Because I am a good law-abiding bicyclist, I stop at red lights. (Also, I dislike getting run over.) However, lots of Charlottesville traffic lights use magnetic detectors that aren't sensitive enough to detect my bike, even though it has a steel frame, making it tough to get a green light.
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?
I've been in touch with the City's traffic engineer, who has made some tweaks but says they've done all they can with the existing system. Here's where you can help: the next step is to create a list of every City intersection where this happens. Then local government can spring into action, prepare priorities, look at budgets, etc.
So make a comment here with your nominees for traffic signals that don't detect bikes. Not if it just takes a long time. Only include it if you sit there and watch as other traffic gets a green light, but you never get one. Don't know if it's in the City? Include it anyway, although I'm not promising to do anything with VDOT-controlled signals right now.
PS - If you didn't notice, Google is looking for nominations for bike trails, pedestrian malls, campus paths, etc. to StreetView-ify with this trike they've built. Submit yours by 10/28.
C-ville Bike Mentors at Your Service
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Charlottesville is Bike Friendly!
2 comments:
I can't trigger a green arrow for the intersection of Roosevelt Brown Blvd. and W. Main; turning left onto W. Main heading toward the Corner. I wait ahead of the stop line and motion any vehicle to move up behind me to allow us both to proceed, but if no cars are there I'm stuck - because I want to stay legal.
There's always the regular green light, but it's a busy intersection and visibility is very poor. Making a left on green is not always available and it's actually quite dangerous in any case.
Same problem at Roosevelt/W Main, turning left on W Main, happened to me tonight!
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