In Ohio, you’re supposed to treat a nonfunctional traffic light as an all-way stop. I don’t think the law includes any official guidance on how long you need to wait before you can conclude that a light is non-functional, though.
I commute by bike, and I’m all too familiar with sensors that don’t detect bikes. And one of them is leaving the parking lot at my place of work, so there’s no possible way for me to avoid it. Fortunately it cycles anyway at the time of day I’m most often leaving, but when I’m there late, my only option is waiting until it’s clear and just going (there also isn’t a pedestrian button at the intersection).
I’ve also had frustrations with being stopped at that light, and then a car pulling up behind me, and stopping too far back to trigger the sensor. I always gesture the driver forward, but sometimes they don’t understand that, either. Twice, I’ve had the car behind me (in the left-turning lane) pull up past me in the right lane (which of course still doesn’t trigger the light).
That sounds like a terrible idea, to me. Lots of cyclists already act as though that were the law, and it frequently causes problems.
I bet it works a lot better as a law so all drivers always know what to expect than it does as random but widespread flouting of the law so all drivers never know what to expect.
It works fantastically! I think most drivers appreciate it to because bikes can through intersections more quickly and safely. I’ve been riding under these laws for a long time and know how they work and how they can be safe. These laws aren’t zipping us through busy streets any faster. Think small towns, relatively light 4 way stops, etc. I try to avoid busy parts of cities when I’m cycling.
Here’s Minnesota’s statute. It applies to bicycles or motorcycles only, and doesn’t define the meaning of “unreasonable time”. If you’re in a different kind of vehicle that doesn’t trigger the sensor, you’re apparently out of luck. Frankly I’d go for it if I was in a car in this situation.
One good reason for the law to not specify a fixed time is that it can depend on familiarity with the light in question. If I pass through a particular intersection ever day or every week, I already know that the sensor at that light doesn’t detect a bike, and so I don’t need to wait any time at all on a subsequent visit to determine that. Though of course I do still need to stop long enough to confirm that traffic is clear before going through.
That’s the general understanding when by “non-functional” the traffic light is off in all directions (or if it’s blinking in all directions) but if it’s constantly green north-south and constantly red east-west, those traveling north-south don’t see it as non-functional and don’t stop.
In my county, the police/fire/medic dispatcher has a separate phone number for reporting things that are worthy of government attention, but not immediately life-threatening. It’s listed in directories as “non-emergency dispatch”.
That is an increasingly common thing. And darn handy.
Often it’s a conventional 10-digit phone number but in many jurisdictions it’s 311 and there is an ongoing effort to standardize and extend that number nationwide.
Not sure of the practicality stateside, but on the rare couple of occasions this has occurred to me, both times with similarly impeded vehicles behind, I put the car in Park, get out, gesture to the cars behind what I’m about to do and walk to the lights on the footpath and pressed the pedestrian crossing button on the cross road.
Each time, in a few seconds during which I returned to my vehicle, the lights changed.
Fellow travelers were polite, understanding and appreciative.
Whether this actually fixed the issue is not known to me. SEP.
Nearly 40 years ago, I was leaving Amherst MA around 2AM. I waited at least 5 minutes at the traffic light to get on Rt. 2. Not a car in sight during the whole time. The light never changed. What are you supposed to do. So I went.
I have seen the sensor issue happen for cars here, not just bikes. But only on “off-peak” times for a particular road. For example, driving out of a side street that serves a company facility, at a time where that facility is closed. Backing up and coming forwards again can change the light, and I have even seen a guy get out his car and waves his arms around to change a light (obviously these methods depend on the kind of sensor).
Of course the law with malfunctioning lights is the same here; carefully come through if you’re confident that the light is broken.
But for anyone visiting the UK, bear in mind that most towns are not on a grid. So we have some pretty complicated intersections in some places. There are lots of times where it can feel like your road is not getting its fair turn, especially when there’s roadworks around.
A bit of a tangent here, but it does involve road-embedded sensors. One day many, many years ago a friend and I decided to take a few hours to visit an airport and watch planes taking off. What we didn’t do was check the rates for the parking lot, so when we got back to his car, we were without sufficient funds to get out of the lot. It was a slow day, there was very little traffic in and out of the parking lot. Knowing about the sensor loops in the pavement at the entrance gates, I took the car jack from his trunk, waved it over the pavement at the entrance gate, pressed the button to issue a ticket, and when the gate swung up he drove out the entrance.
Mods - I’m certainly not suggesting trying this, besides with the number of surveillance cameras around now-a-days, anyone doing so will have probably their license plate recorded and get a hefty fine.
