[SafetyFirst]

I blew one tonight making a left. I got sick of waiting for it not to see me when traffic was so light. Did a quick glance 360 to see if there was a cop around (Ohio is so cool in that police leave their headlights on at night!) and just did it.

Anyone ever got popped for this?

[eternal05]

The safest thing to do is take the protected right and pull a U-turn.

[Elias]

agreed…

But i’ve done the frustrating left turn when ignored by the light too…in a cage. I understand both sides, depends on your night I suppose…

[zeppelinfromled]

This only ever happens to me late at night (after midnight or so). Before that, there’s usually enough traffic that there will be a car to trigger it. I’ve run them a couple times, usually going straight.

Taking a protected right and then a U-turn is safer, but around here we have a lot of no turn on red situations, so I’ll be doing something wrong either way. I just ease out into the intersection so that I can clearly see in both directions with no obstacles (parked cars, etc) and slowly go through.

I haven’t gotten in trouble for it (maybe I just haven’t been riding long enough). But I hope that if a cop pulled me over, I could explain my way out of that one.

[ranette]

We don’t have many lights where I live, actually only one in the entire county. However this year I’ve ridden around a good portion of the Northeast and this was a serious PITA. The thing about the protected right is that if you’re in a dedicated left hand turning lane it means going across at least one, maybe more, lane. The closest I’ve come to making a very serious blunder came when sitting, sweating and getting frustrated in a left turn lane near Albany. Cars where whizzing by, but nobody else wanted to make that left turn. When I realized the light wasn’t going to turn, I had read about this but this was my first experience, I figured the best thing was to get to the next lane, go straight and make a left at the first intersection where I saw a car already waiting. However the situation was so new to me and I was so frustrated that I almost took off with just a quick look in the mirrors rather than a full head turn. If I had pulled out all I can say is I wouldn’t be here typing this morning.

I know from one previous experience many yeas ago in my car where a light wouldn’t change for a ridiculous amount of time that the cop didn’t want to hear about why I blew the light the fact is I blew the light and he was going to write me up.

This isn’t a daily problem for me so I just kind of forget about it, but for some of you guys it must be something you are constantly dealing with. I’ve heard that the little magnetic devices they sell are pretty worthless. Seems like there has to be something that could be done to make lights sensitive enough for motorcycles. It is a safety issue, does anyone know if the AMA considers this an issue and is trying to lobby to rectify it?

[MattN]

From what I’ve read, the law for this is that in the event of a incorrectly functioning traffic light, the proper procedure is to treat it as a 4-way stop.

Since the traffic light isn’t detecting you on your bike that is a perfectly reasonable excuse and if you’ve waited a good amount of time I doubt that you’d get pulled over for this.

[Ben]

I’ve done this before, but only when I ride after midnight. Otherwise I usually just wait a couple minutes for a car to come up behind me. I live in a pretty populated area though so I might do this more often if I lived in the sticks.

Ben

[Elias]

A couple minutes?? Now that is focused patience Ben, especially for Cali. Ben, if you’re going to sit there for minutes on end, you might as well get off, walk over to the corner and push the pedestrian button. But I suppose it’s a good thing that you wait, because as one member said on here:

“Don’t ever get on your bike if you have somewhere to be.”

[Munch]

Here in NC they allow you to blow a red light with a left turn if you waited 2 cycles of oncoming traffic and no green for you . Then you are able to proceed with caution.

[SafetyFirst]

The trouble is, this wasn’t a major 4-way intersection. It was a side street to apartments on one side, and the closed for the night mall on the other side. If the light would have just cycled at all, I’d have a chance. But, no. It will not trigger at all unless it senses a car.

If I ever get stopped, I think I’ll use the argument that the traffic control device is malfunctioning — it cannot sense my vehicle.

[Slice947]

In my cage when waiting for a light that just won’t change, I normally try to back-up if possible to get in “range” or whatever. Most of the time I’m infront of the white line so it doesn’t like to pick me up, but behind the line it normally gets me. If you get a ticket in that situation, for running the light, I’d raise hell in court for them having shitty equipment ’till they let me off.

[zeppelinfromled]

Yeah, staying behind the white line is important for it to pick you up. I never pull up in front of the line though. In my area, as soon as you pass the line, you’re in the crosswalk. I sometimes pull up a little past it on my bike during the day so that a car behind me will be able to pull up far enough to activate the light.

[roborabbit]

Luckily NJ is a bit to cheap to install these actuated traffic lights in any big number ( maybe 1 possibly 2 per town if it’s an upper class area). Hell they’re so cheap here they only pave streets every 6-8 years or if they have more than 9 pot holes per 10 sq ft and even then only if it’s a major road. Sometimes corrupt politicians end up doing good things (inadvertently) when they only support projects that get them or their friends money.

[Author]

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