Many states have that law.

Here's my favorite:

"We'll have motorcycles trying to cross six lanes. ... Working traffic collisions, I don't have much confidence in drivers or riders."

That's not a safety issue. It's called natural selection.

 

I hate to say it but the people quoted in this article are full of $hit. Do they really think that before the law, bikers were sitting at lights waiting that won't change? And Lt. Bob Lyons questioned how the officers were going to know if the biker was sitting at the light or not. Give me a break! I stopped a bike ONCE in my career that went through a light that wouldn't change and once he told me that he waited for the light and it didn't change I let him go. Come on now, if there's alot of traffic you wouldn't have to worry about it, just wait for a car to roll up and if there aren't any cars then it isn't a safety issue. I say all states should adopt this as law.

 

I like dat law!!!

 

We like dis law. HarleyJoel you are 100% correct. Been a cop for about 28 years.

 

Being that I live in TN, I'm all for it! Theres only one way to get to my house and theres one of the offending stoplights about a half-mile from home. If I waited for that thing to change, I'd sit there 30 minutes until another cage came along to trip the sensor. That Officer Keeter reminds me of the cop on Happy Days, too much starch in the shorts. I guess he doesn't mind sitting at the lights all day.

 

"Motorcyclists had complained they were forced to wait excessive periods of time at stop lights because sensors that control the lights did not recognize motorcycles, which are now made mostly of aluminum and fiberglass, not metal."

Typical newspaper reporter, dumb as a post and can't figure out how to check facts. Last time I looked, aluminum WAS metal (just not ferrous metal ) ...

 

This might explain why I saw some guy on a new metric, stopped, off his bike and jumping up and down at a stop light.

I thought he just saw my Harley and realized what he was missing

 

Stopped at a red light a few years ago. This Police officer on a harley pulled up next to me we nodded. He looked both ways looked at me and said lets go. We ran the light. I wish he would have hit his siren or light,

68

 

I used to have a problem with waiting for lights....Then I bought a Harley. There is actually "metal" on this bike. No problems henceforth.

I like it when people think that motorcycles don't weigh enough to trigger the sensors...cracks me up. Sheesh, everyone knows its the WIDTH of the vehicle that triggers the sensors, not the WEIGHT.

 

Got a traffic warning once for pulling beyond the "stop here" line to let the car behind trip the light. The cop knew it too. He sat there and watched me do it intentionally, thats why I got a warning. If I had rolled to a stop past the line it would have been OK. Must not have been my day.

 

Use the law to fix the lights

How about getting the department of transportation to fix or replace lights that fail to register motorcycles?

These cretins are more than happy to take our money when it comes time to register our bikes, and to spend the tax money from the gasoline we buy. Why don't motorcyclists, as a group, stand up and DEMAND that traffic lights that depend on defective "vehicle sensors" be removed. I can't believe that doing so would create that many traffic problems, and would be much safer than allowing people to run red lights.

In general government bodies are immune from civil lawsuits under the concept of "Sovereign Immunity" - however, once they build a road, or erect a traffic control device, they are under a legal obligation to provide adequate maintenance. A traffic control device that fails to register approximately 10% of the legally licensed vehicles on the road is pretty clearly defective. How about a state-by-state class action lawsuit to get highway departments to remove these deathtraps?

 

It's not the light, it's the sensor grid embedded in the road surface ...

You CAN get them to fix it, just report it to the appropriate road (city, county, state ...) entity. If you are on record as reporting a problem (Xerox your complaint letter ...) and you end up getting a ticket at that intersection, trust me, the ticket will be dismissed.