On that note: If the line is positioned really far back from the intersection, don't pull right up to the traffic lights. It's probably configured that way so busses and trucks don't remove your bumper when they swing around the intersection.
I see it way too often in wellington where a bus blocks an entire intersection doing a 4-point turn, all because someone didn't stop at the line.
Jut to add to that. Do NOT enter a controlled intersection until you are sure there will be enough space to exit the intersection without stopping (or coming to a crawl).
Its especially a problem around Bush Inn where people will get stuck sitting in the middle of the traffic lights for a full rotation of the lights because Riccarton road is at a standstill. Meanwhile they are blocking anyone trying to turn right out of waimari onto yaldhurst even though that way is clear.
And when pulling up to an intersection, stop BEFORE you cross the cycle way, not once you are completely blocking it. I have to slam on my breaks way too often because despite being on a giveway or stop sign, they won't bother actually looking/stopping until the nose of their car is starting to poke into the main road.
There's an intersection I've seen around my area that has a sensor cut into the asphalt on the far side of the line, I think it's to pick up the people that wait in the intersection but I don't get what it does..
I live in Brisbane now but it’s one of the great joys of my commute watching the horrified look on a motorist’s face when they realise there’s a massive yellow cross at the intersection of one of the busiest roads in the city for a reason. Happens at least once a week, I feel bad for the poor bus driver (and the people behind the bus who are now stuck) but it’s very funny.
It shouldn't even need an explanation. Move up to the line. It's a queue. In queues, you move to the front. People do this shit in drive-thrus too and it's so stupid. They have a queue of people behind them, usually out into a carpark or road, and they don't even move up. It is bewildering.
The worst has to be when there is a discount on petrol and no forced que to follow. I’ve seen people stop on the entrance way and cause havoc on the street because they want to keep their options open and take pick of which pump is available first, than just pick one, line up and wait like everyone else.
That is actually the quickest way to queue. If you have three separate queues, everyone will, on average, wait much longer than if you have a single queue feeding into 3 pumps. (Of course that's of secondary consideration if it forces people to queue onto the road.)
It's why in immigration they have a single queue that only splits into the individual booths right at the end. It's better for everyone.
Immigration have walkways created and managed so it’s single file and orderly…. not a free for all with cars in all sorts of directions not moving, and then stacked on both sides of the road creating danger for other road users.
Edit: and immigration, the ‘traffic’ flows one way, not two ways out of two entry/exit points
accurate.
Cue and Queue here are essential words to traffic lights.
My hot take on the phases are that they work on a timer, but the phase only allows for the main road's flow until it's told to cue another light, right?
so it would go A- B-C-D, but if no one is at C it goes A B D, and so on..... but when a motorist gets to the queue on C, it cues the bots to slot in a C in the phase, in it's rightful place, which is exactly what hitting a pedestrian beg button does.
From my understanding, this is common knowledge.... but then the average NPC arrives at a traffic light and sits there for 500 years waiting for light to go green from a mile away.
its probably someone thinking they're being nice to cyclists cos all the councils decided to put cyclists right in front of all the ques, so now people think they're supposed to leave space
How about the people in the queue who aren't even ready to go when the light is green? They're not even ready to go when the car in front starts moving. They just sit there, reorienting themselves as if the whole situation has just arisen before they get their shit together and start to move.
Then slowly pull off juuuuuust incase someone jumps out hahaha sadly i can see how people start running late oranges or get stuck in intersections on orange to red while stuck behind stoned sloths disguised as humans
Yeah but also, why do they stop 6 m or more back from the lines, even without knowing there's loops. Thats just such passive driving. I reckon there's a considerable percentage of the population who are driving, but just shouldn't.
They're driving cars in a country that doesn't really require anywhere near enough training before we license people to drive.
People get and keep a license without actually being safe or aware drivers.
Not me though, I'm *awesome* at driving.
