Hi guys, let me lay down the story detail and you give me your opinion and thoughts.. Ok, I live out in the "boonies" (its a wisconsin thing) I have a 30 mile commute to work in the morning, I work at the outskirts of a big city and there are exactly 3 traffic lights to pass on my way. I leave my house at 4:15 in the morning, at that hour there is for the most part, zero traffic on the country roads, except for the lingering drunk comming home after bar time. As I approach the city and get to the lights, my ZX will not under any circumstances trigger the stoplight when they are set on a timer at that time of the day. Which means if I pull up to a light, if there is no traffic,(which there probably wont) I will never get a green light. So what I do is pull up,, give an honest count to 45 seconds, look for headlights and proceed thru the red light. If there is a car comming I will wait and have the car trigger the light for me. I have yet to be ticketed or questioned for this, however it is clearly against the law. In my opinion if a traffic light discriminates against a sportbike, there is a fault in it's system, because they clearly don't work. I was curious as to how you guys would approach this, anyone ever get busted? I have questioned the local cops and nobody would come right out and give me a straight answer, they all say it just depends. WTF? depends on what, yes or no, would they give me a ticket or not.. guess I will have to wait and see. And please don't tell me to go and get that little traffic light magnet to trigger the light,, it's a bullshit scam not to be fallen for.

* Last updated by: TaintedTattoo on 7/1/2010 @ 3:59 AM *

There is a stoplight between me and getting on the main drag to go downtown to work.

When I ride over the obvious detector plate, it sees me about 50% of the time. And this is one that won't change on a timer so I'm stuck.

In many states, you can turn right on a red if it is clear. So I do that, since its the right way to get to work anyway.

But I would never "run" a red light, I did in my cage a few years ago and the fine wasn't pretty.

When I get to a snarky light elsewhere, I often pull forward as much as possible and motion for the car behind me to pull up on the plate, and that gets us going. Amazing how many cage drivers get it instantly why I want them to pull further up towards the light .

TaintedTattoo.
I suggest reading this... http://www.legis.state.wi.us/statutes/Stat0346.pdf
look at chapter 346.37 Traffic Signs, section 4. it's on pages 11 and 12 of 40.
It's a PDF so I cant right click and cut and paste it here, but that section deals with lights that don't turn for motocycles, mopeds, and bicycles. Without giving you leagal advice, I'd say you're doing it right.

Erik.

I'm just guessing, but you do live in WI? right? otherwise check your states traffic laws. Waiting and turning on a red is also leagal(w/no traffic...slightly different wording and conditions...)in MN too.

In Georgia the law states "If within a reasonable amount of time, the light doesn't change you may proceed with due caution". I guess reasonable amount of time is up for interpretation but it is legal here.

* Last updated by: heathun on 7/1/2010 @ 7:16 AM *

Most of these lights seem to be positioned in the middle of on ramps to the expressway around here. They are only operating during peak traffic hours to space out traffic and avoid congestion. There are often two lanes that get the green alternately but a bike will not trigger the the light. What I do is just sneak right in behind the cage next to me after he gets the green in his lane. If there is only one lane, I just wait a reasonalble period of time and go as long as it looks clear. I don't know what else a rider could do. If magnets are required to trigger lights, i guess they should be standard equipment (which many of us would be taking off).

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/1/2010 @ 8:55 AM *

Magnets CAN trigger the light.Personally,If I'm first up,I know it's probably NOT going to trigger,so I do as our other member suggested here...I wave the car behind me up closer....closer....closer..they usually can't figure out just wtheck's happening.Guess they think I want em to A:Look at my pretty bike's arse end,or 2:rearend me so I can collect the insurance.I've atually had to get off my bike,walk back(which usually scares the sh#$ outta them,and tell em(nicely)..."move up so you'll trigger this light"."Oh,okay...got ya".

The other alternative is of course to go when it's safe(though I don't do that IF someone's behind me).

Never tried the magnet trick. Heard mixed reviews on its effectiveness. LOL--Maybe I will pull a huge U shaped magnet out of my pocket like in the cartoons and start passing it across the ground. Not so sure I would trust everyone to snug up on my tail. What a royal PITA. By the time I got done screwing around waving at the guy behind me in rush hour traffic, he would have gone around me to run the red light himself!!

You MAY be able to trigger it by putting yer kickstand down in the center of the square.Done that a couple of times.Usually just get into the crosswalk though and wave em up(carefully).

in the center of the square.

Never tried the side stand down. What square am I looking for???

