The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
A House subcommittee gave unanimous approval Wednesday to HB1981, sponsored by Del. Tag Greason, R-Loudoun County, allowing a bicycle, motorcycle or moped to proceed through a red traffic signal if the vehicle weighs too little to trip the light to green.
In order to proceed legally, the rider would have to wait two full light cycles if the light is cycling normally – for instance, if the bike rider is in a left-turn lane. If the light is not cycling, the rider would have to wait two minutes.
Lobbyists for bicycle and motorcycle groups hailed the measure, saying current law forces their members to be scofflaws if they don’t want to wait interminably at red lights.
The bill now advances to the full House Transportation Committee.
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should be universal
This should apply to all vehicles at red lights, particularly in this time of ridiculous gas prices. I drive a minivan so it's certainly big enough to trip the light yet I waste tons of time and gas sitting at red lights with no vehicles in sight in any direction. If I drove through and a cop was sitting on the corner (or there was a camera) I'd be ticketed. All reds in areas without 24/7 heavy traffic should be flashing reds at the most so that we don't waste fuel idling. Of course, if someone with a red hits someone with a green, the person with the red should be at fault because they obviously weren't looking and obeying right of way.
Red light stop
I have on numerous occasions, at timed or sequenced lights, come to a red light that the red light is what I deem unnecessarily long,and no traffic coming in the other directions, Why shouldn't I be able to pass thru the red light. Much as if having to stop a stop sign where if where the way is clear to then continue?
Big whoop, they changed their law to comply with the federal UVC
All this really does is bring VA laws in compliance with the federal Uniform Vehicle Code. This is exactly what the UVC says to do when a light won't change, even down to the wait 2 minutes or 2 light cycles.
Wasted time and Money
We never seem to run out of dumb ideas to waste money on! If it wasn't my tax dollars being wasted here I'd think this was funny.
Take an old hard drive
Take an old hard drive apart, scarf a couple of the rare earth magnets, and mount them on the bottom skid plate of your bike. Let me know if it works.
Already tried that
It doesn't work unless the sensor was just a hair away from being able to be tripped. What the sensors are is a coil with an AC current that is controlled by the reluctance of the coil. When you move a large metal mass over the coil it changes the reluctance of the coil which changes the frequency which triggers the light. The problem is how far out do you set the control limits? Too narrow and a pedestrian in a crosswalk that goes over the sensors will trigger the light and vehicles in adjacent lanes can trigger turn lanes whn there's nobody turning. Too wide and nothing smaller than a city bus will trigger the light.
wow!!!!
The stupidity of our General Assembly and the Republican AKA tea pary members has started off with nothing but a waste of time and taxpayers money.
Honestly don't they have more important issues to deal with?
WOW!!!!!!!
Calling an entire political party stupid because they are proposing one of thousands of bills that are proposed each year really shows just how intolerant to others needs some folks are. The Bill was introduced because it is a law someone wants changed, that does NOT make it stupid. There are plenty of laws you may want changed and even though I may not agree, that does not make you stupid. We have a democracy for a reason, laws get passed everyday on a Federal level, 6,585 bills were introduced during the 109th (Democrat controlled) congress... 123 became laws and 21 are still awaiting approval (passed both houses), Im sure a few of them may be considered stupid too.
this
is an excellent bill hopefully gaining full approval as a motorcyclist should never have to wait more than their turn at a light because an intersection is not engineered correctly as to accept all modes of traffic. I am suspecting that this would mostly help motorcycles late night with virtually no traffic anyways which is when (say between 11pm and 4am) traffic lights should change over to flashing yellow for thru streets and red for cross streets. Only an idiot would expect this to mean riders would now have a right to cut in front of traffic. Again this is what officials get paid for, correcting problems of traffic flow among others, I think the lights should flash. reps 1 dems a big fat zero
letting bikes, motorcycles go through red lights
Are you kidding? That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard! You know what's going to happen... the "bike" people will not wait two cycles before going through the red light, they'll get hit, and if they survive they'll claim they had the right of way and sue the person going through the green light who is supposed to have the right of way... we all learned it in school.... green = go - - red = stop and don't go until it's green duh There's already enough road rage, this will just add to it.