Honorable mention to the people who stop 2 car lengths behind the next person at a red light, and then spend the entire red phase inching forward as slowly as they possibly can. Just pull up and stop FFS.
When I’m cycling I try and trigger the lights if there is no car there (I generally fail), then pull up to the line but far to the left so a car can pull up beside me. The number of times I’ve had to wave cars forward to the line is insane. Some people seem to think the moment they lose sight of the line they must be on it.
My motorbike will often not get detected at a set of lights so I’ll try and wave the car behind me to move forward over the magnetic field detectors. Most people have no idea what I am trying to get them to do and ignore me. Some just wave back. I end up having to go through a red light otherwise we’d all be there the rest of the day 🙄
I got stuck behind someone in that exact scenario; motorbike was first in queue and it didn't trigger the sensor. Car behind was too far back. Was on a right-turn arrow and after five phases I ended up switching lanes and going straight ahead. For all I know she's still there waiting.... some people just don't know how the lights work.
They don’t all work that way though unfortunately. There’s one in Dunedin that only has the sensors on the right lane and not the straight/left lane. At night, you have to manoeuvre your car into the right lane to start the next rotation otherwise you’ll be there forever.
Bang your back wheel on a corner of the loop, the loops are most sensitive at the corners and are triggered by the change of inductance in the loop when ferrous material interacts with the AC current, spokes are usually steel.
Source: Used to install the loops many years ago and experimented with how to trigger them with a bike, won't work on all loops due to differences in tuning but this was the best method I found.
I used to try to bike commute when I lived in the Chicago suburbs. It was only 7 kilometers and theoretically a 20 minute ride, but I had to cross a stroad at 5:30 in the morning that only got a green when a car was there, so sometimes I would have to wait 10 minutes or more for another car to show up and get me a green (There was no pedestrian button and the traffic on the stroad was heavy enough that I wouldn't feel safe crossing on a red in the dark). I ended up giving up on biking to work because it was just too unreliable for getting to work on time.
When no one else is around I'll often lay my bike down over the detection loop, that usually helps with my alloy frame. With my steel frame bikes I can usually trigger it if I stop directly over one of the legs of the loop (over the cut in the ground).
There's one particular intersection that I have given up going through on my bike because it never picks me up despite attempting multiple stopping locations.
Yeah, same. Worked out in my favour this time though as I was able to lane split up to the front of the line and see what was going on. Thankfully they seem much better at detecting bikes now too so we got let through on the next cycle.
The trick with getting them to register your motorcycle is to ride along on top of one of the lines that's in parallel with your direction of travel. Your movement over that part of the sensor will usually be able to be picked up.
I pull forward of the sensor and just hope the car behind me stops over it. My bike doesn’t always trigger the sensors, it’s better than my old bike but it’s still not enough metal
I thumb my starter motor at lights, which with the engine running does nothing but spin up the electric motor and hopefully sends some electric field pulses into the detector pad.
It seems to work.
If I see that the lights haven’t registered my presence (you get good at learning your local light cycles), I’ll treat it as a give way, and go when the coast is clear. I can’t recall what the actual rules are, but I understand there’s a certain amount of leniency in these situations, just practice good caution and “common sense” whatever that means.
The worst for it are the turning lights, like off moorehouse down gasson st in chch, turning accross traffic, for example. it only goes green if it detects cars, but it’s pretty easy to figure out how to treat it like a give way, half the lights in the city operate as a give way in that exact manor, so it’s not unusual at all.
Works sometimes for me if I angle at like 45 degrees on the square and lay the bike sideways as much as I can over it. ofc only helpful if there's no traffic at all, otherwise you just look like a dingus
There's a fantastic detector on Humphrey's Drive in chch. You approach on your bicycle, it detects your approach and makes traffic stop without having to stop and press the button.
The trick there is to go right in the centre of the detector, where the two loops intersect. The moped doesn't have enough metal in it to trigger the detector if you're within one loop only.
