Stop Lights that Never Trip: Just Run Them?

There are about three stop lights on my regular route that don’t routinely detect my bike. One of them is on a fairly busy street, so I’ll usually make a right turn on red, go about 100 feet to a median cutout, cross over and make a right turn to continue on my original path.

One night there was a cop sitting in the cutout writing a report. I stopped to complain about the light and ask if he’d report it, but I’ve never seen a change. It’s not enough of an irritant for me to pursue it with the traffic department yet.

The other two intersections are either busy enough that there’s usually a car around to trip the light or there’s usually no traffic. I’ll stop for that one, wait about 30 seconds for it to cycle or not cycle and then go through the intersection.

There are some folks who would make the argument that, if I know that it’ll never trip, that I should just blow through it, but I’m one of those folks who are anal about traffic laws whether I’m on two wheels or four. (The difference is that I would probably do a right turn on red in my car if the light didn’t trip.)