Bicycle Loop Detectors

[fat and old]

Mucho angst for little return here. On the few (I must have it good) that don’t seem to work for me I just ride on. What’s the issue?

[find_bruce]

Mucho angst for little return here. On the few (I must have it good) that don’t seem to work for me I just ride on. What’s the issue?

You mean apart from needlessly waiting for at least 2 minutes at the light & risking the $389 fine?

I didn't care much when the fine was $79 & almost never enforced. As soon as the Drunken Gay increased the fines & NSW Police started conducting blitzes to enforce them, I expect traffic lights to be set to detect bicycles every time.

[fat and old]

Fair enough on the fine/working detectors. My experience is if they’re not working for two minutes that’s because ain’t no cars for two minutes. No cars means no po-po. No police ride on. If police next to me their car sets off detectors. Win win

[Hergest]

Fair enough on the fine/working detectors. My experience is if they’re not working for two minutes that’s because ain’t no cars for two minutes. No cars means no po-po. No police ride on. If police next to me their car sets off detectors. Win win

Hardly a win/win if you're waiting for two minutes before riding through, especially if on the route you take there are multiple sets of lights not working. Also worthy of mention is the extra hatred directed at cyclists who are seen to ride through red lights by newspaper columnists and radio shock jocks, the kind of people who have the ears of policy makers in government, the same government policy makers who are more often than not deaf to the voices of cyclists.

There's something particularly maddening too at having a problem at a specific set of lights at a relatively quiet side road crossing a very busy significant arterial main road , contacting the relevant authority and still having the light fail to register your bike every week for the next 12 months.

[find_bruce]

Fair enough on the fine/working detectors. My experience is if they’re not working for two minutes that’s because ain’t no cars for two minutes. No cars means no po-po. No police ride on. If police next to me their car sets off detectors. Win win

& if its a single lane road & the po-po are behind you ? Very easy to say f it & ride through say Parammatta CBD with multiple lights that don't detect you - you might wait 2 minutes for the first, but it gets progressively less once you learn they aren't detecting you

[g-boaf]

Fair enough on the fine/working detectors. My experience is if they’re not working for two minutes that’s because ain’t no cars for two minutes. No cars means no po-po. No police ride on. If police next to me their car sets off detectors. Win win

Not a win win. Every other car that sees you is a Police car. They all get on social media and whinge about those red-light running cyclists. Then the media gets word of it and makes a big thing about it, and then the Government wants to introduce rego for bike riders.

[human909]

Mucho angst for little return here. On the few (I must have it good) that don’t seem to work for me I just ride on. What’s the issue?

The issue is the authorities enforcing laws on cyclists where the infrastructure actively encourages cyclists to break laws. Some infrastructure implementations are done EXPECTING and ENCOURAGING cyclists to break laws.

Either strip back the absurd obligations and penalties imposed on cyclists or get you crud together and design APPROPRIATE infrastructure that doesn't expect and encourage violations of road rules.

[am50em]

If traffic sensors are not fully working then the following should apply

63 Giving way at an intersection with traffic lights not operating or only partly operating

I have reported a sensor twice, first time they said they sent a technician out and reported it was fine. Second time no reply. Now I roll through, after one complete cycle, when safe to do so if there is no car to trigger it. This usually only occurs during school holiday periods.

Yesterday I waited a bit because I was worried about a police car (rarely see one on this road) possibly coming along, and was surprised when one did! Fortunately a car came along behind me very soon after and triggered the lights.

[AUbicycles]

I know a few locations that don't trigger well and as a rider the best change is trying to position yourself in the center line.


If you have reported - report again. Invite the council to send someone down to test it with you. The strategy is to be polite but insistent so that it easier for them to fix it than to continue ignoring... that that may mean emailing or writing to other staff members and commenting how the 'general enquiries' is broken or that staff member XYZ may no longer be with the council as you haven't received a response for X months.

[geoffs]

I am constantly amazed that the RMS manages to sell the software for traffic management to other countries.
The only reason i can think of is that it's really cheap because if you compare it to say Germany or Holland it's a joke

[Philistine]

I am constantly amazed that the RMS manages to sell the software for traffic management to other countries.
The only reason i can think of is that it's really cheap because if you compare it to say Germany or Holland it's a joke

I'm not amazed. I've dealt extensively with government departments in the past, and I came to learn that the number one driver of public servants' decisions is cover your (ahem) nether regions. It operates in private companies too but to a much lesser extent.

Simply put - if you have need of a good or service, procuring it from a large and well known (possibly overseas) department in the same line of business will never get you fired or demoted even if it turns out to be rubbish.

I used to work for an American owned specialty chemical company that was the biggest name world wide in its field. There were smaller companies around (some Australian) in the same business, and some of them left us for dead on price and performance - but, during my time there, we won every government tender we ever bid on. You could go to the bank on it (we did).

[human909]

I know a few locations that don't trigger well and as a rider the best change is trying to position yourself in the center line.


If you have reported - report again. Invite the council to send someone down to test it with you. The strategy is to be polite but insistent so that it easier for them to fix it than to continue ignoring... that that may mean emailing or writing to other staff members and commenting how the 'general enquiries' is broken or that staff member XYZ may no longer be with the council as you haven't received a response for X months.

I wonder how things would be if motorists had to take actions like this in an effort to get the basic things right.

That said my experience in Victoria is largely good. But damn if I can ever get the right turn arrow just around the corner from my house to work. If it doesn't give me a right turn I scoot across on the pedestrian crossing...

[RobertL]

Hmm. I literally never have this problem in Brisbane. I position myself on the centre of the loop, like in the photo above, and it always works.

I'm not denying the experience of others on here, but my success rate does seem strange in comparison. Is Brisbane better for this? Or am I just lucky?

[Arbuckle23]

I do remember on the Around the Bay this Year. Huge group waiting for a right turn arrow out the back of Werribee.
50 or more riders in the lane and the loops still didn't trigger.

[fat and old]

Fair enough on the fine/working detectors. My experience is if they’re not working for two minutes that’s because ain’t no cars for two minutes. No cars means no po-po. No police ride on. If police next to me their car sets off detectors. Win win

& if its a single lane road & the po-po are behind you ?

You’re smarter and more level headed than me Bruce. You wouldn’t pull across and wave them onto the loop and let them know why? That’s what I’d do.

You (Sydney riders) seem to have a much worse time of it than I do, like I said maybe I’m lucky? But stuffed if I’m gonna wait minutes for a light if it’s obviously defective. And if car drivers wanna hate on me for that big deal; it’s not going to be any worse than it is already. They hit me up with rego? So what, I’ll be like the Japanese. And I’ll shove that plate down the throat of every moron that speaks to me. Meh, loops. First world problems. Sorry but there’s more important things in life.

Human, the mere existence of laws encourages you to break them mate

[am50em]

I decided to try various positions on the road on my problematical right turn sensor. Normally I position either directly centered or slightly to the right of the sensor centerline. I tried positioning to the left, only 5 to 15cm and sensor has triggered everytime!

[fishwop]

Sounds like it is detecting your pedal. If you have a carbon bike positioning a pedal over the centre of the loop and backpedalling furiously seems to be the best bet. So long as you don't have rubber pedals.

[am50em]

Currently all Al alloy bike, previously heavy steel bike.