing

7K views 63 replies 36 participants last post by  jimmyangst 
#1 ·
I did a search for this topic but didn't find anything. If something has been posted please re-direct me.

My route to work includes turning left onto a divided road. I have no choice but to wait for a car to pull up or go through the red. My DL1000 does not trip lights! Has anyone tried the products sold that are basically big magnets you glue to the bottom of your bike? I have heard some use a stack of 2" washers and it works. I was thinking of a big old speaker magnet if I can find one.

I know this fine group of folks will have some home made plan for me!
 
#2 ·
You don't actually need a magnet, the induction loops are just looking for a mass of metal. My 650 triggers them all the time, but I am in a bike aware city, where people can ride year round.

If you look at the information here, it's likely that the loop is just not sensitive enough to trigger, to avoid "false triggers". I would suggest calling traffic control and having them adjust it. The other is to try not going right over the center of the loop, but go over the left side - it's what our instructors told us to do during my MC training. Perhaps they are attuned to looking for a bike on the left side of the loop - I don't think so, but it is worth a shot.

Aside from that, yeah - temporarily add metal mass to the bike? I wouldn't do it, but I dno't have your frustration.
 
#3 ·
First I would call the traffic control number for that particular stop light. There is usually a box near the structure to hold the light that houses the controller and these usually have a phone number and a code to signify that exact light. Call them and tell them you are having problems with the light acknowledging you and that you understand they can adjust that.

Also take a moment to look up your states laws on proceeding through an intersection when that intersection won't give you a green or protected green to legally turn. Most states have a law on the books where if you sit through 2-3 red light cycles and your lane does not get the "green", you may proceed through the intersection if there in no traffic danger.
 
#4 ·
One thing you can do with the lights with Loop sensors is to stop on the left line (as mentioned by ommoran) and then hold down your centerstand with your left foot. The metal mass closer to the wires seems to help trip some of the less sensitive sensors.

I routinely contact the municipalities to let them know about reactant sensors. Most around here are pretty good at adjusting things when they hear of issues and want my feedback after it's done.

..Tom
 
#9 ·
One complete light cycle is my limit.

Your motorcycle is a street legal vehicle. If the light won't trigger for whatever reason it's non-op.

Sure you might have to argue with a LEO but if you're reasonable you shouldn't get a ticket.
I mean really what's the alternative sit there until a car shows up or leave you bike sitting by itself while you go push the pedestrian button?
 
#11 ·
Do not fall for the magnet scam - they don't work.
Someone did a test long ago and even the rare earth magnets didn't faze the loops.
My strategy is I roll forward and motion the cage behind me to move up so their mass can trigger it. No cagers I consider it a case of "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there does it make a sound" sort of issue.
 
#15 ·
Every morning for me. Tomorrow I will try the center stand trick and aim a bit to the left of center.
Thanks.
 
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#21 ·
Stop on the edge of the sensor that's where it's most sensitive.

No way I'm getting off my bike at an intersection (to put it on the center stand) or taking it out of gear either. You can't have the Strom in gear and the side stand down right?

I've tried to motion cars up when I'm not triggering the light. Some get it. Some are oblivious and just sit there.
 
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#16 ·
Run it and forget about it.:punk:

BTW, if you get off your bike and leave it running while you trot over to push the pedestrian walk button, you're probably committing another ticket-able offense: something like leaving an unattended vehicle in the roadway. Can't win.....just go!

..............shu
 
#17 ·
Centre stand trick works well for me.

I called about one particular light a few years ago and they offered to send a guy out to the intersection during my morning commute to calibrate the sensor to my bike.

What's amazing to me is the number of car drivers who seem absolutely oblivious to how a light senses traffic. There is one intersection on my commute where the loop is situated in such a way that the first vehicle at the intersection is often stopped after the loop and the second car stopped before it. Of course, the light doesn't change and they have no idea why.

I used to work as a driving instructor and the company's curriculum taught that a driver approaching a red light should hang back a couple of car lengths to provide for an escape route should someone try to rear-end them. When I pointed out that this was silly, given that the odds of being rear-ended increase with the length of time spent stopped, he just gave me a blank stare. He had no idea that that light would remain red until such a time as he pulled forward onto the sensor loop (or someone coming towards him triggered the sensor on the other side of the intersection). I suppose, to some, the world is a great mystery.
 
