Stoplight won't trigger at an intersection. Solutions?

bikejock

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Nov 25, 2014
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I'm sure allot of us have been in this situation. I am currentily getting used to riding in traffic on my 4 stroke bike. I was at a couple of intersections and pretty much every one of the stoplights wouldn't go from red to green unless I was behind a car. Around my area on some of my routs I'm required to use the road because of the lack of bike lanes on some streets. What are my solutions for allowing my motorized bike to trigger stoplights?
 
Well.....your options are limited. One thing you can do is to spot the sensor mounted in the road and make sure you park yourself right on top of it. Or slalom slowly over it. This sometimes helps.

On one spot where I have a similar issue I'll often get a 'left' arrow because of cars coming at me and turning left. What I'll do there is to turn my front wheel full left or right, as a signal to those cars that I'm waiting for them, and then I'll go when the last of them has gone through. This is not strictly legal, of course. But I figure I can get away with it.

One other possibility is to contact the municipal road dept and ask them to adjust that light so that it's sensitive enough for a bicycle. I've never done this because I kinda expect to be ignored. But I'm probably wrong about that. I'm sure some places will ignore. But I'm also sure that some places would pay attention.
 
This will depend a lot on where you are and how much you can get away with flying under the radar as a 'cyclist'.
When I get to one of those on a bike, skateboard or other implement not huge-o-riffic enough to trigger the sensor, I usually just wait until the coast is clear and then run the light, which will not change, regardless of how much I slalom, where I position myself or how often I petition Crook Central, aka City Hall.
 
used to happen when I rode motorcycles - some states have a law that 'if the light fails to change one can drive through the red with caution' - other states have a 'right turn on red law' so you could make a right, then a u turn, then another right
 
used to happen when I rode motorcycles - some states have a law that 'if the light fails to change one can drive through the red with caution' -
other states have a 'right turn on red law' so you could make a right, then a u turn, then another right

I have lights like that here.

Other than trying to stop hard on the sensor, I either do the the Right Turn, U turn thing, or just put the kickstand down and go push the Walk button.
 
I usually just run it when the coast is clear. most states allow you to run a malfunctioning light.
 
One idea I'm thinking about is somehow hook a neodymium magnet somewhere up to the bike. Did some research on how most traffic lights work and it has something to do with a magnetic field and censors.

There was a company called veloloop trying to make a device specifically for bicycles & motorcycles to allow them to trigger traffic lights but haven't heard much about development and distribution of the device this year. I think a migshift neodymium magnet setup would basically be the same thing as much as I would like to have a veloloop device on my bike my options are to make a migshift version of the veloloop.
 
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Is that the same as a rare earth magnet? Rare earth magnets will also trigger the sensors.
 
Is that the same as a rare earth magnet? Rare earth magnets will also trigger the sensors.

Neodymium is a rare earth magnet so it should work. Might have to wire it up to a battery unless all I would need to do is hook it to the bike somewhere.

My transmission clutch bell housing broke off yesterday so I won't be able to test this until I get it fixed. I found a neodymium magnet for around $6. Should work after I get my bike fixed.
 
my riding shoes have a neodymium magnet embedded in the bottom, but a lot of the problematic lights around here are triggered by motion detectors.
 
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