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Traffic Light Dysfunction (Broken Lights)

Blog Date - 22 January 2013

It's late at night as you pull up to a set of traffic lights, on red.  Typically you're on the side road wishing to join the main road.  There's no traffic on your side road and only the odd car every now and then on the main road.  You sit and wait.  And wait.  Then wait some more.  

Traffic lights have sensors that SHOULD detect a vehicle when it approaches the light.  Often you can see the "pick up" of the sensor a few yards before the lights.  A diamond shape or parallel lines of bitumen sealant indicates where the wires of the sensors were cut into the tarmac.  These are not pressure sensors, they're induction loops similar to the pickup on an electric guitar, instead of a guitar string moving over the pickup your bike or car is the moving part.

These pickups are sometimes not sensitive enough.  It's easy to detect a 1 ton car, less easy to sense a 200 kilo bike.  During the day you won't notice as soon enough a car will approach from behind, but late at night you can be left stranded at a red light for potentially hours.  How long should you wait?  Is there a hard and fast rule, a law, or even some guidance?

From the highway code...

Rule 176

You MUST NOT move forward over the white line when the red light is showing. Only go forward when the traffic lights are green if there is room for you to clear the junction safely or you are taking up a position to turn right. If the traffic lights are not working, treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction and proceed with great care.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 36

https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/road-junctions-170-to-183


So...if the traffic lights are broken then you can proceed with GREAT CAUTION!  But...but but if the lights have not sensed you are they to be considered broken?  If a traffic light engineer checked it out in his car he'd say they were working fine, they sensed his car.  If another car approaches he'd say they're working fine too.  They're only broken from the point of view of the motorcyclist.  

My only advice is if this happens to you on a regular route, you need to let your council know.  Hopefully they'll send an engineer out to "up" the sensitivity.  I know it can be done as I sometimes work for a company who fit "induction loops" for security systems and their lad tells me it can sense a hedgehog with a piece of swarf on it's back.  If you find yourself stuck at some lights in a strange place maybe it's better to get off the bike, switch off the motor and push it as a pedestrian.  Don't fancy that with a Gold Wing though.  I'd welcome your thoughts and experience on this matter.

Reader's Comments

John. said :-
I can show you where that happens all the time and its not too far from where you live. If you take the road from the A6 at westhoughton and turn onto lostock lane you will eventually end up riding past the steel works on then onto the massive set of traffic lights near the junction where you can go straight ahead towards the Tesco roundabout. well, if you back track and end up at the second set of lights where you can turn right to head up to the Bee Hive pub, those lights are the same as you have mentioned. I was on my riding lesson with John from Mercury and we had to wait until a car came up behind us. John always said through the radio that he hopes a car is already there or a car will follow us.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC

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