Tech solution for "dead red" lights

From a list of technology shown off at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress held in Detroit

HEY TRAFFIC LIGHT! I’M HERE!: Bicycle riders are often ignored by systems designed to change a traffic light when a car arrives. A Raleigh, North Carolina, company called Kimley-Horn has come up with a smartphone app that gets cyclists noticed. It uses the phone’s GPS and signals a central computer via the Internet to turn the light green. The system will be tested this fall with 100 cyclists in Austin, Texas. It could go citywide by 2016, said Kimley-Horn’s Doug Gettman. Similar transmitters could be installed on all vehicles, so the computer can detect them and manage traffic lights, keeping them green for large blocks of vehicles, Gettman said.

Comments

[ontarioroader]

Virginia and a number of other state have 'dead red' laws that allow you to blow the light after a certain amount of time if it doesn't trigger. Not sure if DC has a law, but I was pulled over once for blowing a dead red that my motorcycle wouldn't trigger, and the officer let me off after I explained the issue.

[Greenbelt]

Or they could just spare all the ridiculous costs and put the lights back on time-of-day and day-of-week timers. Predicable and safer all around. Gives people a fighting chance of getting out of their neighborhoods or side streets without waiting 2 minutes for a car (or bike) triggered light to change.

[DE]

ontario, while true, it doesn't really help much if you're, for instance, trying to cross Route 7 at the Fairfax Cross-County trail. Traffic is going by at 60+, and there often aren't any breaks.

(Used to be an unofficial trail under the route 7 bridge for mountain bikers/horses, but that eroded away.)

[Opusthepoet.wordpress.com]

What about people, like me, who don't have a "smart" phone? Mine pretty much makes phone calls and takes pictures, and that's it.

[washcycle]

You're no worse off than you were before.