Can you “trick” traffic control loops by stopping on them instead of pulling up to the light?
Those loops you see embedded in the pavement are just big metal detectors. When an object with enough metal is present in the loop, it changes the inductance of the circuit and trips the timer for the light. If you stop too far away from it, or if you are on a motorcycle or especially, a bicycle, it may not be sensitive enough to know you are there – and you can be waiting a long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_detectors As long as you are in a car, and any part of your car is inside the loop, it should pick you up. You don’t have to be positioned directly over it. But if you stop behind it or pull forward out of it, it may think you are not there, or have moved on, and it doesn’t have to do anything.
