Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/24/driver-stuck-at-red-light-figu.html
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The laughter absolutely sells it.
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I’ve had to do that on my scooter which won’t trip the sensors, you insensitive clod!
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I sat at a red light for about five minutes once. It was late at night and I guess this particular light is on a timed cycle in the daytime. There I was, well behind the white line where the sensor couldn’t detect me, being a good little citizen.
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i legitimately saw someone do this at a light by the residential area my parents used to live at in Colorado some years ago. However that light wasn’t very long so dude was just being impatient.
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Several of my friends had to push the button in order to get out of the driveway at the place they lived. It was a place where the owner made rent by having parties every weekend.
There were padlocks on all the kitchen cabinets.
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Around here, they do put the sensors where the lead car sits, waiting for the light, but they must have the sensitivity set too low to reduce false tripping. My options are to wait the 10 minutes and legally proceed, make a right and some other combination, hope for a car to trip it, jump off and push the pedestrian button.
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pedestrians have all the fun some don’t give it a second thought
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Not sure why this is even note or video worthy; everyone does this in every city I’ve been in with lights that rarely change.
A blowhard in his natural element, such a majestic sight …
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As a bicycle rider, when I’m stopped at a red light I’m often close to the curb, and I’ve had my share of drivers call over to me asking me to hit that button for them, please. I may be closer to it than the car-driver is, but it’s still out of my way to go up on the sidewalk to push the button 
Minneapolis has some streets designated as “bicycle boulevards”, that is, they don’t have separate marked bike lanes but are specially designated routes for shared car/bike traffic. Of course a bicycle won’t trip the red-light sensor. On one of the “bicycle boulevards” I use, where it crosses a busy main street there is a button right next to the curb (where a bicycle will be stopped at the light) with a sign for bicyclists to push the button to get a green light. Very handy to have!
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Except here in the USA, where the buttons mostly don’t work any more. Search “placebo button” for the story.
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Decades ago in the mid-80s I rode a motorcycle – my only vehicle at the time – while delivering newspapers on a motor route. Every morning I would have to deal with several lights on my route with sensors that my bike wouldn’t trigger. Since there was so little traffic at 3am, and I had a lot of newspapers to deliver by 6am, I couldn’t just wait for a car to come along and trigger it for me. Also, the way that I was weighed down with newspapers meant I couldn’t just hop off and hit a button.
Because I couldn’t be sure when a cop was around – and didn’t want to lose time and money by getting a ticket – I wouldn’t risk running the light. Instead I would make a right turn, a u-turn, and then another right turn.
I don’t know if that was legally any better than running the light, but I was never stopped for doing it.
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Check you local laws. I know in WA you can run the red if your bike isn’t triggering the sensor and the intersection is clear.
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Maybe this isn’t the right place, but, why do some people slam the buttons over and over again? And, do they really think that that makes them work better, or at all?
The guy in the video seemed to press the button maybe three times.
What is this madness?
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That could be a pedestrian controlled intersection where the light won’t change till someone presses the button as it seems like there was a walk signal only for the direction the driver was facing.
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Nothing like taking time to comment about what a waste of time something is.
Carbonman, this has been how knowledge has been passed from person to person for millennia, only the medium changed. Maybe we should make a rule “Never talk about the secret to change lights if you’re stuck” so the next generation has to figure it out by themselves. Is that the outcome you’re looking for? Is that what you think is better?
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I hear you with the scooter, our mass or magnetic profile isn’t enough… such a silly system.
There’s a 5-way intersection I go through on the way to work (in my car, scooter I avoid for obvious reasons), you can only turn right with a green arrow. Often I come up to someone past the stop line, past the sensors, frustrated they never get a light. I’m never in so much of a hurry that I can’t stop a bit further back from them (before the sensors) and watch them slow burn through 2 or 3 light cycles.
If a car comes up behind me, then I’ll pull forward to trigger the light. Otherwise… the stop line on the road is bright white, there’s a sign on the curb that says ‘Stop Line’ and if you are too fucking stupid to figure out how it all works, then the less time you are part of active traffic, the better.
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The first rule of Light Club is: you do not talk about Light Club.
The second rule of Light Club is: you DO NOT talk about Light Club!
Third rule of Light Club: if someone yells “green light!”, or steps out into the street, the light has changed.
Fourth rule: only two pushes to a button.
Fifth rule: one direction at a time, fellas.
Sixth rule: the lights are public property. No shirt, no shoes, no problem.
Seventh rule: lights will stay red as long as you keep pushing the button.
And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Light Club, you have to cross, even if you are a chicken.
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In theory, the buttons may have taken sufficient abuse from pedestrians or the elements that one button press might not register. I’ve seen some that beep once they’ve been actuated; those are slightly more helpful.
Madness to me is the way some people cling to elevator doors to hold them open, as if there was imminent risk of decapitation.
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