Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Throw the kickstand down. That usually does the trick.

So what if there are no cycles? There's one light in town my bike never, ever trips. It's always green for the main drag, but when I want to cross, my bike is never picked up. I can't make a right (there's a turn lane for that), can't abandon my bike to hit the crosswalk button, kickstand doesn't work, etc... There's usually enough traffic for a cage to come and trip the light within a minute or two. But now that summer is here and the college town is empty, it's a problem.

I usually just blow the light after waiting 30 seconds or so. There's excellent visibility so I can verfiy no cars are coming (vitally important when the police station is a scant two blocks away).

Skier wrote:So what if there are no cycles? There's one light in town my bike never, ever trips. It's always green for the main drag, but when I want to cross, my bike is never picked up. I can't make a right (there's a turn lane for that), can't abandon my bike to hit the crosswalk button, kickstand doesn't work, etc... There's usually enough traffic for a cage to come and trip the light within a minute or two. But now that summer is here and the college town is empty, it's a problem.

I usually just blow the light after waiting 30 seconds or so. There's excellent visibility so I can verfiy no cars are coming (vitally important when the police station is a scant two blocks away).

Screw it - treat it like a 4-way stop and b*tch to the town for not maintaining their traffic control devices.

If you get a ticket from one of those red-light cameras go to court. If the officer doesn't show up then the ticket is thrown out. Last time I checked those cameras are bolted down. Also, you can make the argument that you waited for the light to turn green but it never did, etc etc.

It's Wisconsin. =\...

BubbaGump wrote:

Skier wrote:So what if there are no cycles? There's one light in town my bike never, ever trips. It's always green for the main drag, but when I want to cross, my bike is never picked up. I can't make a right (there's a turn lane for that), can't abandon my bike to hit the crosswalk button, kickstand doesn't work, etc... There's usually enough traffic for a cage to come and trip the light within a minute or two. But now that summer is here and the college town is empty, it's a problem.

I usually just blow the light after waiting 30 seconds or so. There's excellent visibility so I can verfiy no cars are coming (vitally important when the police station is a scant two blocks away).

Screw it - treat it like a 4-way stop and b*tch to the town for not maintaining their traffic control devices.

What's really silly is the sensors are under the crosswalk, which starts about 2 feet AFTER the stop line. So you have to stop on the close side of the stop line, then creep onto the crosswalk to trip the sensor.

I am usually riding around 3am (post-work) and no one is at the damned lights anyhow, so i run them after a few minutes.
I think any police officer would understand.

i hope...

last time this topic came up i believe someone wrote to their city council and told them which lights on theirroute needed some work. if i remember correctly the lights got fixed pretty soon, its easy to change the sensitivity

DieMonkeys wrote:If you get a ticket from one of those red-light cameras go to court. If the officer doesn't show up then the ticket is thrown out.

How does that work, exactly? A ticket generated by a red-light camera does not have an officer involved. The picture of you on your scoot running the red light is the evidence.

The whole point behind red-light cameras is that they don't need to pay an officer to watch the intersection and write tickets.

I would strongly advise against running the light at any intersection equipped with one of these cameras. You may have a difficult time convincing a judge that you ran it because the light wouldn't change. If that were a viable defense, everyone caught running a light on a motorcycle would use it. This is one of those situations where you are presumed guilty until proved innocent.

If the intersection is equipped with a red-light camera, your safest bet would be making a right turn, then a u-turn somewhere down the road.

Observation : Isn't it strange that they make sensor pads that won't change the light for a motorcycle, but the red-light cam seems to be able to detect bikes just fine

I would imagine you would have an argument for you case if the camera shows you sitting in the same spot for 5 minutes or so without the light changing.

But I do agree, in the case with one of those around, best just to go right on red and turn around.