How Many of us have been Impatient at a STUPID LIGHT?????

[hammersley]

Ok - there are times when I've come up to a stoplight - say very early in AM or late at Night AND NOBODY IN SIGHT - but the light is RED! AND IT STAYS RED! Some of these intersections will stay red till the full cycle - like a zillion hours! What do you folks do???

What's worse - have you ever been waiting at a turn lane - and you arrived in time to be "detected" BUT THE LIGHT DOESN'T cycle for you - you are missed!!!!!!!

 

[whamby]

There is one such light I go through on my way home from work. It is in a small town and if you get 6" past the line it won't change for you. After 3 or 4 minutes I usually just look around and go on. It is usually after 11pm and hopefully the cops are asleep somewhere.

 

[BarryG]

I have to deal with it every morning when I go to work. I have to make a left hand turn and the timing cycle must change at different times of the day. When I go in the left turn light only comes on every third cycle of the rest of the lights. You end up sitting there for 7-8 minutes. After about 8am it changes back to normal where it comes on every cycle. I have been known to go through that one, well ok daily. Or how about when riding a motorcycle and the light is weight activated. I used to hate that.

 

[SEmerson]

Happens all the time with a motorcycle. They don't seem to have enough mass to set it off.

 

[klenger]

It's even worse on a bicycle.

 

[tbrudder]

I've heard several bikers curse the signal controllers (I think they're actually magnetic detectors, BTW--not pressure).



The thing I hate the most is left-turn red arrows. Before I moved to St. Pete/Clearwater, I'd seen maybe a half-dozen of these ever. Even though the road is straight (there are no curvy roads in Pinellas County that I've found) and flat (highest elevation is something like 22' MSL), and I can see there are no cars for a half-mile (or three miles, at night sometimes), you can't turn left. They're at almost every intersection! Why???



The curb they put up the last 100' before the intersection (usually a turn lane before that) is annoying, too, when you want to pull into a gas station on the other side of the road.



It's just so easy to miss little curbs like that when I'm driving my truck and don't want to drive around the block to get back to the station--whoops, there went another!







--Ty

 

[Scot]

I was leaving DFW airport many years ago in a '75 F250 4x4. The toll gate has to be activated by the magnetic signiture of the vehicle. The truck would not trigger it so the arm would not rise. There was no way the toll taker could manually raise it. (??) Some time later, maintenance arrives, takes the cover off the machine, lays it under the truck, and the gate went up. Only took about 30 minutes...

 

[Hudsonhawk]

Back in college, my Honda CRX (aluminum everything) would not trip the magnetic field sensors at lights. I had to either set and wait for another car to come up to the light or run it. I normally would check for traffic then just run it.

 

[DMC]

I ussually wait and see if I'm going to get screwed out of my time to go, if I'm in a turn lane. If not I'll wait a couple of minutes.

I did get a ticket in my younger days for running a traffic light on my Motorcyle, I really did wait like 5 minutes before running it. It was like 0200 and no traffic at all. A good for nothing Barney Fife came out of no where within seconds. He nearly ran over me as he was comming up behind me with his lights on. Nothing worse than a crook for a cop.



Thanks



Don

 

[Duluth Diesel]

I do the look around and drive through it thing as well. If it is 1 am and not a car in sight, it is stupid to sit there.



On a side note: You know those stupid entrance ramp light that operate during rush-hour? They work fine here in Minnesota because people are too gutless to run 'em. I heard they tried using those lights in L. A. and gave up because everyone flicked them off and drove right through. Heck, they probably pulled out their pieces and busted a cap in half those lights.

 

[E7mack96]

Here in Fairfield there is a left turn arrow that is turned off at nite. ( I have waited 10 minutes for it) When I would rol into town at 1-3 am I would stop, Wait one cycle then turn left when the cross traffic light would be red.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Happens all the time on the bike. One trick is to kill the engine and start it back up - that sometimes triggers the light. Many states are adding laws now that allow motorcyclists to run the light after so many minutes if they won't trigger.

 

[BigMike]

If I don't see blue lights around, I usually run the darn thing!!

 

[Zer0hmZ]

I was with a two buddies of mine once (this was back in high school), it was about 1am we were waiting at a light to make a left turn. I was in the back seat. So we're waiting there, an old beat up mini van drives up next to us, there's this kid driving it, the driver of my car says "the (*&% you looking at?" now, why he said this, to this day I don't know. I guess where he lived he could get away with it. After he said that the driver in the minivan replied with something just as harsh, then my driver replied to that. The other driver replied once more, and all of a sudden, the minivan door swings open 3 guys come out "ready to fight". At that point my driver wasn't so tough anymore, and he was talking under his breath to the passenger "should I take the light?? Should I take it? Huh?" The light FINALLY turned green and we turned. He didn't talk to people at traffic lights anymore after that.



Ok, so it's not a Cummins story, but it's a story.

 

[JPope]

Have you ever looked in your mirror right after you have moved through the red light and noticed that it changed to green!!!!!!

Then you wonder what would have happened if you had sat a little longer???????

 

[Zer0hmZ]

Originally posted by JPope

Have you ever looked in your mirror right after you have moved through the red light and noticed that it changed to green!!!!!!

Then you wonder what would have happened if you had sat a little longer???????

You would have gone through a green light instead of a red one.

 

[JHerrlich]

Used to happen to me all the time on my bike here at Camp Pendleton. They still haven't fixed the lights to pick up motorcyles (at least to my knowledge).

 

[daveshoe]

There is a STATE ROAD that I use to get to my farm that is crossed by a county road that goes to a shopping center. the idiots that set the timing for that thing have it set long enough to clear 25 cars coming/going to that shopping center. You are lucky to see three cars go through that thing. They need to reverse the timing ,or at least make the state road cycle long enough that you can keep a heavy load rolling by timing the light. Rather than sit there like a fool , I run it[after stopping of course] if no one is within 300 yards of the thing. BTW , there are so many accidents where the small road crosses an even larger state divided highway, they are thinking about closing that intersection[because the shoppers are the ones failing to yield to traffic. ]

 

[lil red cummins]

for all you motorcyclers out there.



there is a device you can bolt on to the bottom of your frame that puts out a magnetic field to help trip the traffic light signal. one of my friends has it on his kaw. i will ask him what the thing is called. he has it tied to go on with the brake light.

i found this , but not sure if it is the same one.



yes, i learned long ago (from the local police), if there is no one around at 3 am, come to a full stop, check carefully all directions, and then proceed through the red light. this was especially nice when i ran a plow for the city.



jim

 

[woodsrat]

are you kidding

here the story



4am somewhere in VA (when i was in the navy) was out running around like any kid on a friday night. stopped at a light getting back on a main road and set there for like 5mins. it never changed and there were no other cars that passed in this time. so i said what the hell and went across the lanes and headed up the highway. red and blue lights what the!!!! he was sitting behind a sign and watched me the whole time. Tell me that light wasnt rigged.