Intersection sensor activator puts an end to cyclist discrimination
By Samuel Axon 
posted November 7th 2008 3:42PM
posted November 7th 2008 3:42PM
[Via Core77]
posted November 7th 2008 3:42PM
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Or, you could just glue a neodymium magnet to the bottom of your cycling shoes, which works just as well...
This works very well, and is very cheap to implement.
i like the magnet idea
....
what happens if you hit a bump if you got this thing
...or I could just ride through, like I do, every day
Know what really grinds my gears? Bicyclists that don't ride on the damn sidewalk, even though there is a freaking huge sidewalk right next to them. So I have to drive around them, going into the opposite lane, unless I want to sit behind an asshole on a bike going 5mph for an eternity.
That's what really grinds my gears. Also, having to do homework on a Friday night for an impromptu Saturday morning class that a douche professor decided to have. That also grinds my gears. I should be drunk right now.
You mean bicyclists obeying the law? Yeah, how terrible.
OR, in the spirit of simplicity that is the bicycle, you could just run the light like everyone else
My thoughts exactlty
Leaning a bike sideways over the sensor always did the trick for me.
If I put that thing on it would be because I don't care about going anywhere fast, which I could also accomplish just by waiting for a car.
Usually, stopping so that the bottom bracket is over a corner of the sensor works fine for me. That's the one place where the most metal in a given area on the bike is... and other than the wheels (which aren't guaranteed to be metal,) is also the closest metal to the road.
Many cities will actually calibrate signals so that they pick up cyclists if you call and ask nicely/complain. In Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA, I've had excellent luck with almost all of the signals. With the few that don't work, just call up the city's maintenance department (if they're big enough, they may even have a traffic signal department!) and tell them about it. That way, the next cyclist (possibly yourself) doesn't have to sit through the same thing.
Heck, if your city doesn't want to get itself sued, they'll usually fill in potholes and clean up any road hazards for only what you pay in taxes. Just tell them how you saw *insert hazard here* making it unsafe for a disabled veteran. Any reasonable person will have it fixed immediately.
Leaning my bike over doesn't do it for me here in Auckland, NZ. The sensors could be calibrated differently, and my bike with its carbon fork and seat-stay may still not be enough metal to set of the lights.
I might give the magnets-on-my-shoes idea a whirl though, worst case scenario I can make some money off the scrap metal I collect.
A tuba also works.
Don't ask how I know.
Okay, fine. I'll tell you. Quit yer whinin'.
When I was in college, the shortest route from the marching band rehearsal field to the parking lot was through a automatic key-card gate, and it only opened for cars. So whenever rehearsal was over, a line of folks piled up at the gate waiting for the Sousaphones to come open the gate (since we were the only instruments with enough metal to set off the sensor).
Yer damn right you'll wait on us . . . candy-a$$es with your tiny-a$$ trumpets and piccolos and junk.
As the basses play, so plays the band.
Much Love,
Tuba Curmudgeon
but wouldn't those intersections have button for pedestrians? Maybe not all.. shrug..
That's great, I guess, kinda like all the semi-working attempts at remedying the same problem for motorcycles.
The best trick I've found when on a motorcycle is to turn off and then re-start the engine once you're over the sensor. The electromagnetic field generated by the cranking starter motor is sufficient to trip the sensor.
@Tyler
I don't know where you live, but many places (like here in San Francisco), the law says I get to use the whole lane on my bike. It's safer for everyone than me squeezing in-between traffic and parked cars, and it's certainly illegal to ride on the sidewalk.
If you don't like it, stop being a whining douchebag and run for city council.
Sorry, I replied to the wrong comment.
@jared
Quit embarrassing our name!
Seriously!
I'd just like to point out that I spelled road 'rode'. . . Quite embarrassing.
Motorcycle have had this solution down for years, since motorcyclists actually get tickets for running red lights, whereas bicycles USUALLY can just get away with it. http://www.thelightknight.com/
Or just get a magnet
F' ING BIKERS DON'T WAIT AT TRAFFIC LIGHTS ANYWAY!!!!!!!
They complain that they have the right to use the road just as cars do and that they always get the shit end of the stick
Yet EVERY biker I've ever witnessed doesn't follow the rules like a car must. They cross red lights, don't stop at stop signs, don't let pedestrians pass..etc....
