Stuck at traffic lights?

Published by Matt Polaine | Filed under Cycling

Traffic engineers seem to love ignoring cyclists’ and motorcyclists’ needs. A common one is the traffic light which won’t change for those on two wheels but when a car turns up behind you they suddenly go green. Why?

Well this is because the sensitivity of inductive loops in the road are often set too low. Your carbon Cervelo P3 doesn’t have enough iron in it to trigger the magnetic field. Is there a solution? There might be.

Although high power magnets may wreck your speedo readings, placed under the bottom bracket they might make the difference. See a video of this. No success implied!

Of course the traffic engineers could be more bothered to make adjustments. It is possible, read. Don’t expect such signs to appear in Cambridge this decade though!