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#22 ·
You don't have to get off the bike and put the bike on the centerstand. You just have to push down on the stand while you are on the bike until the stand hits the road. (The idea is to get the metal closer to the wires to give the system more chance to sense your presence. )

I think doing the center stand is much safer and easier than side stand since I just stop normally in first with my clutch lever pulled in. The only thing different from normal stopping is I use my right foot to hold me up and push down on the centerstand with my left foot. I am always ready to take off if a car coming up behind is threatening and I just take my foot off the stand and it goes up.

..Tom
 
#24 ·
One particular very busy intersection will not give a green light to proceed straight through if it doesn't sense a vehicle. A number of times I've been first in line and the car behind is too far back. As mentioned, trying to wave someone up closer has mixed results, and most times of the day it would never be safe to proceed through. So usually now I'll just make a right turn (right on red here anyway) and then a left (not at a light) to get back on track.

BTW, it would take a heck of a stack of washers to make a significant difference in the mass of a 500 pound bike.
 
#25 ·
From Wikipedia: "Vehicle detection loops, called inductive-loop traffic detectors, can detect vehicles passing or arriving at a certain point, for instance approaching a traffic light or in motorway traffic. An insulated, electrically conducting loop is installed in the pavement. The electronics unit transmits energy into the wire loops at frequencies between 10 kHz to 200 kHz, depending on the model. The inductive-loop system behaves as a tuned electrical circuit in which the loop wire and lead-in cable are the inductive elements. When a vehicle passes over the loop or is stopped within the loop, the vehicle induces eddy currents in the wire loops, which decrease their inductance. The decreased inductance actuates the electronics unit output relay or solid-state optically isolated output, which sends a pulse to the traffic signal controller signifying the passage or presence of a vehicle. Parking structures for automobiles may use inductive loops to track traffic (occupancy) in and out or may be used by access gates or ticketing systems to detect vehicles while others use Parking guidance and information systems. Railways may use an induction loop to detect the passage of trains past a given point, as an electronic treadle.

"The relatively crude nature of the loop's structure means that only metal masses above a certain size are capable of triggering the relay. This is good in that the loop does not thus produce very many "false positive" triggers (say, for example, by a pedestrian crossing the loop with a pocket full of loose metal change) but it sometimes also means that bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles stopped at such intersections may never be detected by them (and therefore risk being ignored by the switch/signal). Most loops can be manually adjusted to consistently detect the presence of scooters and motorcycles at the least."


Any conductor works. Steel, iron, aluminum, carbon. The inductive loop needs to be calibrated to the mass of the metal above it for the system to work correctly. I've had a local sensor adjusted by the highway department after an email to them. It's a problem after the street is repaved and the new pavement covers the lines. We can't find the lines to stop on them, and the added thickness of the new pavement decreases the sensitivity of the loop.

I'm not sure the left line of the detector is more sensitive that other lines. Try anything. I've read somewhere that if you can stop on the center line, that's the most sensitive. Do try to stop lined up on any of the lines.
 
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#27 ·
Nope, didn't work. Today an oncoming car pulled up and triggered the system before I gave it the gun and ran the red. But I like the post above a couple spots telling me WI approved such system circumvention. Good thing too, since a store just opened up on the corner there and I can just see the cops getting their coffee and donuts, then spotting me...
 
#28 ·
I have one T intersection that won't change. I blow it all of the time and make a left turn on red. I had a sheriff behind me with about three other cars one time. They know the issue. If you are stopped, it isn't changing, and there are no other vehicles at the intersection we are good to go.
 
#34 ·
I also have a few lights on my route like this. I have tried going over the middle of the loop. And over the actual loop iteself. Neither works. At one light, i know enough to pull over before and wait for a car. At the other, i wait a bit then run the light. I dont like either option. O well.

Putting my stand down will shut off the engine. I don't want to try that.

Waving the car behind me has gotten me strange looks like i need directions and then pull next to me!
 
#36 ·
...

Putting my stand down will shut off the engine. I don't want to try that.
...
Putting your **side** stand down will kill the motor ((**if** the bike is in gear.) Doing so with the centerstand will **not** kill the motor.

..Tom
 
#37 ·
This conversation would not be complete with at least one person pointing out how idiotic 90% of these systems are in the first place. Imagine the initial resources and ongoing maintenance and electricity wasted by constructing not just the sensors, but the traffic light systems themselves. I live in Iowa. Obviously, our major roadways need controlled intersections. However, particularly after a certain time in the evening, I would say 80+% of these lights can be switched to flashing yellows or flashing yellow for a major roadway and flashing red for the crossing minor roadway.