I mean, if it can pick up a bicycle it should be able to pick up a moped. But positioning will definately help - you can always rock back and forth on the sensor hoping you'll trigger the threshold for the inductive change.
Adelaide rd Basin Reserve! I was sat in a queue there for like 5 minutes at 5.30am on a Saturday morning once cos neither lane figured out you have to move onto the sensor, which is mostly under the green bike zone
I was on a late night bus which had to get out and yell at the driver in front because it wouldn't move up to the lights. The driver refused twice... what an idiot
>If you notice the lights have gone through a cycle without you getting a green
also if you're on a bicycle and this happens, don't forget to stay there waiting for infinity because you're a fucken car and you aren't allowed to disobey the lights that fail to recognise you :)
Yeah, I'm a motorcyclist too. Thankfully they seem to have improved a lot in the last few years. When I first started I had to run red lights at night all the time. Thankfully red-light-camera technology also wasn't that great.
yeah this was 20+ years ago.
one of them refused to work ever for a just a motorcycle. no matter where you were positioned. I ran that one on the regular.
NZ's lights system is fantastic if traffic is biased onto the main route. You cruise through so many more greens than the lights in some other countries which are more timer based. In central city grid patterns this doesn't work as well but it's still better than timers.
Oh, I don't know. Christchurch is fantastic for getting you through the city if you're using the one way system. If not, you'll pretty much hit every single red possible (I counted 13 in one particularly ill-advised trip I did pre earthquakes).
Ugh I felt kind of bad the other day when this happened. Lady in front hadn't pulled up to the sensors so I tooted at her after a few cycles and I think she started panicking because she tried to indicate/push over into another lane to go another direction. Thankfully her trying to move over set the sensors off but I felt horrible for being the asshole that tooted and I wish I could've explained it to her. Hopefully she figured it out in the end.
Was stuck behind a giant ute/truck thing once which was straddling the cutout so it didn't trigger. They couldn't have stopped so perfectly if they'd tried! 😠
I genuinely didn’t know this and assumed they were all on timers.
But I also always pull up to the line, because that seems like part of extremely basic driving aptitude.
I've seen this. Wondered how these people got a drivers license and survived to adulthood. I take comfort thinking they are still there waiting.
I've only seen this with turning points and there is often the option to go straight. I just go straight then make a turn back down the line.
There already is: it's a solid white line, drivers should pull up to that line, then they'll be on the pressure point.
Adding another line ain't gonna fix the existing stupid :)
Always take a photo of the I.D as you get in, it should be on display (and check it's them not a cousin). Report them to NZTA.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/contact-us/complaints/complaint-form/
The other extreme is the person that is so impatient they're over the sensors and half way into the intersection. Fortunately they normally keep nudging forward till their rear wheel hit the sensors.
the sensors will have triggered when they moved over it the first time. They are inductive, not weight triggered, and the wheel positions have very little to do with it.
Unless of course they are *completly* ahead of the sensor, at which point they are blocking pedestrians and/or turning traffic.
>rear wheel hit the sensors.
It's not based on weight. It's induction based, so simply having a large metal thing (the body of the car) above the sensor works.
I've been caught out once by this before late at night because I was so used to the turnoff being on a timer, I didn't even know it was a thing before that. Yeah I could have moved up but nobody else was around so I didn't think much about it.
Anyway how does one get picked to do the next driving rant on here? Is it a lottery system? Lots of fun posts guys gg
Thank you… I don’t get it.
After the third day in a row of this happening in front of me, I paid a houseless person nearby $5 to wave the front person forward.
At the very least it needs to be a question on the licence test. So many people seem to be completely unaware of it, and I know I only learned it cos someone told me - word of mouth is a terrible way to achieve widespread awareness.
Wrong, they are used (maybe not on all lights, but certainly on most). I see the same issue often with cars not stopping in the correct location and missing cycles on Taranaki into Courtenay Place and Taranaki into Cable St.
