It seems there’s no legal way for a lone cyclist to turn from eastbound Scio Church bike lane onto Seventh. Sensor loop in pavement cannot detect a bicycle as a metal object; so left arrow never turns green.
Scio Church & Seventh
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If you have a steel frame, you can briefly lay it on its side over the loop.
Somewhere in the city or state code is an exception for a malfunctioning or unresponsive traffic light. I can’t find it in the city code.
Updated intersections have embedded sensor/transmitter devices. Look for hockeypuck-size indents. My shoe cleats are capable of triggering them… sweet. With loops, sometimes being at the corner thereof with your steel frame helps.
I don’t think there is anything in City or State law about defective signals. I treat them like a stop sign. I also call them in to the City, to let them know they have a defective signal.
Even mopeds often won’t trigger them. I always pull up past the line to get a car to come in behind me, and I was once pulled over for doing that. I haven’t tried sitting over the corner of the sensor—good suggestion!
I bike most everywhere, usually on a steel frame, and get stuck behind these bad signals with infuriating regularity. Frame position over the wires doesn’t seem to matter.
In some states it’s legal to proceed through after the light stays red for one or two cycles. Not Michigan. HB 4265 attempted to amend the state vehicle code to add a provision for bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles to proceed through after one. At this point it seems unlikely to pass.
Just get off the bike, get on the sidewalk, press the cross button, and then walk across like a pedestrian.
The malfunctioning light at Scio Church and Seventh is the least of the problem with this stretch of road. It’s beginning ot look like the surface of the moon, slowyly buy surely, from Main to Maple. Expecting repairs in another decade or two. And from my experience at this intersection, usually one a day, cyclists never stop at the light ever.