When smart traffic lights know just enough to be dangerous

Today's commute was a pretty uneventful one. That's usually a good thing. The only scare was a Jeep driver who signaled he was turning into my lane when I was maybe two feet behind his bumper. But I saw him and slowed, and he saw me and didn't turn, so that it wasn't even much of a close call.

There was one point where I narrowly avoided being caught by the traffic light at the south end of Lenora Church Road, so I thought I'd put in a few notes about "smart" traffic lights that know just enough to be dangerous. This is a traffic light that uses a sensor in the pavement to know when to change, and won't change unless it detects a car there. At all. They're often found when you're on a T intersection or a lightly traveled street crossing a heavier one. These have a magnetic sensor that looks like two long rectangles cut into the pavement and sealed in with tar.

The trouble is, like I said, they won't change unless they detect a car. Or a truck or something else big. They usually can't detect motorcycles. I've heard of various ways you can supposedly get their magnetic sensors to detect a bike, from putting your sidestand down on the sensor lines, hitting the starter, etc. I once was stuck at the Lenora Church Road light for ten minutes, with none of these helping.

If you're in a car and you come across a motorcyclist stuck at one of these lights, do the rider a favor: Don't stop your car two car lengths behind the bike to give the rider space. Edge up a little until your tires are over the back of the sensor's rectangle so the sensor can detect something.

For riders, if you find a light like this, there aren't many ways to deal with it if you find you may be the first in line at a red light. I slipped through behind the last car just before it turned red. If you do get stuck, you've got only two options: Run the red light or make a left turn.