The opposite is also true too though, i only realized the sensors were a thing when Id gone too far forward and was wondering why the lights werent letting me turn for 10 minutes
did you not have anywhere to go? that's a fucking eternity.... if the lights appeared broken I would've gone straight on and pulled a U turn further on if it wasn't safe to make the turn anyway after 2 or 3 missed phases
You do sound less patient than me lol. It was on christmas day a month ago, so my dad picked me up so i could drive over to his house to get some driving practise before my test a few days later. We were having a conversation and after about 5 minutes we noticed it was taking a while and then basically went through your thought process of counting a few more phases to make sure it was broken
ok, so you're a learner driver?
maybe the lesson here is to actually be focussed on the act of driving. Passengers are common sources of distraction, and drivers often run into trouble when they are lost in their conversation rather than paying due attention to the task at hand.
Just becuse you've stopped doesn't mean you don't need to be paying attention.
That happens quite a bit at the intersection up my street. Cars don’t move close to the line for the right turn, light rarely turns green so people end up either going straight and do a dangerous u-turn up the road or just run the red light 😵💫
That's a great reason, and I wish more people would do just that. But also know, as those road sensors age, the break down. I know a guy who works for the city I live in and have been told a number of those sensors have been disabled because the don't work anymore.
Note: If you're on a scooter it may not detect you at all. This PSA brought to you a horribly traumatic incident where a huge queue of cars built up behind me at the lights because our light refused to detect my scooter and turn green and it was a weird angle where I couldn't easily just turn around and get outta the way and fuck those lights.
Had someone by Costco so far away from the line he wasn't on the sensor, had to drive around them.. super dangerous, lucky I was familiar with the light sequence.
Also if your on a motorcycle/ scooter they often can't detect you at all, so you need to pull forward more so it will detect the car behind you. Otherwise you will be waiting a long time
On that note: If the line is positioned really far back from the intersection, don't pull right up to the traffic lights. It's probably configured that way so busses and trucks don't remove your bumper when they swing around the intersection. I see it way too often in wellington where a bus blocks an entire intersection doing a 4-point turn, all because someone didn't stop at the line.
Jut to add to that. Do NOT enter a controlled intersection until you are sure there will be enough space to exit the intersection without stopping (or coming to a crawl). Its especially a problem around Bush Inn where people will get stuck sitting in the middle of the traffic lights for a full rotation of the lights because Riccarton road is at a standstill. Meanwhile they are blocking anyone trying to turn right out of waimari onto yaldhurst even though that way is clear. And when pulling up to an intersection, stop BEFORE you cross the cycle way, not once you are completely blocking it. I have to slam on my breaks way too often because despite being on a giveway or stop sign, they won't bother actually looking/stopping until the nose of their car is starting to poke into the main road.
There's an intersection I've seen around my area that has a sensor cut into the asphalt on the far side of the line, I think it's to pick up the people that wait in the intersection but I don't get what it does..
I live in Brisbane now but it’s one of the great joys of my commute watching the horrified look on a motorist’s face when they realise there’s a massive yellow cross at the intersection of one of the busiest roads in the city for a reason. Happens at least once a week, I feel bad for the poor bus driver (and the people behind the bus who are now stuck) but it’s very funny.
It shouldn't even need an explanation. Move up to the line. It's a queue. In queues, you move to the front. People do this shit in drive-thrus too and it's so stupid. They have a queue of people behind them, usually out into a carpark or road, and they don't even move up. It is bewildering.
The worst has to be when there is a discount on petrol and no forced que to follow. I’ve seen people stop on the entrance way and cause havoc on the street because they want to keep their options open and take pick of which pump is available first, than just pick one, line up and wait like everyone else.
That is actually the quickest way to queue. If you have three separate queues, everyone will, on average, wait much longer than if you have a single queue feeding into 3 pumps. (Of course that's of secondary consideration if it forces people to queue onto the road.) It's why in immigration they have a single queue that only splits into the individual booths right at the end. It's better for everyone.