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/1/2010 @ 12:35 PM *

As you come up to the light,look at the surface of the road right there.You'll NORMALLY(sometimes they have a different setup)see FOUR gouged lines where they installed the sensor under the asphalt.Usually about 2 ft long by around a foot or so wide.That sensor picks up the metal from the car frame and disrupts the sensor signal...whatever it is.They actually can be tuned by the city to pick up even better,but they're set for mass quantities of metal,not pipes and kickstands.

Another trick that works. When you approach the light weave across as many of the strips as you can and when you come to a stop make sure you are straddling a strip so you have as much bike as possible covering it. That has always worked for me at lights around here.

Thanks for ideas, guys.

Biggest problem I have with these lights on our on ramps is that I forget they are there (since they are not operating except at peak hours). There are a few ramps I like with really wonderful corners but if I hit them at 3 PM - 6 PM, I have to remember to not be going too fast. Finding a red light on a tight corner at 70 mph is not fun. Admittedly one more reason I have had to run those things--just once or twice and I now remember I at least have to stop -lol!

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/1/2010 @ 1:44 PM *

I have never had a problem with the lights in Calgary on my 14 she sets off the sensors everytime... here we have in ground sensors and some with sensors mounted ontop of the light assembly.... I did however have one traffic light that wudn't trigger from the Road King I was riding a couple weeks ago and I had to wave the dump truck behind me up... I have heard that those magnet things are BS and they don't work... I found that if they aren't triggereing then roll foward off the sensor pad and roll all the way back to the sensors again.... the sensors on the road usually are like an X with a box round them and are in like a black tar or silicon type material so the ashphault flexes..

As most police do not want to counsel you to commit an offence, they will say it "depends" because we err I mean they have descretion on whether to give you a ticket or not.... and depends on the cop some are dicks and some are reasonable and understanding!! like you described you are cautious and make sure there isn't any traffic its not unreasonable to go thru the red if its not changing for you, a judge wudn't expect a reasonable person to wait minutes on end at the light if there is no traffic.... just watch out for those redlight/speed on green stationary cameras they have no descretion!!!!

Tainted, check the law in your state on this. In NY, this falls under a malfunctioning traffic signal. You wait a full cycle and still no green, then you are allowed to proceed as if it were a stop sign. The sensor not being able to "see" your bike is the malfunctioning part. I also head to work early in the morning and have this same problem. I just look both ways and continue on my way. I have been stopped only once after doing this. I explained the deal and the cop, who also rides, just said "have a nice day"

I have a light that gets me on a regular basis getting off the e-way on the way to work. I know the timing of the light and just go if the oncoming is green. otherwise I stay parked. It does all separate lanes at different times so I don't chance it unless the oncoming is green being they are turn only lanes.

heathun: In Georgia the law states "If within a reasonable amount of time, the light doesn't change you may proceed with due caution". I guess reasonable amount of time is up for interpretation but it is legal here.

I'm lucky.
There are NO traffic lights in my rural county!

I maintain traffic signals and I can tell you (with loop detection) it works or doesn't with motorcycles. These so called green light triggers will have little or no effect on it. Call your traffic control dept have them check it out. Most cases the sensitivity setting on the detectors
are set to low to pick up the bike. They might increase the sensitivity if it doesn't cause problems, better yet talk them into getting video
cameras...problem solved.

man00 - what's the most effective way to get this done? Requesting video cameras that is. Start a petition?

First thing to do is have your local traffic control dept go and check out the light..tell them the problem you having

Hey....uh--wait a minute.

Am I hearing this right or am I going crazy?

Do we really want to encourage the placement of video cameras???

Running a red light that won't change should be easy to understand. There is an awful lot of other stuff that i have done on the 14. I'm not sure i would be able to come up with any good explanaitions if i got caught on video tape.

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/3/2010 @ 10:38 PM *

Texas just passed a law for red lights not changing

man00 I tried telling them it wasn't working and they told me it was within specs.

so heres the problem with the light sensors. think of them as metal detectors, now look at the modern sportbike not a whole lot of metal on them meaning they dont trigger the sensors. one trick ive heard of is find the seam in the lane and put your kick stand down, ive heard this will trigger the sensor. when i lived i the city I had this trouble all the time but id just turn right to get around it or would adjust my route to not put myself in that position. Im attaching an article that explains how these systems operate and their suggestions for tripping the signals sensors

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

I've only had my bike a week and I had a problem with a light not changing the 2nd time out. It was 95 degrees mid-day and I was cooking. In NC if a light doesn't change in "two cycles" then you can legally turn left on red. But I was going straight and just wasn't sure what my options were. So I turned right, went up one cross road and used the "two cycle rule" to turn left on red and went about my way.

* Last updated by: GNice4U on 7/7/2010 @ 9:19 PM *