As bicyclists, we all have faced the problem of being at a red light, but the signal won't change because the electronic metal trigger under the pavement doesn't detect a vehicle because a bicycle's metal is so light.
Well, Ed Hillsman sends over a video outlining how to change that light from red to green. This is how they do it in Redmond, Wash.
4 comments:
Can get the video to play, I guess it requires Windows (from Redmond...)
Yeah... for those (like me) who have to go out of our way to get to a Windows machine to watch this, it's nothing special. It's just a video explaining that you should place your bike over the inductive loop sensor in the road.
Too bad cities (even Redmond) can't be bothered to distribute public information in a standard, universally accessible format... >_<
Sorry about the format, but that's not under my control.
My purpose in forwarding this was simply to note that Redmond has a public information campaign to teach cyclists about the loops. I've ridden with some experienced cyclists in Tampa who did not know how the loops work or that a bike can activate them if placed properly (and if the loop has been set with enough sensitivity to detect a bike--some are not).
Sorry if it came across otherwise, but I wasn't trying to criticize anyone here. It's good information to re-iterate every now and then (there was a time when I didn't know what those inductive loops were).
My complaint on the technology front is about the same as my complaint on the transportation front... "one size fits all" (car or Windows) is naive and governments should help preserve their citizens' freedom of choice. If I want to stop driving my car and start bicycling/riding the bus/etc for ethical reasons or otherwise, there should be government facilities that help me. If I choose to use something other than Windows (Mac, Linux, BSD, etc...) for ethical reasons or otherwise, my government should have important information distributed in a variety of standard formats, not just one heavily patent-encumbered and proprietary format.
Still though, you're right. It's good to share the information about inductive loops, and there are a lot of bicyclists who have yet to had their functionality explained. =)
Post a Comment