How many times have you been cruising down the road, only to see a random car just pull up to some small side road, causing the light to change in front of you, so you have to come to a stop from 50 miles an hour, so one car could make a right turn. Then you wait at the light, with no cars around, until another car finally does come along, but then he gets stopped at the light so you can proceed. What a waste of taxpayer resources. I know that they want us to think that these sensors and light-metered interstate entrances are an exact science, but me… not so much.
 
#38 ·
Yep, one of my pet peeves (why are nearly all of my pet peeves related to driving?). Usually happens a couple of times at 7:45 Sunday morning on the way to church, sometimes they just change with no sign of a vehicle on the crossroad. I've started looking around and going on through if there's no one in sight.
 
#39 · (Edited)
I can readily imagine the following scenario, which has not happened ... yet.
(My purpose here is to make sure you know the answer to #5 below.)

1. I stop where the sensor should notice my bike, but it doesn't.

2. I wait long enough, then go through the intersection safely, bothering nobody.

3. A LEO stops me and threatens to charge me with going through a red light.

4. I explain 1 and 2 and say I think the equipment malfunctioned,
so I properly treated it as a STOP sign, etc.

5. The LEO orders me to put the bike back where the sensor didn't notice it, to prove my case.

The answer to number 5 is a polite refusal, because we are not obliged to help a LEO on a fishing expedition. If the LEO is adamant and issues a ticket, suggest the LEO make a record of the order and your refusal, because he or she will need to recount it in full detail when cross-examined at your hearing.

Good luck!
Keith
 
#40 ·
I can readily imagine the following scenario, which has hot happened ... yet.
(My purpose here is to make sure you know the answer to #5 below.)

1. I stop where the sensor should notice my bike, but it doesn't.

2. I wait long enough, then go through the intersection safely, bothering nobody.

3. A LEO stops me and threatens to charge me with going through a red light.

4. I explain 1 and 2 and say I think the equipment malfunctioned,
so I properly treated it as a STOP sign, etc.

5. The LEO orders me to put the bike back where the sensor didn't notice it, to prove my case.

The answer to number 5 is a polite refusal, because we are not obliged to help a LEO on a fishing expedition. If the LEO is adamant and issues a ticket, suggest the LEO make a record of the order and your refusal, because he or she will need to recount it in full detail when cross-examined at your hearing.

Good luck!
Keith
Wait........what? good grief, it's a misdemeanor traffic citation. Take it to court and prove your case. If you loose...ride on, if you win, you have bragging rights:thumbup:

Now don't get me started on the traffic cameras that completely ignore the 6th amendment..................
 
#41 ·
Our state supreme court struck down the traffic cameras as well a few years ago and had to issue refunds to all ticketed within the prior 90 days. lol They had to find some other way to make money. I thought they were gone in most states?
 
#42 ·
If I don't trigger a sensor (which happens often living in a metropolitan area) I wait an appropriate time limit, check both ways, make sure it's safe, then I do what I gotta. Never been pulled, if I do I'll explain to the Leo, if I get a ticket, I'll explain to the judge. In my experience, if you're not on a sport bike, not accelerating hard, or otherwise doing dangerous shit, the lawman disregards you.
 
#43 ·
I'm able to trigger the sensor with my bicycle. Yup, no kidding. The trick is to position the frame over one of the sides of the loop running parallel to the directing of travel and then rock the frame of the bike back and forth over it.

I ride my bicycle a lot in town and have found that this works at most intersections with the loop detectors. One tone I was behind a group of cars Where the Front car did not pull far enough to get over the loop and we all sat through two cycles. I swing around to the Front of the lone, rocked my bike back and forth over the loop and the light turned green.



Sent from my LGUS991 using Tapatalk
 
#58 ·
I'm able to trigger the sensor with my bicycle. Yup, no kidding. The trick is to position the frame over one of the sides of the loop running parallel to the directing of travel and then rock the frame of the bike back and forth over it....
In Lafayette, IN, I was able to regularly trigger the light nearest my house on a bicycle, no rocking needed. When traffic was light, the red changed to green without me needing to stop. The intersection didn't get false signals, either.
 
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