Stop Light Sensors

[Nefilim]

How do you activate the light censors at some stop lights? I can see the metal bars in the pavement but I'm never sure where to stop my bike to make the light change green.

 

[Stumbles06]

I just park with the front wheel on the lines and the header pipe over the main section of the sensors.

In saying that, you guys must have a different system over there.
We have sensor lines embedded into the asphalt... sorta looks like this..
/\
||
||
\/
I stop with the header pipe over the top-right of the straight lines.

 

[SovietRobot]

Some are tripped easily, some are impossible to trip with a bike.
Hell, some lights here are on timers, they are a pain in the ass.

If the light doesn't turn after a reasonable time, I wait until it's clear and take off anyways.

 

[chimneydoc]

If it's at night I just let the light cycle through once if no cars are behind me, then go through the intersection. If there is alot of traffic I park ahead of the stop line so the cager behind me trips the sensor. What else can you do?


Doc

 

[Nefilim]

If it's at night I just let the light cycle through once if no cars are behind me, then go through the intersection. If there is alot of traffic I park ahead of the stop line so the cager behind me trips the sensor. What else can you do?


Doc

Well, there's two lights in particular that are a problem for me. One is in my neighborhood leading onto the main road and it NEVER cycles unless you trip the sensor and since it's a low-density residential area, there aren't many cagers who'll do it for me. The other is the turn lane leading into the park that I like to go to when no one is awake to rip through the twisties... if I could just get a green light.

 

[Dunny]

Wouldnt be the first time Ive put it on the side stand and pushed the pedestrian button

 

[reiobard]

i also have heard that if you hit the starter button it can trip the light as well. Bikes don;t typically have enough steel in them to set off the lights anymore, so around here at least you have to wait for a car to come up or go when it is clear.

 

[Scorphonic]

i also have heard that if you hit the starter button it can trip the light as well. Bikes don;t typically have enough steel in them to set off the lights anymore, so around here at least you have to wait for a car to come up or go when it is clear.

i have never experienced the lights not changing for me until last weekend, when two sets (in both ends of the country) failed to change. One was in belfast city at a set of lights that always change for me...but on that grand evening, it decided not to, leaving me no other choice but to drive through the light when all was clear. The second was in Dublin, and again I did the same when all was clear.

Guaranteed if you're caught doing it you're in trouble but what can you do...it was a sweltering hot day and I was slowly wasting away inside my leathers...i'd take a ticket anyday and then contest it afterwards.

 

[FZ6biker]

If its one of those pain in the A$% lights and it does not sense the bike. I like some of you'll will move ahead and wave the cager to come on up to trip the light. Also I have noticed that stopping at the left corner of the street with front wheel on the white stripe usually lets the loop sense you. I have read and seen that theres some kind of device called the clapper available that also does the job.It simply installs under the bike and trips the lights for you.:thumbup:

 

[geetarhero]

up here they use 2 large boxes in the ground (you can see the markings in the ground where they cut the asphalt) that look like this as you pull to the light
______ ______
/ \ / \
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
------------ ------------



these 2 boxes are directly in line with where the wheels of the cagers would be behind the stop line

The ONLY way I can get lights to trip at night is to pul up with my front tire just forward of center get both feet onthe pegs and jump up and down pushing the suspension further and further till it bottoms out and trips the sensor.
sane deal with the long plastic tube filled with air in my condo building parkade that you drive over to mkae the door go up. Wont trip unless I push on it.

Used to have to wait until a cager would go through hahaha

 

[westgoingzax]

At some lights where I can see where the senor is, I put the bike in neutral and put the kickstand down on top of the senor.

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

I work in the traffic engineering field and I have as much problem with those damn loops as anyone else...lol. I can tell you one thing, though. There is no "trick" to it. The loops work off a magnetic field and either they're going to detect your bike or they're not. Period. While you may think rolling over this part or that part or putting your front wheel here or there may make a difference, it doesn't.

One option, albeit a pain in the ass, is to do what one poster suggested and put the bike on the sidestand, go over and hit the pedestrian signal. Of course, this isn't practical and could get you killed, so use it at your own risk.

Around my area, instead of magnetic loops in the ground, we've started using motion cameras that actually detect when a vehicle is present at the light. When the cameras are set up, the technician sets spots on the "picture" where a car will be sitting when stopped at the light. Once the camera sees an object in that spot, it sends a signal to the cabinet to serve that direction of travel. These seem to work MUCH better for motorcycles as they aren't based on magnetism, but detection of motion. Only if you're out of the pre-programmed "box" on the camera screen will you not get served.

All this being said, there are times when I've had to just ease through a light when it wouldn't serve me. I've never heard an opinion from a police officer on this (and surely we have a few here). Are there any LEOs reading this that can offer an opinion on what a motorcyclist should do when sitting at a light that just won't detect them???

 

[HouTex]

I thought I read some post or advert where you put a magnetized chunk of metal on the bottom of your headers and this would trip the sensor. Anyone heard of this?

 

[geetarhero]

cchouseky; thank you! Iwas always taught these were sensors that detected force rather than a magnetic field.
It was awesome to have that straightened out and I guess my jumping ont he bike does a whole lot of zero, heres to not looking like an idiot anymore

 

[Fred]

I work in the traffic engineering field and I have as much problem with those damn loops as anyone else

Maybe you can confirm one trick I've heard about and used on occasion. Since the sensors are magnetic in nature, I've been told that you can shut off your bike and restart it, and the magnetic field thrown off by the starter will trigger the sensor.

Does that seem plausible to you? It seems to work for me, but it's possible that I just get impatient and try the starter trick right before the light would have changed anyway.

Fred

 

[stevesnj]

Cool info on light tripping

http://www.wikihow.com/Trigger-Green-Traffic-Lights

neodymium magnets seem to be the trick

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

Maybe you can confirm one trick I've heard about and used on occasion. Since the sensors are magnetic in nature, I've been told that you can shut off your bike and restart it, and the magnetic field thrown off by the starter will trigger the sensor.

Does that seem plausible to you? It seems to work for me, but it's possible that I just get impatient and try the starter trick right before the light would have changed anyway.

Fred

Honestly, Fred, I can't confirm or deny that one. In fact, when you (or someone else) posted this trick earlier, it's the first I'd heard of it. It seems plausible since one would think the starter cranking the engine would cause some sort of magnetic field or at least an interruption of the normal field that it puts off. I'm going to try this the next time I'm stuck at a light and see if I get any sort of results.

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

cchouseky; thank you! Iwas always taught these were sensors that detected force rather than a magnetic field.
It was awesome to have that straightened out and I guess my jumping ont he bike does a whole lot of zero, heres to not looking like an idiot anymore

You're welcome...lol. The camera actually work on motion, but not the loops that are embedded in the roadway. This cracked me up when I read it...just the thought of someone bouncing up and down or even jumping on the bike is funny. Glad I could help!

 

[paulinus]

When I took my license test in Tennessee the instructor told me when waiting on a left turn arrow at a sensor triggered light, you can treat it like a stop sign when traffic allows a suitable gap. I didn't ever look into it more closely to see if it applies to only the left turn or not. I treat them like stop signs if it's late enough when I cannot get the light to turn. If it's a repeated problem, I take alternate routes, or use adjacent parking lots, which I'm sure is still illegal.

 

[rjo3491]

I was told by my classroom MSF instructor (in Michigan) that if you sit through three light cycles, you can legally proceed on red with caution .

Further, he was a retired county sheriff.