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JohnRich

Proposed Law Would Allow Motorcyclists To Run Some Red Lights

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.
Compared to lights, they:
- Move more traffic.
- Have fewer accidents.
- Have fewer fatalities.
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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News:

Proposed Law Would Allow Motorcyclists To Run Some Red Lights

If Gov. Pat Quinn goes along, motorcyclists could start ignoring some red lights.

Motorcyclists and bicyclists in some areas will often pull up to a red light that won’t change to green. The reason is that the embedded sensors that trip the switch to change them don’t detect a vehicle as light as a bicycle or motorcycle.

That has led to a bill, now on the governor’s desk, which would allow motorcyclists to treat a red light as a stop sign if it doesn’t change to green in a reasonable amount of time...
Full story: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/08/03/proposed-law-would-allow-motorcyclists-to-run-some-red-lights/

Don't blame me for the misleading title.



In the cycling community, this is know as the Idaho Stop, named for the Idaho law enacted in 1983: http://www.bicyclelaw.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/3/7/Origins-of-Idahos-Stop-as-Yield-Law
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



That me be true in some cases, such as lightly traveled intersections, but certainly not all.

Here in heavily congested Houston, when the power goes out on the traffic lights and everyone has to treat the busy intersections like a 4-way stop, traffic backs up for miles. Therefore, traffic lights definitely HELP traffic flow most of the time in those circumstances.



Lights and Stops arent your only 2 options, John.



Well, here in the big city when the lights are "out", they blink red on battery power, and thus become four-way stops.

And the few times even the battery backups have gone out, like during days of power outage in a hurricane, it would be VERY dangerous to run an intersection, because someone might be doing the same thing at the same time from a cross direction. And if you're driving at night in those conditions, with a total blackout, where you can't even see that a traffic light is over the intersection, then your life is one the line at every intersection. You'd best stop and look.

If you're approaching an intersection with an inopertive traffic light, what else do you propose is legal and safe?

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.



Then he should have said so. All he actually said was that street lights should be eliminated. If he had meant that intersections should be redesigned at the same time, he should have said so. Because if you do the former without the latter, you have chaos.

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*** And if you're driving at night in those conditions, with a total blackout, where you can't even see that a traffic light is over the intersection, then your life is one the line at every intersection. You'd best stop and look.
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Seems at night as you approached the intersection you may notice other cars headlights unless of course the hurricane took them out as well.

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News:

Proposed Law Would Allow Motorcyclists To Run Some Red Lights

If Gov. Pat Quinn goes along, motorcyclists could start ignoring some red lights.

Motorcyclists and bicyclists in some areas will often pull up to a red light that won’t change to green. The reason is that the embedded sensors that trip the switch to change them don’t detect a vehicle as light as a bicycle or motorcycle.

That has led to a bill, now on the governor’s desk, which would allow motorcyclists to treat a red light as a stop sign if it doesn’t change to green in a reasonable amount of time...
Full story: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/08/03/proposed-law-would-allow-motorcyclists-to-run-some-red-lights/

Don't blame me for the misleading title.



Drives me crazy. It ceases to amaze me that any time I read a news article that pertains to anything I have in depth knowledge of it's wrong. Makes me think that pretty much all of the news we get is bullshit.

I install many vehicle loops. The WEIGHT of a vehicle has nothing to do with it. Vehicle detection loops create a magnetic field. The detector senses a change in the magnetic field when a metal object is present. Bicycles and motorcycles sometimes don't get picked up when they are in the middle of the sensor. If they move over a few feet they will be on the most sensitive part of the field and will trigger the light.

That being said sometimes loops and detectors fail. If the light isn't changing and there's no traffic anyone should be able to run the red light. Motorcycle or not.

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.


Then he should have said so. All he actually said was that street lights should be eliminated. If he had meant that intersections should be redesigned at the same time, he should have said so. Because if you do the former without the latter, you have chaos.


Don't forget that Americans suck ass when it comes to negotiating a roundabout. :P
HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.


Then he should have said so. All he actually said was that street lights should be eliminated. If he had meant that intersections should be redesigned at the same time, he should have said so. Because if you do the former without the latter, you have chaos.


Don't forget that Americans suck ass when it comes to negotiating a roundabout. :P


The nearby towns of Boulder and Superior have been putting in roundabouts. The dumb 'Merkun drivers eventually figure it out.
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.


Then he should have said so. All he actually said was that street lights should be eliminated. If he had meant that intersections should be redesigned at the same time, he should have said so. Because if you do the former without the latter, you have chaos.


Don't forget that Americans suck ass when it comes to negotiating a roundabout. :P


The nearby towns of Boulder and Superior have been putting in roundabouts. The dumb 'Merkun drivers eventually figure it out.


