I heard that if you push a crosswalk button in a certain rhythm the right amount of times, it turns every light at the intersection red at the same time. is this true? and if it is, does anyone know what that rhythm is?
No, it’s not true. Common sense is my cite.
up up down down left right left right b a start
Happen to push it at the right time at an intersection which has a Barnes Dance? Although if one of those is in the cycle, I’m not sure why buttons would be provided, unless there are also single way crossings. Or maybe if another urban legend is true - that the buttons don’t really do anything anyway, and are just provided to make pedestrians feel like they have some control.
Sounds like a variation on this urban legend.
Well, I know late at night there have been a few traffic lights that are supposed to turn green whenever a car pulls up to them.
They don’t always work on my motorcycle. So what I do is jump off my bike, run over and push the crosswalk button and then run over and hop back on my bike. (The crosswalk button has turned my light green now)
Shave and a haircut, two bits. [citation needed]
OK, not true. But wouldn’t that be funny?
Somewhat tangential: Some intersections do have devices that will turn the light green in response to a signal from an oncoming vehicle. They’re used for emergency vehicles. ISTR that you could get a flasher that would activate the device for use in your own car, but this would of course be illegal.
Even more tangential: I went to undergrad at a school that has a very tall, rather iconic building. We discovered that if you hit the stop switch in the elevator just as it was slowing down to hit a particular floor, that call would be ignored and you’d continue on unimpeded.
As a side note, a few states have made it legal for bikes to run red lights under these circumstances (like where I live!). You might want to check that out.
The solution is very simple for any motorbikers out there willing to experiment.
Intersection lights are triggered by a PLP (Piezo Loop Piezo) system embedded in the ground, that does a few things, all by means of the loop sensing when a car / motorcycle passes through its magnetic field and disrupting it.
Once you’ve been above the PLP embedded in the ground for a given amount of time, the signal switches from red to green.
The problem with motorcycles is that the PLP’s were not designed for them but for vehicles with larger metallic mass. To remedy this all you have to do is attach one or two neodymium magnets on your bike frame on its lowest part. They generate a magnetic field strong enough for the PLP to sense it and trigger your lights. Voila, problem solved.
You can find neodymium magnets in bucky balls for instance. They’re usually small very strong magnets - sometimes the hardware stores sell them. If you attach one to your fridge and have a hard time prying it off there, that’s the kind of magnet you need.
(Please take a minute and PM me if my solution worked. If not, you may be dealing with another type of intersection system, but I have no knowledge of any other traffic-triggered intersection light systems in use in North America to this date.)
To the original question: NO. Not in Canada. Being a flaw likely to “transpire”, I don’t see how that would be implemented and especially why. Any sane tech would pull his truck to the intersection light box and operate the lights from there.
Cool, I thought I was the only one that did this. PITA when the sensors in the road don’t trigger.
5/4
I know of two intersections where pressing the walk button will result in an almost instantaneous walk light. (Well, instantaneous yellow, followed by red, followed by walk.) They won’t be immediate if auto traffic hasn’t been moving for very long, though.
I doubt this will work. Metal detectors embedded in the road use an inductive loop driven by an oscillating voltage. The varying current flowing through the loop induces an oscillating magnetic field that causes the current to drop out of phase with the voltage. When a car stops over the loop, the fluctuating magnetic field induces eddy currents in the nearby metal. These eddy current create an opposing **oscillating **magnetic field which alters the phase delay of the circuit. This shift in phase delay tells the detector that a vehicle is there. Putting a couple of **static **magnets in proximity to the loop should not significantly alter the phase delay of the current in the loop.
Many years ago, I was able to ride my bicycle on college town streets (in the summer) without risking death. I would sometimes ride into the left turn lane to make a left turn, but couldn’t trip the pavement sensor. My solution was to cut off a broom handle and attach two magnets to the bottom. Waving the magnets back and forth over the sensor loop would give me a green turn arrow. The broom handle was clipped to the vertical tube of the bike frame when not in use.
thanks man