F EM
Why don't you stop pretentiously taking up an entire lane and making everyone else go as slow as you can pedal
And get on the sidewalk when you can
Some people take their road rage around with them all day! No wonder we're the antidepressant capital of the world.
Hey buddy -- the reasons that cyclists take the lane is because douchebags like you block bike plans that add bike lanes and stuff that gives them the space needed to not get doored or run off the road.
I gotta agree with you, even tho you got low ranked. Cyclist are a menace to everyone on the road.
It's also sometimes illegal to ride on the sidewalk. It's for pedestrians.
I can't speak for other countries, but here in Mexico, your comment doesn't hold up
Cars don't let pedestrians pass here (quite the contrary - they accelerate to pass before you do)
Alot of cars cross red lights (when they can) - I don't know the cyclists you know, but the ones I've seen on the street, all of them stop on a red light... If they cross a red light, they do it in the same fashion cars do: because the other street is empty.
Stop signs? Don't even get me started into that... I'll just say that there have been alot of deaths/injured people because of that
Yes, we bikers have our faults... But those faults are the same the car people have, so you have no right to complain
This? I'd be all for it, except traffic lights in Mexico don't have sensors...
And yes, when you're on a bike, car drivers treat you like a pedestrian
Oh, and here there are no bike lanes, so in some streets it's sidewalk or bust
Blame the gov't for that, not us
You, my friend, are completely incorrect.
In fact, most cycle safety classes teach taking up a lane when you come to a stop light. It's safer for you (sitting in your car, eating a Twix) & for cyclist so they're seen, not turned into & don't block a right turn while the light is red.
This invention is interesting. Too huge to be useful. I wait @ lights every single time I ride (which is roughly 20 miles & out of the City ASAP).
are you from cambridge, england too? that's the default behavious of cyclists here - ride like lunatics, often with no lights, in the dark, in the rain, in fog... suicidal!
I ride from school and work nearly every day as well, and because I'm not an idiot, busy intersections terrify me. When I feel there are too many cars on the street for me to sit with them, I'll go up and press the crosswalk button, and still I have to worry about the people who do not look when making a right turn on red, or an unprotected left turn, or do not look when making a right turn when the crosswalk is lit (green/white) and being used.
I'm not saying that bike riders (I'm not into the culture so I won't speak for them) are entitled to more than their share of rights OR rules, but the next time you're making an unprotected left turn and think "that old man walking isn't even halfway! I can make it!" you're the asshole you're talking about too. Besides which, I'm sure one of their defenses against your argument of "they cross red lights anyway!" is probably one of the factors behind this invention. When I come up to an intersection late at night, I will stop and sit over the spot on the asphalt that looks like it has a sensor buried underneath, but if it doesn't turn and there's no cars in either direction, I'll cross the red light.
As for pretentiously taking up the whole lane? Unless you make a complete stop at no stop sign, T intersections coming out of neighborhoods, and then creep forward looking for bicyclists or anyone farther into your peripheral vision, then you've almost killed me, pretty much once a week at least. I cannot count the number of times someone has slid out of a neighborhood, let go of the gas for a second or two, and jetted forward either right in front of my front tire, and screeching/swerving past my back one.
I forget the exact statistics, but around 80% of biking accidents are caused by riding on the sidewalk. This is because of not only pedestrians, but the fact that cars can't see you when they're pulling out. It's also illegal in many states to ride on the sidewalk (mine included).
Saying every biker you've seen breaks these laws is complete bullshit. Maybe you live in a trailer park? A bicyclist has the full right to the rode just like a driver does. Most serious bicyclists will get as far over as they can to let you pass, but I bet you're the type that runs as close as you can to scare them.
You wouldn't have to wait for cyclists if you supported building more bicycle lanes you know. When gas sky rockets again you'll be seeing them a lot more and will have to learn to deal with them.
My counter-argument is simple but elegant:
We don't fucking kill people.
Now go have fun gassing up your hummer.
hahaha
you all crack me up.
I stand by everything i said but the sidewalk comment
My point is that maybe you bikers should be as courteous to cars as you expect them to be to you
Way to... erm.. backpedal, Ty. It's clear that you want to intimidate and enforce your ignorance and unsafe expectations on others. Do you stare down little old ladies in wheelchairs too?
No response? Let the record show Tyler harasses little old ladies, kittens, puppies, and daddy never hugged him.
I unlike most of you fat-asses that could never balance yourseld on anything less than a ford excursion, use my bike every chance I get... and leave the Buick GN at home.