They're starting to get installed in a lot more places around Texas. With some signage, people are starting to figure them out. It just takes time. Look at the UK, they're still driving on the wrong side of the road, but they're working on it...slowly.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.



Then he should have said so.



No, I said what I meant to say. Others were smart enough to figure out the rest; some not so smart.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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Don't forget that Americans suck ass when it comes to negotiating a roundabout. :P



Then they are in good company ... The French can't get a grip of them either.
BUT they are Really simple - except you lot go around the wrong way.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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Look at the UK, they're still driving on the wrong side of the road, but they're working on it...slowly.



yeah, we're phasing it in ... Lorries [Trucks !!] will drive on the Right Next year and cars a year later.:P

Other people have suggested that we do it by the colour of the vehicle - but that's just plain daft:o

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.


Then he should have said so.


No, I said what I meant to say. Others were smart enough to figure out the rest; some not so smart.


Lemme see:
- Kallend is English.
- What intersection did the English invent that outperforms traffic lights in every way, and there was even a song about it?
Ooh! Ooh! I know!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPOTg-7pV64B|
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.


Then he should have said so. All he actually said was that street lights should be eliminated. If he had meant that intersections should be redesigned at the same time, he should have said so. Because if you do the former without the latter, you have chaos.


Don't forget that Americans suck ass when it comes to negotiating a roundabout. :P


Depends on where you grew up. There are a few of them in St. Louis North County. The neighborhood I lived in, back in the 70s was off of Halls Ferry Rd. The traffic would be near stand still, until you got to the Halls Ferry Circle. Then it just flowed. They're a cakewalk.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=the+halls+ferry+circle+st.+louis&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87df4be911856c95:0x5d9c7a563df8725a,Halls+Ferry+Cir,+St+Louis,+MO&gl=us&ei=Raw6TqeJK5SWtwf78bToAg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ8gEwAA

You're in and out in no time.

Building more. Article says the first was built in 2002. Not so. North County has had circles since NorCo roads were first built to connect to North City.
http://www.modot.org/stlouis/links/roundaboutsinstlouis.htm
"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.


Then he should have said so.


No, I said what I meant to say. Others were smart enough to figure out the rest; some not so smart.


Lemme see:
- Kallend is English.
- What intersection did the English invent that outperforms traffic lights in every way, and there was even a song about it?
Ooh! Ooh! I know!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPOTg-7pV64B|



I prefer this psychedelic roundabout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPANKRHL9HU
Remster

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The Swindon Magic Roundabout is real enough (and I know you know that!) It terrified me when I went through it the first time. Enough to make sure I never went to Swindon again! lol
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=swindon+magic+roundabout&hl=en&ll=51.562825,-1.771489&spn=0.001397,0.002328&sll=32.324431,-110.960043&sspn=0.015195,0.018625&t=k&z=19
Remster

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And if you're driving at night in those conditions, with a total blackout, where you can't even see that a traffic light is over the intersection, then your life is one the line at every intersection. You'd best stop and look.



Seems at night as you approached the intersection you may notice other cars headlights unless of course the hurricane took them out as well.



You would think so, but we're conditioned to keep on driving unless we see a stop sign or a red light. And intersections with traffic lights don't have stop signs. So in black-out conditions, that's what some people do - they drive right on through, because there was no stop sign and they couldn't see the inoperative traffic light. All it takes is for one other person coming the cross direction doing the same thing, and you've got an accident. Add some rain from the hurricane producing reduced visibility and slick roads, and you've really got a mess. This is what it's like living in a hurricane area. It's best just to stay the heck off the roads at night in such circumstances.

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Traffic lights do not reduce accidents, and they lead to more congestion. They should be eliminated altogether.



I believe what Kallend is advocating is roundabouts.



Then he should have said so.



No, I said what I meant to say.



Well then, if you said all you meant to say without leaving anything out, then you're just plain wrong.

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The Swindon Magic Roundabout is real enough (and I know you know that!) It terrified me when I went through it the first time. Enough to make sure I never went to Swindon again! lol
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=swindon+magic+roundabout&hl=en&ll=51.562825,-1.771489&spn=0.001397,0.002328&sll=32.324431,-110.960043&sspn=0.015195,0.018625&t=k&z=19



oh it's real enough but I don't get down to Swindon often (there be Dragons)

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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This has been the law in TN for a few years now, with the cavaet that the motorcyclist must prove that the light they "ran" was a pressure plate activated light and as such would not have changed (motorcycles are generally not heavy enough to activate them). Generally speaking, most TN cops wont give a motorcycle a ticket at night or when the road is deserted so long as they come to a complete stop (like a stopsign).
And sorry if this was already posted, I rarely come in this forum and I didnt read anything but the OPs post...

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

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