There are now video censor cameras which will work well, based on motion.
Actually, they will pick up a bicycle easier than they pick up a dark car.

== Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of mohair
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 12:13 PM
To: OBRA
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] What to do at an eternal red light

The sensor for the left turn lane on Capital Hwy that turns onto Terwilliger
has been tweaked and retweaked for years. When it's tuned for bicycles it
will pick up the steel in a bike chain on a non-steel bike. The problem is
that when it's set like this, the mass of steel in a car or a truck using
the adjacent (straight through) lane will trigger the sensor. I happened to
be present when the City Of Portland workers were finishing up an adjustment
and they explained the problem and the process. As Mark pointed out, these
situations are complaint driven and there are a lot more car drivers than
bicyclists. The sensor has been tweaked yet again and no longer registers
my steel frame bike. If there is a car behind me in the turn lane I try to
get them to drive over the sensor (after I move out of the way) to trigger
the signal. If there is no traffic I treat it like any non-functioning stop
light: I come to a full stop and proceed in a safe and orderly manner.

Personally, I think the sensors need to be designed so the "sensitive"
section is dead center and further away from the adjacent lanes. I am not
going to hold my breath.

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