Traffic Lights

My route to work involves me stopping at a set of lights on a b-road which crosses the main A19 Selby to Doncaster road.

Always at red when I get there. I sit for 5 minutes. Lights change to let pedestrians across, then the main lights change again. I'm still sitting on red.

Then a car approaches behind me, lo and behold the lights change.

What gives?

[the_lone_wolf]

induction loops in the road detect large lumps of metal like cars and change the signal pattern accordinly, bikes aren't big enough to set them off

Pressure sensitive I reckon.

Is there a cross pattern of tar banding on the floor? If so, jump up & down on the pegs on approach to the solid white line, as under these lines there's a pressure sensor.

Cars are heavy enough to kick the sensor in, bikes often aren't

There's a set of lights like this near me.

There's another trick that usually works. Creep slowly across the tar banding, less than 10mph. By the time you get to the lights, they've changed, and quicker than you waiting 10mins.

EDIT: There is another way, but its slightly naughty & takes a little faffing to get right. Flash your headlights at just the right frequency.

EDIT2: I figured they were pressure sensative matts (since that'd be a reasonably cheap way to do things), but induction loops would work equally.

A bit of an oversight surely?

Is there anyone I can complain to?

What happens if no other vehicle turns up? I'm stuck.

Never had this happen to me before. Is is possible that the equipment is shoost or set up incorrectly?

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Jamaxx

What happens if no other vehicle turns up? I'm stuck.

Never had this happen to me before. Is is possible that the equipment is shoost or set up incorrectly?

try riding lengthways over one of the induction wires (along the overbanding on the surface of the road) - that way you will create the largest possible emf in the loop and are most likely to trigger the lights

edit: if that doesn't work contact your local council's highways dept and ask them to turn up the sensitivity a bit

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Baph

EDIT: There is another way, but its slightly naughty & takes a little faffing to get right. Flash your headlights at just the right frequency.

doesn't work for induction loops, or traffic lights with sensors either

the IR detectors on the top of temporary lights are they to receive a signal from a specially designed transmitter in emergency service vehicles and give them priority when approaching, nothing to do with the frequency of the flashing lights...

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

doesn't work for induction loops, or traffic lights with sensors either

the IR detectors on the top of temporary lights are they to receive a signal from emergency service vehicles and give them priority when approaching...

That's the reason I said "just the right frequency." Pulsing the lights has at least appeared to generate the desired results on many static lights for me. Both in the car and on the bike.

[Binky]

Originally Posted by Jamaxx

What happens if no other vehicle turns up? I'm stuck.

This happened to me once at about one in the morning on the way home from work. A busy set of lights went red, and as i waited patiently for my lights to turn green nothing. They stayed red and then the other lights turned back to green again. After being a bit puzzled / laughing a bit i thought sod it and krept forward and then just went when there were no cars.

I'm not suggesting that this is an approach you take on your way to work as in my case it was in the wee hours of the morning.

Just do a nice controlled stoppie on the front wheel to make sure the pressure switch is activated. Failing that, make sure the rear wheel comes thundering down so the switch thinks a tanks just moved onto it.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Baph

That's the reason I said "just the right frequency." Pulsing the lights has at least appeared to generate the desired results on many static lights for me. Both in the car and on the bike.

see edited post... frequency makes no difference, it's an IR transmitter that's fitted to emergency vehicles that transmits an encoded signal to change the lights, nothing to do with visible light at all

the reason people think flashing their lights works is just misperception of a chance event, your subconcious over-represents the times flashing your lights "worked" by fluke and under-represents the times it didn't when forming an opinion of whether flashing your lights works or not