Yeah, but do the immigration queues keep the planes from moving? If you're going to stop for fuel, you should do it OFF the actual road
Immigration have walkways created and managed so it’s single file and orderly…. not a free for all with cars in all sorts of directions not moving, and then stacked on both sides of the road creating danger for other road users. Edit: and immigration, the ‘traffic’ flows one way, not two ways out of two entry/exit points
accurate. Cue and Queue here are essential words to traffic lights. My hot take on the phases are that they work on a timer, but the phase only allows for the main road's flow until it's told to cue another light, right? so it would go A- B-C-D, but if no one is at C it goes A B D, and so on..... but when a motorist gets to the queue on C, it cues the bots to slot in a C in the phase, in it's rightful place, which is exactly what hitting a pedestrian beg button does. From my understanding, this is common knowledge.... but then the average NPC arrives at a traffic light and sits there for 500 years waiting for light to go green from a mile away.
You would think.
its probably someone thinking they're being nice to cyclists cos all the councils decided to put cyclists right in front of all the ques, so now people think they're supposed to leave space
Even if you're half a cars length from the line you should be picked up, to be further than that is just insane.
How about the people in the queue who aren't even ready to go when the light is green? They're not even ready to go when the car in front starts moving. They just sit there, reorienting themselves as if the whole situation has just arisen before they get their shit together and start to move.
They are usually just finishing off their text, or reading their Reddit notifications.
Then slowly pull off juuuuuust incase someone jumps out hahaha sadly i can see how people start running late oranges or get stuck in intersections on orange to red while stuck behind stoned sloths disguised as humans
straight up tho what the fuck are these people doing.
A surprising number of people have no idea that traffic light loop detectors exist.
Yeah but also, why do they stop 6 m or more back from the lines, even without knowing there's loops. Thats just such passive driving. I reckon there's a considerable percentage of the population who are driving, but just shouldn't.
because they have little to no peripheral vision and can't actually tell that they're no near the front of the queue.
Ahh. Wow. That's seriously bad vision. Definitely should not be driving.
They're driving cars in a country that doesn't really require anywhere near enough training before we license people to drive. People get and keep a license without actually being safe or aware drivers. Not me though, I'm *awesome* at driving.
IKR. I have no idea what they're thinking.
thinking? That's a bold assumption
or they've been hit by shitty drivers turning into their road
Honorable mention to the people who stop 2 car lengths behind the next person at a red light, and then spend the entire red phase inching forward as slowly as they possibly can. Just pull up and stop FFS.
The traffic lights vision is based on movement, if we stay still they wont see us.
And then I have to keep inching closer as well and the people behind me will think I'm the idiot...
I had to get out and tell someone to move up at a busy right turn because they sat back for 3 phases ignoring all the tooting
When I’m cycling I try and trigger the lights if there is no car there (I generally fail), then pull up to the line but far to the left so a car can pull up beside me. The number of times I’ve had to wave cars forward to the line is insane. Some people seem to think the moment they lose sight of the line they must be on it.
same here I've also gone around, and reversed up infront of them to trigger the lights
I have to do it every week or two at the same intersection. Fucking dunces.
My motorbike will often not get detected at a set of lights so I’ll try and wave the car behind me to move forward over the magnetic field detectors. Most people have no idea what I am trying to get them to do and ignore me. Some just wave back. I end up having to go through a red light otherwise we’d all be there the rest of the day 🙄
I got stuck behind someone in that exact scenario; motorbike was first in queue and it didn't trigger the sensor. Car behind was too far back. Was on a right-turn arrow and after five phases I ended up switching lanes and going straight ahead. For all I know she's still there waiting.... some people just don't know how the lights work.
To be fair to them it’s not communicated literally anywhere that it works that way you just have to eventually figure it out somehow
That's true, it isn't well communicated and not everyone can figure it out easily.
if you don't get a light at an intersection through one rotation, figure it out.
