A friend sent me this in an email. I've put it on here although it's never happened to me AFAIK.
Hi there cyclists,
Do you ever get annoyed when the traffic lights seem to ignore us? You know, the ones that switch to sensor mode at quiet times of the day. Then you're left me with the choice of going through a red light or waiting for the next car to come along in your direction and trigger the lights to go green (I must confess I tend to 'proceed with caution' through the red ;-)
When I enquired at Bradford Council whether the settings could somehow be altered to make bikes detectable, the response was yes! The friendly traffic engineer even offered to meet me at the offending lights (the ones by Keelham, in case you're wondering): I'd ride through them and he'd adjust the sensitivity until we got it right. Then I mentioned my bike is made of aluminium, and he said 'Ahh, that's a problem'.
It turns out some of these sensor lights work by embedding an induction loop (an electrical circuit) in the pavement, which is designed to detect large ferrous objects - like cars. Not much use then if your bike is made of aluminium, let alone, carbon - and many of them don't even react to steel bikes if the sensitivity's too high. On further research (I was bored last weekend) I discovered that there are many alternative designs for sensor traffic lights. For example, some them have little microwave cameras attached to the lights themselves which detect movement. I go through 2 of these on my ride home from Leeds, and they seem to pick up bikes without any difficulty (as long as you're going at more than 4mph, apparently).
So (being an eParticipation expert) I've just started a petition with a simple demand - that the induction type be phased out, and wherever possible preference be given to designs that can detect all bikes. If you want to join me in this important campaign for justice* go to: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/bikesatlights/
Simon
PS You can sign if you're a British citizen, even if you live abroad.
*actually it's just a campaign for transport authorities to respect the law, since the lights themselves are illegal if they don't detect all approaching traffic. But knowing that doesn't make me any safer :-(
Hi there cyclists,
Do you ever get annoyed when the traffic lights seem to ignore us? You know, the ones that switch to sensor mode at quiet times of the day. Then you're left me with the choice of going through a red light or waiting for the next car to come along in your direction and trigger the lights to go green (I must confess I tend to 'proceed with caution' through the red ;-)
When I enquired at Bradford Council whether the settings could somehow be altered to make bikes detectable, the response was yes! The friendly traffic engineer even offered to meet me at the offending lights (the ones by Keelham, in case you're wondering): I'd ride through them and he'd adjust the sensitivity until we got it right. Then I mentioned my bike is made of aluminium, and he said 'Ahh, that's a problem'.
It turns out some of these sensor lights work by embedding an induction loop (an electrical circuit) in the pavement, which is designed to detect large ferrous objects - like cars. Not much use then if your bike is made of aluminium, let alone, carbon - and many of them don't even react to steel bikes if the sensitivity's too high. On further research (I was bored last weekend) I discovered that there are many alternative designs for sensor traffic lights. For example, some them have little microwave cameras attached to the lights themselves which detect movement. I go through 2 of these on my ride home from Leeds, and they seem to pick up bikes without any difficulty (as long as you're going at more than 4mph, apparently).
So (being an eParticipation expert) I've just started a petition with a simple demand - that the induction type be phased out, and wherever possible preference be given to designs that can detect all bikes. If you want to join me in this important campaign for justice* go to: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/bikesatlights/
Simon
PS You can sign if you're a British citizen, even if you live abroad.
*actually it's just a campaign for transport authorities to respect the law, since the lights themselves are illegal if they don't detect all approaching traffic. But knowing that doesn't make me any safer :-(
