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Home » Cycling skills » Traffic » Triggering a traffic light on your bike

Triggering a traffic light on your bike

In this complimentary section from our online course ‘Traffic Smarts for Cyclists,’ we show how to get an unresponsive traffic light to detect your bicycle.

What to do when a traffic light does not detect your bicycle We’ve all been there. You pull up to an intersection, and wait for the light to change. And wait. And nothing happens.

In this interactive guide, we’ll show how to get the traffic light to respond to the presence of your bike.

At some intersections, the traffic lights are timed to automatically alternate a green light on one crossroad, then the other.

At others, the light stays green on the busier/larger roadway until a vehicle arrives from a minor street crossing it.

  • Most of these are triggered by detectors in the road that respond to the presence of metal (not weight).

Let’s look at some ways you can get a traffic light to turn green,

…and the options you have if that still won’t happen.

(Duration: 3.5 minutes)

Launch Presentation
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Other complimentary sections from our online courses. link opens in new window

  • Traffic skills
    • Changing lanes in traffic
    • Navigating traffic circles & roundabouts
    • Riding with kids

  • Bike handling skills
    • Proper braking technique
    • Shifting gears

  • Equipment
    • Parts of the bike
    • Checking your bicycle for safety
    • Choosing & adjusting your bicycle helmet

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  • Trigger an unresponsive traffic light on your bicycle.
  • Improve your daytime (and nighttime) visibility when riding your bicycle.
  • Be maneuverable, visible, predictable, and communicative on a bicycle in traffic
  • Move away from the curb to make yourself more visible & gain maneuverability.
  • Discourage the left cross in an intersection on your bicycle.
  • Pass parked cars on your bicycle without concern.
  • Cycling in neighborhood traffic

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