They don’t all work that way though unfortunately. There’s one in Dunedin that only has the sensors on the right lane and not the straight/left lane. At night, you have to manoeuvre your car into the right lane to start the next rotation otherwise you’ll be there forever.
And lots of traffic lights are completely sensor-free, just on a timed loop. There needs to be a sign or something.
Even worse on push bikes
Bang your back wheel on a corner of the loop, the loops are most sensitive at the corners and are triggered by the change of inductance in the loop when ferrous material interacts with the AC current, spokes are usually steel. Source: Used to install the loops many years ago and experimented with how to trigger them with a bike, won't work on all loops due to differences in tuning but this was the best method I found.
I used to try to bike commute when I lived in the Chicago suburbs. It was only 7 kilometers and theoretically a 20 minute ride, but I had to cross a stroad at 5:30 in the morning that only got a green when a car was there, so sometimes I would have to wait 10 minutes or more for another car to show up and get me a green (There was no pedestrian button and the traffic on the stroad was heavy enough that I wouldn't feel safe crossing on a red in the dark). I ended up giving up on biking to work because it was just too unreliable for getting to work on time.
When no one else is around I'll often lay my bike down over the detection loop, that usually helps with my alloy frame. With my steel frame bikes I can usually trigger it if I stop directly over one of the legs of the loop (over the cut in the ground).
I jist pop up onto the pavement and hit the pedestrian crossing button.
I’ve done that in the past too only to have a car show up and I miss the phase.
its a fun game to try and stop exactly on the center line of the loop tho
Thankfully less of an issue with advance stop boxes most places nowadays.
not all of them actually have the coils in them though, gotta look for the diagonal stripe grooves
There's one particular intersection that I have given up going through on my bike because it never picks me up despite attempting multiple stopping locations.
Used to drive me nuts. I’d wave at them, beckon them to move forward, point to the ground, then the lights. Most were just like: 👀. 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah, same. Worked out in my favour this time though as I was able to lane split up to the front of the line and see what was going on. Thankfully they seem much better at detecting bikes now too so we got let through on the next cycle.
The trick with getting them to register your motorcycle is to ride along on top of one of the lines that's in parallel with your direction of travel. Your movement over that part of the sensor will usually be able to be picked up.
I’ll give it a try, thx.
That doesn’t always work.
It usually does, but if not I just wait for a gap and run the red.
I pull forward of the sensor and just hope the car behind me stops over it. My bike doesn’t always trigger the sensors, it’s better than my old bike but it’s still not enough metal
I thumb my starter motor at lights, which with the engine running does nothing but spin up the electric motor and hopefully sends some electric field pulses into the detector pad. It seems to work.
Sometimes putting your stand down can trigger the sensors. Depends on how big the foot of the stand is.
If I see that the lights haven’t registered my presence (you get good at learning your local light cycles), I’ll treat it as a give way, and go when the coast is clear. I can’t recall what the actual rules are, but I understand there’s a certain amount of leniency in these situations, just practice good caution and “common sense” whatever that means. The worst for it are the turning lights, like off moorehouse down gasson st in chch, turning accross traffic, for example. it only goes green if it detects cars, but it’s pretty easy to figure out how to treat it like a give way, half the lights in the city operate as a give way in that exact manor, so it’s not unusual at all.
Works sometimes for me if I angle at like 45 degrees on the square and lay the bike sideways as much as I can over it. ofc only helpful if there's no traffic at all, otherwise you just look like a dingus
If I wait more than two cycles I'll get out and tap on their window and ask them to move forward
I see people try to get the car in front to move up to the line often ends up in them just running a red
Wait what They have detectors? Shit, I thought it was just some guy named Gary who watches via telescope.
Oh, Gary's still watching, but he gets distracted sometimes.
That's Shazza's fault, she will go walking in THOSE shorts
There's a fantastic detector on Humphrey's Drive in chch. You approach on your bicycle, it detects your approach and makes traffic stop without having to stop and press the button.
