there is an intersection by by home that I go through 90 percent of the time I drive. My bike would not trigger the traffic light, so I waited the required time and "ran" the red light. on Sunday I filled out an online form with the city letting them know my problem, I received a phone call at noon Monday from one of the city engineers letting me know he adjusted the settings for that light, gave me his cell number and wanted me to let him know if he adjusted it enough - works great now - what service! just a note that some people at city hall do listen.
Half way through your post I thought you were gonna say they issued you a ticket. That would be typical.
Instead it turned out to be refreshing news that sometimes...sometimes you can get through the bureaucracy and the system works! Thanks for sharing that.
That's pretty sweet. I'd try and find out who his boss is and let his boss know how pleased you are with his promptness and professionalism. A happy report like that will look good on his record if he tries to get a promotion.
This is a fantastic suggestion. We humans are much more likely to send complaints to the powers that be and not compliments or positive feedback. You received excellent service, so why not take a moment to give him credit?
Great story too! I also assumed you were gonna say they sent you a ticket, so color me pleasantly surprised!
That's awesome how accommodating they were. Another suggestion, for places not in a hometown. If you throw a small magnet somewhere on the underside of your bike it helps trip the sensor, making it think you are larger than you are.
In addition to a successful call like the OP had, I bought a mig torch holder from Harbor Freight and took the magnet off of it (actually cheaper than buying the magnet by itself since I had a use for the bracket part :grin2. I have a trailer hitch on the bike and I zip-tied the magnet onto it. Easy to do since the magnet has a bolt hole in the center. Seems to work at most intersections with sensors. A large neodymium magnet would be even better, but they are expensive.
I bought and installed a green light trigger that was inexpensive and is a strong magnet with a 3M adhesive attachment point. One is mounted to the frame of my Vulcan 2000, the other is on the inside of the fairing of my ZX9R Ninja. They work.
I agree with the starter post in this thread. You can contact traffic engineering in most towns and they are responsive. They want to solve these problems.
Just a question (I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed). As you're riding, if it's that strong, can't the magnet pick up metal pieces from the roadway.
If some small metal object, like a nail, is thrown up near the magnet, my magnet might be strong enough to grab it. Wouldn't hurt anything if it did, but no magnet I have ever put on a bike for light sensors has ever picked up anything. My magnet is about 6" - 7" off the ground (zip tied to a trailer hitch) and is not nearly strong enough to pick up a nail or something like that from straight off the ground. It doesn't need to be a super magnet to trip light sensors.
It a magnetic loop that picks up your vehicle........with that said,here in Pa. most traffic light upgrades that are done now use cameras to see the vehicles at the stop bar,and they work less effective than the old style magnetic loop sensors.
We have also had fatal crashes near my home when a new light was installed and didn't have the intensity turned up high enough to trip the light for motorcycles. The driver edged out to see traffic and was hit and killed,passenger was a child who lived but required many procedures with very high med bills.
Yes,lawsuits filed but our Township was let go because we told them there was a problem,and at our twp meeting there was a Penn Dot rep there who said it wasn't working properly at installation. What a mess.
And yes,I am a twp supervisor and also the roadmaster.
I also think Tar & Chip should be banned. I almost lost my front wheel last saturday on a slight turn and at very low speed-thats what saved me,going very slow.
I need to look into trying this too.There's a couple non-changing lights I have to deal with fairly regularly.
I don't even know if it's legal in my area to run non-changing lights,but I have no choice.I just hope there's not a cop around every time I have to do it.:devil2:Been lucky so far.
It's a shame you need to pay for a contraption and attach it to your bike just so you don't need to worry about getting a ticket.:crying2:
I just submitted an online form to dot to tell them about the 2 particular non-changing lights.I never knew you could do anything like that until I came across this thread.
Sorry to ruin things, but the magnet thing is not true. Some will swear it works, it doesn't.
At a lot of lights there is a loop of wire that gets installed in the concrete.
That wire with the help of a big amount of metal ( a car ) will cause the electrical setup to detect that your there with you car and will trigger the light.
Adding a magnet will not "increase" your bikes mass of metal. That small magnet 6 inches or more above the street will not increase the magnetic properties to increase the mass of metal on your bike for the detector to "see" you.
No magnet you put on your bike will help in this process. And you can tell me about your experiences and that's fine.
If it works for you - fine.
I'm just telling you that magnets, putting down your kickstand, ect doesn't make the the detection process work any better.
There is a loop of wire you mount on you bike you can buy off ebay I think it is, that also has some programming, and that WILL help.
Sorry to ruin things, but the magnet thing is not true. Some will swear it works, it doesn't.
At a lot of lights there is a loop of wire that gets installed in the concrete.
That wire with the help of a big amount of metal ( a car ) will cause the electrical setup to detect that your there with you car and will trigger the light.
Adding a magnet will not "increase" your bikes mass of metal. That small magnet 6 inches or more above the street will not increase the magnetic properties to increase the mass of metal on your bike for the detector to "see" you.
No magnet you put on your bike will help in this process. And you can tell me about your experiences and that's fine.
If it works for you - fine.
I'm just telling you that magnets, putting down your kickstand, ect doesn't make the the detection process work any better.
There is a loop of wire you mount on you bike you can buy off ebay I think it is, that also has some programming, and that WILL help.
Sorry but I have to disagree with you. A traffic light sensor works by detecting a change in inductance when a chuck of metal (a car, for example) with lots ferromagnetic material (such as iron) enters the magnetic field generated by the loops of wire below the road surface. The car changes the mass of the "core" of the loop, changing the inductance of the loop. A relatively small magnet, with respect to the ferromagnetic mass of a car, will have a significant effect on the inductance, possibly as much or more than some smaller, mostly plastic and aluminum cars.
Same principle as generators. Passing a chunk of un-magnetized iron thru a charged loop will not generate much electricity. Passing a magnet thru it will generate a significant amount of current which changes the inductance.
The "wire loop" off ebay is probably just an electromagnet, which is just another way of generating a magnetic field.
I have found that if I put my bike over the loop on either side parallel to my direction of travel, there is enough metal in my bike to trigger the switch for the light. I prefer the right side to the left side and watch my mirrors!
That works for all but the most stubborn lights. Several intersections that I used to go thru to and from work were not sensitive enough. Even medium to small cars would often not trip them. I called the appropriate police departments to ask that they adjust them. They were happy to oblige, but even with the adjustments, some motorcycles still would not trip them, at least not consistently. After I put the magnet on, I never had problems with them again.
That is the way to do it. We recommend the same to the MSF students at the end of class to let the new riders know there are methods to help them.
Here in Wisconsin a law was enacted some years back that enables a motorcycle at a traffic controlled light, to legally "run the light" if the bike is alone at the light for at least 45 seconds. I have run many a red light with no issues.
What might also work is to epoxy glue some "cow magnets" on the bottom of the frame rails on your bike. They're about the size of a small hotdog, usually about $5. With the added metal and the magnetic field they generate it should be enough to disturb the magnetic field generated by the traffic signal system.
Note, these systems do not work by sensing vehicle weight, its just the amount of metal the vehicle has to disturb the magnetic field the system produces.
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