Traffic light magnets

[discgolfdude]

We have a quite a few lights that are very hard to trigger with my bike, a few of them work with the side stand method, and some don't. I was told by bike cop that I can call the city or county, depending on where the light is, and they will come out and fix it. So far 1 light was fixed that I've called on.

 

[Motogiro]

Most of the detectors are an inductive loop. This would lead me to believe there is a type of Radio Frequency oscillator circuit. When there is the high presence of ferrous material near the inductor loop it changes the oscillation. The oscillation is probably referenced against a standard (A number of ways to do that) and when the oscillation changes frequency and an error amp starts the logic process for tripping.
Why some work and others don't is one of the great mysteries of the universe. Well not really..... It's not hard to look at man sending a spacecraft out into the universe with a golden record and a repeating message saying, we come in peace and want to be your friend, and the traffic light sensors and not see the correlation. In light of this (no pun intended) I am including a schematic that might shed some light (pun intended) on this.
I actually stole this schematic from a member on this forum..:BLAA:

 

[ChevyFazer]

Most of the detectors are an inductive loop. This would lead me to believe there is a type of Radio Frequency oscillator circuit. When there is the high presence of ferrous material near the inductor loop it changes the oscillation. The oscillation is probably referenced against a standard (A number of ways to do that) and when the oscillation changes frequency and an error amp starts the logic process for tripping.
Why some work and others don't is one of the great mysteries of the universe. Well not really..... It's not hard to look at man sending a spacecraft out into the universe with a golden record and a repeating message saying, we come in peace and want to be your friend, and the traffic light sensors and not see what the correlation. In light of this (no pun intended) I am including a schematic that might shed so light (pun intended) on this.
I actually stole this schematic from a member on this forum..:BLAA:

Lol hire someone to open and close switch real fast & touch tung here

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[Fishwiz4]

It seems that I have some luck with flashing my brights. Done this on my car too. I have heard it can effect the electrical field enough to change a light since the change is very quick

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[chomorro]

I just left the MSF course this weekend and the instructor talked about this. He said the law in CA is two cycles and you can go cautiously BUT you can still get a ticket from a cop who doesnt know or like motorcycles. Its just easier to fight in court.

He HIGHLY recommended the magnets. He uses them on his bikes and they work great. He said if one doesnt work just get two lol and he has had no issues with two of them. He rides a giant goldwing currently and he said without the magnets quite a few lights would not trigger for him even though his bike weighed a ton.

Im going to try one of these Cycle Gear - GREEN LIGHT: Stop Light Trigger, and then two if it doesnt trigger the light near my house which i have had to go through a few times when no cars come. Just going to mount it on the center stand :rockon:

For me personally i just sit in the middle of the circle designators on the ground and it triggers. Problem is lots of lights in my area dont have the circle.

 

[shuckle]

There is actually a law on the books right now where i live that is trying to get passed that says if a motorcycle sits through 2 lights and it still hasnt turned on the 3rd they can treat it like a stop sign. That would be cool if it passed

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What do you mean by "sits through 2 lights" -- isn't the problem that the light isn't changing? If you sat through 2 lights, didn't you just miss a green?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

 

[Motogiro]

What do you mean by "sits through 2 lights" -- isn't the problem that the light isn't changing? If you sat through 2 lights, didn't you just miss a green?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

I would understand what he's saying as sitting through two light cycles as if you were going to turn left but the light doesn't give you a left arrow but allows straight traffic to pass.

You are correct that you can come to a light and you want to go straight and there is no light cycle at all so you can not use that 2 cycles as a measure to legally go straight when its clear.

 

[ChevyFazer]

What do you mean by "sits through 2 lights" -- isn't the problem that the light isn't changing? If you sat through 2 lights, didn't you just miss a green?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Exactly what motogiro said

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[benjbong]

deleteddeleted

 

[Dave.TX]

Just about every intersection in the Austin area has camera's instead of ground sensors. The camera's are just as blind to motorcycles as the ground sensors were. There's some intersections I avoid so I don't have to wait, and wait, and wait...

 

[Nick329]

I had one of the traffic light magnets I bought from Cycle Gear for my Versys. It never worked...I think because the bike had a lot of ground clearance.
Never had a problem with the FZ6. Maybe because of lower ground clearance and that big chunk of metal know as a center stand. :BLAA:

Differences in inductive loops are affected by the number of windings and overall size of the loops. (why at one intersection your bike is detected and others not)
They can be adjusted, but if they skimped on the number of turns of wire to save money, then there's not much that can be done...even if sensitivity is increased.