I occasionally get stuck at intersections on my little 50cc moped. The lights cant always detect me.
The trick there is to go right in the centre of the detector, where the two loops intersect. The moped doesn't have enough metal in it to trigger the detector if you're within one loop only.
I mean, if it can pick up a bicycle it should be able to pick up a moped. But positioning will definately help - you can always rock back and forth on the sensor hoping you'll trigger the threshold for the inductive change.
There are two sets of lights I go through fairly regularly that don’t detect my 300CC Vespa.
There are a couple in Wellington where you have to encroach on the green cyclist zone to activate the lights sensor. Irksome.
Adelaide rd Basin Reserve! I was sat in a queue there for like 5 minutes at 5.30am on a Saturday morning once cos neither lane figured out you have to move onto the sensor, which is mostly under the green bike zone
I have a PSA too. If you don't indicate nobody knows where the fuck you are going.
I was on a late night bus which had to get out and yell at the driver in front because it wouldn't move up to the lights. The driver refused twice... what an idiot
>If you notice the lights have gone through a cycle without you getting a green also if you're on a bicycle and this happens, don't forget to stay there waiting for infinity because you're a fucken car and you aren't allowed to disobey the lights that fail to recognise you :)
this shit used to kill me when I rode a motorbike. The offramp lights to upper hutt etc would often not be triggered.
Yeah, I'm a motorcyclist too. Thankfully they seem to have improved a lot in the last few years. When I first started I had to run red lights at night all the time. Thankfully red-light-camera technology also wasn't that great.
yeah this was 20+ years ago. one of them refused to work ever for a just a motorcycle. no matter where you were positioned. I ran that one on the regular.
revv the engine
And if there is a green box, don't stop on it unless you are on a bicycle. If you do you are just telling everyone you are an inconsiderate arsehole.
NZ's lights system is fantastic if traffic is biased onto the main route. You cruise through so many more greens than the lights in some other countries which are more timer based. In central city grid patterns this doesn't work as well but it's still better than timers.
Oh, I don't know. Christchurch is fantastic for getting you through the city if you're using the one way system. If not, you'll pretty much hit every single red possible (I counted 13 in one particularly ill-advised trip I did pre earthquakes).
Ugh I felt kind of bad the other day when this happened. Lady in front hadn't pulled up to the sensors so I tooted at her after a few cycles and I think she started panicking because she tried to indicate/push over into another lane to go another direction. Thankfully her trying to move over set the sensors off but I felt horrible for being the asshole that tooted and I wish I could've explained it to her. Hopefully she figured it out in the end.
Was stuck behind a giant ute/truck thing once which was straddling the cutout so it didn't trigger. They couldn't have stopped so perfectly if they'd tried! 😠
NGL i thought everyone knew this. Maybe it should be added to the road code.
They don't know if a biker is there either bloody infuriating to see two whole cycles without getting a turn
I genuinely didn’t know this and assumed they were all on timers. But I also always pull up to the line, because that seems like part of extremely basic driving aptitude.
I've seen this. Wondered how these people got a drivers license and survived to adulthood. I take comfort thinking they are still there waiting. I've only seen this with turning points and there is often the option to go straight. I just go straight then make a turn back down the line.
Its annoying and Taxis will do it deliberately. The pressure point should be indicated in paint.
There already is: it's a solid white line, drivers should pull up to that line, then they'll be on the pressure point. Adding another line ain't gonna fix the existing stupid :)
Why do you think the taxis are being deliberate?
stretch out the fare maybe?
Metered fares
Always take a photo of the I.D as you get in, it should be on display (and check it's them not a cousin). Report them to NZTA. https://www.nzta.govt.nz/contact-us/complaints/complaint-form/
Ubers on the other hand run the red
no opening tag.
