Why are we still seeing traffic-signal actuators which won’t trigger the signal for bicycles or motorcycles?
A stretch of Main street (Route 20 and Route 117) in Waltham was repaved in the fall of 2018. Then following the repaving, traffic-signal actuator loops were installed. These are metal detectors buried in the pavement — the obsolete kind, plain rectangular loops of wire.
Installing the good kind only involves laying the wires in a different pattern and adjusting the sensitivity in the control box. No new equipment is needed.
Examples, east to west on Main Street:
Westbound lanes at Exchange Street in front of the Public Library
Eastbound lanes at Exchange Street
Westbound lanes at Hammond and Prospect Streets
Eastbound lanes at Hammond and Prospect Streets
Eastbound lanes at Banks Square
I have made a short video of another Waltham intersection, Bedford and South Streets. This illustrates the problem which a bicyclist faces.
Another issue at this same intersection is that many westbound motorists pull forward past the stop line, but there is then no loop under their vehicle and the light does not change. Drivers do this so they can look left to check whether it is safe to turn right on red, but some also do it when they intend to travel straight across the intersection or turn left.
I have discussed the actuator issue with Tim Kelly of the Signals and Wires Department, City of Waltham, and he told me that he is entirely in favor of having responsive signals, but that installations are changed only when a street is reconstructed: not when it is only repaved, as was the case with Main Street. The problem, then, is bureaucratic: it requires a change in policy, and minor changes in specifications and procedures.
More than one government entity may need to be addressed: some streets and street projects are under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Highway Department, and others, the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Highway Department has generally been good about iinstalling bicycle-sensitive actuators, and so it is perplexing that actuators on Main Street, part of Massachusetts Route 20, are not bicycle sensitive. Others on Routes 117 (at Stow Street) and Route 20 (at Linden Street and Stow Street/Tavern Road) are. I would liketo know who was in charge of these The city has a place at the table in discussion of all projects.
Due to the policy issues and different entities installing actuator loops, their installation is inconsistent. Here is a photo of bicycle-sensitive quadrapole loops (if correctly adjusted) on Tavern Road at Weston Street.
Quadrapole loops on Tavern Road
There is a D-type loop on south Street, after the stop line. Drivers are unlikely to pull past the stop line here, as there is no sight-line issue and they would be blocking traffic entering the driveway on the right.
D-type loop on South Street
The three cyclidrical devices at the intersection of Main Street, Linden Street and Ellison Park are vehicle-sensing video cameras. These work for bicycles, even at night for a bicyclist has a rather weak headlight, if the bicyclist leans the bicycle to aim the headlight at the camera which points in the bicyclist’s direction.
Main and Linden Street intersection in Waltham, MAssachusetts
A technical description of how actuator loops work is here.
Additional documentation including Massachusetts design standards is here.
The definitive report on actuator loop design and installation, published 1986, is here.
Comments on some previous loop installations in Massachusetts is here.