 

[ChevyFazer]

So basically in theory, the magnets should work but it sounds like the reason that they wouldn't work would be for just about the same reason the senors dont pick up the bike in the first place....so once i get them i think i will try walking in a cross walk and droping some of the magnets in the lane and just see what happens

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[chaskell27]

At least with the Cities and Towns that I work with, they are all phasing out of induction loop detection for their traffic lights. They are all moving to overhead detection (cameras). They are more expensive but are more reliable and accurate. In a lot of cases they are basically a motion sensor that when something pulls up it triggers the sequence. Obviously if the cameras are not aligned correctly there can be a blind spot which a motorcycle can easily "hide" in. I try to roll up to the stop bar in the center of the lane where the camera is likely to pick you up either way.

In most cases, if an old induction loop is no longer working and the city or town upgrades to overhead detection, the town will leave the old loops in the ground as there is no reason to take them out. So sometimes if you see the cuts in the pavement where the loops are, they may not be functioning. Take a look up on the mast arm or light cable where the lights are and look for cameras.

In the end though, the magnets have the potential to help you if you do have a loop detected intersection but like someone else said it all depends on the quality of the installation of the loops.

 

[boars]

We actually have a law similar to that in NC, but here you have to sit at the light for 3 minutes before you can "run" it. It is under § 20‑158.

That actually makes more sense. We have some lights that seemingly stop cycling completely unless a vehicle triggers it from a side street... I mean how could someone "wait 2 cycles" if they cease to cycle.

A time limit is more sensible but then by the time you realise you've been sitting here for a while... how long has it been? I haven't been watching the time!

Some lights still cycle but at a really slow rate when not triggered... only ever run into one set that don't cycle at all without triggering... thank god.

 

[FIZZER6]

There is actually a law on the books right now where i live that is trying to get passed that says if a motorcycle sits through 2 lights and it still hasnt turned on the 3rd they can treat it like a stop sign. That would be cool if it passed

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Virginia is way ahead of you all on this one.

We have had that law for years. If the light goes through 2 light cycles and you don't get a green you can legally treat it like a stop sign. I do it all the time on one light near me. Fortunately most lights here have motion sensors instead of pressure/magnetic sensors.

Now if we could only pass the lane splitting in stopped traffic law....

 

[Caesar]

I can usually get the light to change by putting my side stand down. Around here you can clearly see the sensors in the rode and I like to put my stand down where two or more sensors connect. Only once has this not worked for me and I ended up blowing the light.

 

[spock]

Virginia is way ahead of you all on this one.

We have had that law for years. If the light goes through 2 light cycles and you don't get a green you can legally treat it like a stop sign. I do it all the time on one light near me. Fortunately most lights here have motion sensors instead of pressure/magnetic sensors.

Now if we could only pass the lane splitting in stopped traffic law....

no lane splitting makes no sense - I say this because in my country that is not a problem - but if some magic politician of the type they are more common nowadays i.e. more and more stupid, stops allowing that I would immediately stop commuting by bike and would use public transportation instead (have in mind cities here are not as big as yours and not all the people have cars, actually I don't know how to drive one and I am 30 years young ), being able to lane split is part of the commuting fun!!

Cheers

 

[dxh24]

And if your feeling a bit lazy, and there is no red light camera....have a real good look around, then quietly move off....a ploy i have used more than once in my life, but only works when roads are deserted...most of the time, i just wait till a car comes, and does the deed for me..., even if i have to move forward a little further than i should, to get them to rest on the pad thingo's..

:thumbup:

When i was staying in Erie PA the other day i was at a light in the dark in the pouring rain, just trying to get to mcdonalds....
I'm turning left and it's one of those lights that is red when u cant turn left and changes green.... so after about 4 cycles of just being completely soaked... i employed your method... did a quick 360 look for LEO's (wasn't sure about red light laws in PA) saw it was clear and continued on my way....

Good news is i won 2 medium fries from that trip lol
karma?

 

[Oilgod1]

In one of my courses in college, the instructor activated an induction loop sensor in the ground by taking an extension cord and plugging it into itself. Then when he threw it on the loop, it activated a swing arm barrier. If you have bags on your bike, you may be able to get away with this. Could be something to try though.

 

[FIZZER6]

no lane splitting makes no sense - I say this because in my country that is not a problem - but if some magic politician of the type they are more common nowadays i.e. more and more stupid, stops allowing that I would immediately stop commuting by bike and would use public transportation instead (have in mind cities here are not as big as yours and not all the people have cars, actually I don't know how to drive one and I am 30 years young ), being able to lane split is part of the commuting fun!!

Cheers

I suppose the USA is just too large of a land area that a law like that would be unnecessary for 95% of the country and dangerous for those that tried it due to cage drivers being jealous of bikers getting to "cut in line".

Personally if lane splitting were legal here I would never use it as I never ride in heavy traffic...if I ever did it would be a fluke accident causing the backup and in those cases I would just ride the shoulder/grass to the next exit.