Stuck at the lights

[tuniwes]

My twice a day commute has a set of traffic lights to control traffic passing through a single lane railway bridge.
The sensor logic is very good if you are in a car , the lights change intuitively with almost no delay if there is no traffic on the other side.
The trouble is the sensors do not pick up cyclists so if I approach the lights on red I am faced with three choices:

Wait for a car to come up behind me...........At quiet times of the day I could be waiting ages
Dismount and walk down the pavement....Riding would be illegal
Go through the red light...............................Illegal and potentially dangerous

Is this a common problem at lights?

 

[Gavin]

Yes, and not just for push bikes. I ride a few different motorbikes and my little 125 has the same problem, yet my bigger bikes don't.

I've noticed if I roll the bike around a few feet over the top of the sensor in the road, it sometimes triggers the lights, but not always.

Very annoying....

 

[gsm.terra]

Is this like the old sensors where flashing your light triggered it? Perhaps using a torch might help?

 

[vfr400]

Have a look in the road for where the sensor/s is/are and make sure you ride over them. if you ride too close to the edge, you'd miss them. they're normally squares like this, but can be circular or any shape. They're basically, an inductive loop of wire. If there are two of them, one behind the other, park your bike in the middle of the one furthest away:

 

[Gavin]

Is this like the old sensors where flashing your light triggered it? Perhaps using a torch might help?

If you look at the road surface in front of the lights, you'll usually see a square of bitumen approx 2m square. I'm no expert but I think the sensor is under there. This is the bit I roll the bike over to try and trigger the lights.

I guess it's either a weight sensor or something that detects a big lump of metal over the top of it

 

[Gavin]

Have a look in the road for where the sensor/s is/are and make sure you ride over them. if you ride too close to the edge, you'd miss them. they're normally squares like this, but can be circular or any shape. They're basically, an inductive loop of wire. If there are two of them, one behind the other, park your bike in the middle of the one furthest away:

I wonder if there's some sort of weight sensor in addition. I've only had the problem on lightweight bikes (125's and dirt bikes), never on bigger bikes.

I've never tried on a pushbike/ ebike admittedly...

 

[vfr400]

I wonder if there's some sort of weight sensor in addition. I've only had the problem on lightweight bikes (125's and dirt bikes), never on bigger bikes.

I've never tried on a pushbike/ ebike admittedly...

No weight sensor, just a loop of wire. Have a look at this. I follow this guy on Youtube and he only posted this a couple of days ago:

 

[Gavin]

No weight sensor, just a loop of wire. Have a look at this. I follow this guy on Youtube and he only posted this a couple of days ago:

Very interesting vid. I suspect the problem I've had is because my 125 and dirtbikes have smaller single-cylinder engines (less metal for the sensor to detect) whereas the bigger bikes have bigger engines with more metal.

I'll have to try laying them on their side at the lights to try and trigger the sensor!

 

[RossG]

I believe the wires set in the tarmac detect the metal but remember it's all carefully worked out how they trigger. Notice there are usually several sets of detecting loops set so far apart, one vehicle drives up to the final wire and waits and if no others come along the lights change might change slower. Other cars then join the queue and cover the other detectors and the lights change quicker.
Here's how you fool it.... as you approach the lights slow right down and pass over the wires very slowly, the system thinks it's a line of cars and changes fast. Make sure to stop your bike right over a wire.

 

[Andy-Mat]

I believe the wires set in the tarmac detect the metal but remember it's all carefully worked out how they trigger. Notice there are usually several sets of detecting loops set so far apart, one vehicle drives up to the final wire and waits and if no others come along the lights change might change slower. Other cars then join the queue and cover the other detectors and the lights change quicker.
Here's how you fool it.... as you approach the lights slow right down and pass over the wires very slowly, the system thinks it's a line of cars and changes fast. Make sure to stop your bike right over a wire.

What I have seen occasionally in the UK, is a button for cyclists, to let the traffic light electronics know you are waiting.....
Maybe that could be mentioned to the local police? Or someone else, for attention.
Andy

 

[mike killay]

Many years ago the sensors were rubber pads, if you were on a bike, you could stop and jab it with your foot. Nowadays things are more modern and useless.
In later years after the electronic sensors were installed, used to get stuck at 0500 in the morning by these sensor pads that could not sense a NSU quickly 50 cc moped.
Arguably, you can drive through the red light in these circumstances because the lights are not an 'Automatic Traffic Light'

 

[RossG]

I'm sure London buses had traffic light buttons at one time, flecc might know that.

 

[Trod]

Get off the bike and lean it over almost flat, that exposes enough metal to trigger the sensor, just needs a bit of practice

 

[Barnsleyrob]

Get off the bike and lean it over almost flat, that exposes enough metal to trigger the sensor, just needs a bit of practice

That’s when the bus arrives !

 

[tonyw]

The sensors are not correctly adjusted, they should be triggered by bikes, so you should report this to the council or whoever is responsible for them.

 

[RogerA]

If the approach has inductive loops (as per the earlier photos), there are probably either diamond or chevron loops on the approach from about 40m away. Try to ride over these near a corner. It will give a bigger signal. If there is a rectangular loop just before the stopline then try to stop on this, again nearer one side than the middle. This should detect a bicycle. If not, then report it to the local highways authority (probably the county council or the city council in big cities)
It's possible that there are no loops and it uses overhead microwave or infra red detection. In that case there's not a lot you can do except present as big a target as possible (sit up straight). Again report it to the local highways authority.