Tiger Tales 6: Traffic Signals That Don’t Recognize Motorcycles

By the Law Tigers
America’s Injury Lawyers Who Ride

Traffic Signals that Don’t Recognize Motorcycles

Have you ever pulled up to an intersection where the left turn arrow just wouldn’t turn green?

Any motorcycle rider who has ever pulled up to a stoplight with a triggering device in the roadway that fails to detect the bike knows how frustrating it is.
Do you go through the red light? If you do, are you risking a ticket?

Ultimately, you have no choice. You either sit until a car trips the signal, or you go, and take your chances.
In most states, the lights are required to detect a 750cc motorcycle at three feet. However, many of the devices fail to do so.
For years, more sensitive figure “8″ style detectors have been available, that will even detect a bicycle, but there hasn’t been a big move toward installing them.
Instead, states like Idaho, Tennessee, Minnesota and Arkansas allow motorcyclists trapped at signals to cautiously proceed through the intersection. These laws are explicit. Most states provide that when arriving at a non-functioning signal device, a driver may stop, and then proceed cautiously. However, the standard statute is not as specific as the more recent legislation.

Given the increasing number of motorcycles on the road, the low cost of using the figure “8″ devices, and the benefit for bicyclists, it’s time to correct this “band aid” approach being used as a substitute for using the correct devices.

In the interest of promoting motorcycle safety and equality for motorcyclists, one can only hope that there will eventually be a federally mandated program that requires each and every state to install the equipment needed to trigger intersection lights for all street legal motorcycles.