I stop at every stop sign, every light, and obey every signeage.. more than I can say for most of you motorists out there. Sidewalk is for walking, the road is for other modes of transprtation. I allwas use side streets and residentiona areas to avoid main streets.
And forein people make the assumtion that they are in their country. Here Bicycles are allowed on the street. I have actually been honked and run off the road.
hint, it is usually the poor people who don't care for bicycles, I find that the classy upscale car drivers are way more respecfull, not every person on a bike is poor.
So you either try be patient, or get your fat ass on a bike and see what it is like.
Because if you hit me and let me live Iwill run you over. an iEye for an iEye.
Tyler Tyler Tyler...
When we fuck up, we die. When you fuck up, they die. We have to be careful for us - you have to be careful for them. Cyclists are at no end frustrated with motorists because they assume that they have full reign of the road. I've been forcibly stopped by a motorist in a minivan, only to be yelled at when I took up the whole lane of traffic. Mind you, I was doing 35mph in a 30mph zone, so I was SPEEDING and asserting my position in the road for safety of myself and that man's ability to avoid jail time for killing a cyclist. He chose to ignore the fact that my safety and his freedom were at stake.
That road rage is a truly awful thing to have. You're angry at us because we are fearful and thus assert our position in the road. We're angry because our safety is not respected. I think that the only logical thing to do is to examine the contract you essentially signed when you got your license - the driver's handbook for your particular state. You will notice that in every single state, there are sections regarding cyclists implying that we have every right to the road surface as you do, unless there is a bicycling lane then in which case we each have our own lanes.
Now let's examine your argument that cyclists don't stop at red lights and stop signs, nor do they stop for pedestrians. Your argument exists for cars as well - should cars be kicked off the road? No - that's why roads were built! Should bicycles be kicked off the road, then? No - that's why roads were built! Roads were built for wheeled transportation, and all modes of such transportation must obey traffic laws. Your local police is the authority in dealing with offenders of the law - leave that to them. Just as you shouldn't run another driver off the road for running a red light, you shouldn't do the same to a biker. And just as you as a driver don't criticize driving as a whole as well as the drivers who run their vehicles, you shouldn't single out cyclists.
We simultaneously have every right to the road, and abuse every right to the road as motorists do. Only differences are that 1. Cars are much faster, and 2. Cars are much heavier and safer to be in.
So now that you understand the severity of your lack of logic, please now understand that while we are all at fault, you must still watch out for OUR well being - because like turmoil in the middle east, both drivers and cyclists are always going to disobey the rules of the road.
I see people like you every day. You crack me up. When you are behind the wheel, all you can do is yell at every cyclist that they should get off the road. Then, the second you park your car and start walking away from it, you yell at every cyclist on the sidewalk that they are a danger to pedestrians, and should get off the sidewalk.
Sorry, us stupid cyclists haven't figured out how to get our bikes to fly in the air yet, so we have to be one of the two places. I know it is inconvenient to you, and the entire world revolves around your convenience, but it is just how it has to be. Face it, you just don't want us to be anywhere. If we obey the traffic laws, you complain that we are holding up traffic, and if we ignore the traffic laws, you complain that we are a danger. I honestly am not even going to begin to try and guess why the site of someone riding a bicycle makes you so angry, but it is something yo need to get over, because it isn't like bikes are going to just go away because they annoy you.
If it bothers you that much, then why don't you talk to your city council, and try to get a bond measure to get an entire system of roads just for bicycles built, so you don't have to deal with us?
Uhm, well, people here yell at pedestrians and bikers when they drive a car, then park and walk and yell at cars and bikes, then pick up their bike and yell at cars and pedestrians.
People just don't grasp relativism.
Or, cyclists could also just press the Pedestrian Walk button.
Lol?
That is what I do, the law states that we must walk across the intersection, and not ride when we have to use the walk button. Adn I just got a puctures tube today 1km from my house, good thing I bought that patch tube kit at the dollar store this summer, cause the old one must be crusty...
Or, every time that you drive up to a light, you can park your car in the middle of the road, get out, and then walk across traffic to push the crosswalk button.
So if you decide to drive off a curb with that, it will break off and possibly cause you to fall off your bike? Awesome.
bikers can use those push buttons for pedastrians as well and those road racing bikers rarely stop at anything
Lol? x2
The Navy uses those to explode underwater mines...