What to do when stuck at a light?

[mjm]

Turn the bike off, push it to the crosswalk area and across the street - then back on the street and re-start

as the @$$hole in the hummer SUV points and laughs.... sorry, not me!!!

If the @$$hole in the SUV is there the light will change - otherwise you look like, at worst, someone who has a breakdown.

[Keloran]

I've heard someone suggest that if your flash your lights (high/low/high/low etc) as you approach the intersection and it'll change the signal. Reason being, the flashing simulates an emergency vehicle arriving at an intersection and the lights have some sort of sensor to detect and change. I've never tried it.

-Kel

[R3d]

You should check your local laws.  Other than that... I've heard those thingys you buy to trip the signal work.  Or somewhere I read that if you turn off and restart your bike, that generates enough of a disturbance to trip it (not sure how true that one is).

[routeinfo]

"So if you are stuck at an intersection that isn't aware of your existence....what do you do? "

I give the metal detectors something to detect. When I'm over the detector area, usually a square or eight sided cutout in the lane before the limit lines, I reach back with my left foot and push the centerstand to the pavement and hold it there a few seconds then move and do it again until I find a spot that triggers the signal. On my small bikes I put the sidestand down for a moment. As a rule I am left of center in a controled left turn lane and I have found that by puting a stand down near the inside of the cutout I can often trigger the signal.

[wasabi_peas]

The emergency vehicle trigger, I believe, works on a specific frequency of strobe light.  The chances of you getting that frequency and duty cycle correct approach 0.

I have the same problem on my bicycle, and there seem to be two main situations:

- I'm there, but there are NO cars around to trigger (wait a cycle, then go)
- I'm there, and there are cars to trigger.  (try to convince car behind me to move forward, an act usually involving lots of pointing at the pavement behind me, smiling, giving them the universal "move forward, goober!" hand signals, etc.  Amazing how many people just won't move--it's as though they suspect I'm trying to get them to run over a cat or something....)

In the exceedingly unlikely situation where you're trying to enter a busy road but have no traffic on the cross-street, it might be worth preventing a ticket to hop off and hit the pedestrian button.

But when there's nobody around, there's probably nobody to give you a ticket.  

If a cop did pull you over, you could always offer to demonstrate the lack of response to your bike.  Ask them who to contact about the sensor.... Show them you're concerned and responsible, and I think they'll treat you fairly.

[Rema1000]

My city website shows an email address to report lights that don't trip; it took them about 2 weeks to fix the one by my house that wouldn't trip for bikes (faster than I can get my washer fixed by Sears).

Try making a list, prioritizing and reporting one every couple of weeks.  (I suspect that if you just reported 20 lights at once, nothing would happen... and this comes from a professional tester!).

[jgary]

Magnets improved my light change rate dramatically.  Not every light, but a lot of them, worked for me.

John.

[Skim]

someone told me if you turn off and restart your bike thing it triggers something and causes the sensors to pick up the bike.   electromagnet something .. i honestly forgot what they said.  anyone ever hear of this?

[raindrift]

I found this really awesome article a while ago that explains how the sensors work and where to sit on the different kinds to activate them properly.  It's for bicyclists, but it still applies:

http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/signals/green.htm

There's a link at the bottom to a really nice paper that explains how the sensors work in great detail.

Oh, and in California, it's legal to run a red light when the signal is malfunctioning.  I think you're supposed to sit there for something ridiculous like 5 minutes before running it, though.  Still, "um, I wasn't wearing a watch, and it seemed like a really long time," could maybe be a reasonable defense (IANAL).

I like the centerstand idea.  I'll have to try that one.

[glenn9171]

jgary is right.  I put magnets on the center stand cross-bar.  It worked for all of the lights that have the sensors in the road surface.  100% recommended.

[John Bates]

I agree. This is an excellent reference for traffic signals.  I think all bikers should read this:

raindrift said:

"I found this really awesome article a while ago that explains how the sensors work and where to sit on the different kinds to activate them properly. It's for bicyclists, but it still applies:

http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/signals/green.htm

There's a link at the bottom to a really nice paper that explains how the sensors work in great detail."