Stop Lights

I feel like such a noob asking this, but what do you guys do when you pull up to a stop light and your bike isn't heavy enough to set off the sensor? I've been having this happen to me a lot lately and so I thought I'd get some advice from the source of all my motorcycle knowledge (you guys ). Typically I try to wait for a car to pull up on the sensor across from me or someone to come up behind me, but that doesn't always happen. In those situations I just wait for traffic to clear, double check for the po-po and then pull out anyways. Once (this is when I was an ultra n00b and I was really scared of pretty much everything) I jumped off my bike and punched the cross walk button:Im With Stupid:.

Hi There, I am A real Noob But picked up some good advice in my road riding course that might help....

up here in Kelowna we have lights which are vehicle activated,
The way this is done is with an electromagnetic field(metal detector)
this is what is used in most places these days,

It is identifiebla as a buried wire is embeded in the pavement about 3 ft back from the stop line,intended stop point .

This can be either a circle,square or diamond shape layout and can usualy be seen as a different fill material above the wire.

any how this is great for cars trucks etc as they have their largest metal mass directly over the sensor wires when pulled up to the stop sign.

For motorcycles much smaller mass this is not usually the case.

the best solution is to stop with the bike covering as much of the wire as possibe, not the center of the circle or diamond but rather over as much of the perimeter,or edge of the sensor as possible,

this seems to work for me in my area and may be similar situation where you are.

Les.

i just go anyways, run the red, but i'm a bit european like that.

most of the lights around here change but, if they don't, I treat them like a stop sign.

Yep legally, if a light does not work properly it is to be treated as a stop sign.

Sit right over the wire, and turn you engine off with the kill switch. Turn it back on and start the engine. The wire (in ground) will pick up the electromagnetic field from the starter, and make the light change. Works everytime...

Gbusch said:

Sit right over the wire, and turn you engine off with the kill switch. Turn it back on and start the engine. The wire (in ground) will pick up the electromagnetic field from the starter, and make the light change. Works everytime...

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I'll give that a shot next time, I've never heard of that. :thumbup:

Yes, haven't heard of that one yet either. Makes me want to go hop on my bike and test it out. Maybe that's why that Motorcycle cop kept killing his bike when we were stopped at a traffic light.

This is an older thread but I've been running into lots of problems with this lately. If a light doesn't turn in Illinois, you cannot treat it as a stop sign (I called the police to verify this). I try to roll over the sensor lines but sometimes just can't get it to change. Depending on the intersection and time of day, I can be waiting over 10 minutes before a car pulls up behind me to change the light... I've only waited this long once and I now just make a right turn and turn around (very annoying sometimes). I've read in some other forums that putting your side stand down or revving your engine works (I haven't done these... have any of you?).

I've also found this product - The Green Light Trigger... have any of you used something like this? Does it work?

Thanks

-Taso

tasop7 said:

This is an older thread but I've been running into lots of problems with this lately. If a light doesn't turn in Illinois, you cannot treat it as a stop sign (I called the police to verify this). I try to roll over the sensor lines but sometimes just can't get it to change. Depending on the intersection and time of day, I can be waiting over 10 minutes before a car pulls up behind me to change the light... I've only waited this long once and I now just make a right turn and turn around (very annoying sometimes). I've read in some other forums that putting your side stand down or revving your engine works (I haven't done these... have any of you?).

I've also found this product - The Green Light Trigger... have any of you used something like this? Does it work?

Thanks

-Taso

Click to expand...

Here's another older thread with more discussion. I don't think we have a definitive answer to the issue yet, though.
http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-general-discussion/5537-how-trip-damn-traffic-light.html

SirIsaac said:

Here's another older thread with more discussion. I don't think we have a definitive answer to the issue yet, though.
http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-general-discussion/5537-how-trip-damn-traffic-light.html

Click to expand...

I didn't see this thread... thanks!

-Taso

I recently emailed the RCMP on this and here is the response

August 14th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

I was wondering about Red Lights, some lights change when they detect a car parked over the loop in the pavement. I have been parked on a loop and it does not detect my motorcycle. I would consider this a faulty light, so is it allowed for me to proceed if safe to do so?

Under the MVA - Traffic control signals inoperative

125.1 (1) The driver of a vehicle approaching an intersection that has traffic control signals that are inoperative must stop before entering the intersection.

Maybe in situtations like this it would be better to make a right, do a u turn, then another right than to proceed the red.
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Saanich Police Response

Hello Mike,

If you have made the effort to ensure that the diamonds/loops have been triggered by the metal on your motorcycle by leaning left and right and being parked on top of the actual diamond/loop, and you are absolutely sure that the lights are not working properly, I would suggest that you proceed through the intersection when it is safe to do so. I would then contact the nearest police department to advise them of the inoperative light.

I think we’ve all sat at lights that seemed to take forever to change? I would think that some intersections are programmed differently as well due to traffic volume etc.

I hope this helps.

Response by Cst. Paul Lamoureux

Believe it or not, I know that some US states have had to codify it being legal to proceed if the light doesn't turn green (usually 2 cycles of non gree required?). If this is something that has to be codified, then this doesn't make a helluva lot of sense since then, theoretically, one might have to camp at a red light for a very long time (until a car pulled up behind or something?)..or change into an adjacent lane (not always the safest thing) that has the green. At any rate, often, if I'm the only vehicle at a traffic light I stop in the middle of the lane where all the oil/gas/etc., if ....seems to trigger the underground light better. You can usually see on the pavement where the sensor is. And, yes, I have lost patience and "run" a red light before. I imagine if a cop happen to see and write me a ticket (about $360) that, if I wanted to fight it, it would be a difficult, if not impossible case to win in court (if the law didn't allow for it). You gotta wonder about some of the traffic laws. In SF, cops reportedly write you up if, for example, a pedestrian puts a foot out on a crosswalk and is still WAY over on the other side of a multi-lane divided boulevard and you proceed and don't wait for pedestrian to walk ALL the way across maybe 3-4 lanes.

I was about to ask the same question about stop lights. The one coming out of my house is like this and is really annoying sometimes to wait around for a while until a car comes up behind me to activate the sensors on the pavement.

Thanks.

In NH, you have to stop and wait a full cycle of the lights. If it doesn't trigger, you treat it as a stop sign and proceed when it is safe to do so. Reporting the light does no good here as they've never been able to fix any of them anyway. I've yet to be hassled by the cops and yes, seen by them twice doing this.