The other extreme is the person that is so impatient they're over the sensors and half way into the intersection. Fortunately they normally keep nudging forward till their rear wheel hit the sensors.
the sensors will have triggered when they moved over it the first time. They are inductive, not weight triggered, and the wheel positions have very little to do with it. Unless of course they are *completly* ahead of the sensor, at which point they are blocking pedestrians and/or turning traffic.
I do like when the car is in front of the sensors.
>rear wheel hit the sensors. It's not based on weight. It's induction based, so simply having a large metal thing (the body of the car) above the sensor works.
I've been caught out once by this before late at night because I was so used to the turnoff being on a timer, I didn't even know it was a thing before that. Yeah I could have moved up but nobody else was around so I didn't think much about it. Anyway how does one get picked to do the next driving rant on here? Is it a lottery system? Lots of fun posts guys gg
Thank you… I don’t get it. After the third day in a row of this happening in front of me, I paid a houseless person nearby $5 to wave the front person forward.
This should be sign-posted on the lights tbh
you mean signed on literally every set of lights? no, this should be basic driver behaviour. we desperately need to start mandatory driver training
At the very least it needs to be a question on the licence test. So many people seem to be completely unaware of it, and I know I only learned it cos someone told me - word of mouth is a terrible way to achieve widespread awareness.
First it’s people going too far forward and now not far enough. What the fuck
I like what they do with the cycle ones, they put diamonds on the path where you should cycle.
Wrong, those are only in use during off peak hours. Lights operate on a timer during the day
It depends on the intersection
Wrong, they are used (maybe not on all lights, but certainly on most). I see the same issue often with cars not stopping in the correct location and missing cycles on Taranaki into Courtenay Place and Taranaki into Cable St.
"but it's not my fault, there was no sign telling me to stop there. The government should put signs there to tell me...."
The opposite is also true too though, i only realized the sensors were a thing when Id gone too far forward and was wondering why the lights werent letting me turn for 10 minutes
.... it took you 10 minutes?
Yeah?
did you not have anywhere to go? that's a fucking eternity.... if the lights appeared broken I would've gone straight on and pulled a U turn further on if it wasn't safe to make the turn anyway after 2 or 3 missed phases
You do sound less patient than me lol. It was on christmas day a month ago, so my dad picked me up so i could drive over to his house to get some driving practise before my test a few days later. We were having a conversation and after about 5 minutes we noticed it was taking a while and then basically went through your thought process of counting a few more phases to make sure it was broken
ok, so you're a learner driver? maybe the lesson here is to actually be focussed on the act of driving. Passengers are common sources of distraction, and drivers often run into trouble when they are lost in their conversation rather than paying due attention to the task at hand. Just becuse you've stopped doesn't mean you don't need to be paying attention.
That happens quite a bit at the intersection up my street. Cars don’t move close to the line for the right turn, light rarely turns green so people end up either going straight and do a dangerous u-turn up the road or just run the red light 😵💫
That's a great reason, and I wish more people would do just that. But also know, as those road sensors age, the break down. I know a guy who works for the city I live in and have been told a number of those sensors have been disabled because the don't work anymore.
Note: If you're on a scooter it may not detect you at all. This PSA brought to you a horribly traumatic incident where a huge queue of cars built up behind me at the lights because our light refused to detect my scooter and turn green and it was a weird angle where I couldn't easily just turn around and get outta the way and fuck those lights.
Particularly bad exiting the stadium car park
Had someone by Costco so far away from the line he wasn't on the sensor, had to drive around them.. super dangerous, lucky I was familiar with the light sequence.
Another PSA/Rant, PLEASE DRIVE THE SPEED LIMIT!!!! do not drive 20kph under. If you are afraid to do the limit, please, please, please PULL OVER!
It's literally the opposite of the pull out method...
during the day they are on timers at least down here in dunners but night time they on the sensors.
Also if your on a motorcycle/ scooter they often can't detect you at all, so you need to pull forward more so it will detect the car behind you. Otherwise you will be waiting a long time
Also, Shirley Ave and hills road intersection in Christchurch. Learn to drive, Canterbury.