Biker News

Answer to the Intersection Sensor Problem

From Street Beat column of the Richmond, VA Times Dispatch-

Link to article

MOTORCYCLE UPDATE: Last week, I wrote about motorcycles not triggering the sensors to change traffic lights. I knew some merchants sold gizmos they said would help trip the signal. I didn't mention them because I did not know if they worked, but several readers have told me they do.
"The traffic light changers are nothing more than strong magnets," James said. He said you can get the same effect by placing "any other really strong magnets at a low point on the frame. I don't have one of the pre-fab motorcycle magnets. I have a veterinary magnet used for getting metal out of the stomachs of cows. I know other riders who use the magnets out of computer disk drives."
I think I'd prefer a chick magnet to a cow magnet, but whatever works.
A bicycle rider told me he would lean his bike over by the edge of the groove where the sensor is buried. Often that would trip the signal.
And Jenni Smith of the Virginia Department of Transportation passed along this information: "The motorcyclist should roll the throttle on and off a few times, revving the engine. The added power may be sufficient to disrupt the electrical field. If not, turn the motorcycle off and restart it. The electrical field created by the starter should disrupt the sensor field and trigger the sensor."

We've all been there. Sitting there at an intersection waiting for a green light that we know will never come. The sensors planted in the ground are just not picking up on the presence of the motorcycle. If our theory has to do with weight triggering these things we bounce up and down in the saddle or back up and roll around on the pad. The best strategy much of the time is to cool your heels and pray for a car to come up behind or next to you.

Admittedly I didn't know about the magnet mechanism or that people might be out there selling triggering gizmos. In fact that whole deal about the veterinary magnet was a rude and kind of disgusting shock. Somehow doesn't seem like something that should be mounted near the gremlin bells.

I will definitely remember to try the "rev the engine" trick next time I get stuck.

posted by Tony Wilkie @ 6:01 PM