What is the minimum vehicle weight needed to trigger the left-turn signals at intersections with sensors under the pavement? And should those sensors be made more sensitive as more commuters turn to scooters, mopeds and bicycles to reduce gasoline consumption?
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I drive a lightweight, 50-cc motorscooter (about 250 pounds, plus rider) that is fully licensed and road-legal. But it doesn't seem to be heavy enough for some road sensors to recognize. At least twice I have sat through light cycles, with a lineup of vehicles behind me, because my scooter couldn't trigger the left-turn arrow.
This has happened at Golden Triangle and at the Harrisburg Pike/President Avenue/Dillerville Road intersection. These intersections are dangerous enough, without having to make an unsafe maneuver after getting stuck at a light.—GARDEN SPOT GAS MISER
Believe it or not, your motorscooter does not have a weight problem.
It's a lack of metal that's causing those traffic signals to ignore you.
Here's how Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokeswoman Fritzi Schreffler explained things in an e-mail interview this week.
When a car — or a motorcycle with sufficient metal in it — enters those left-turn lanes, a magnetic-loop sensor is tripped, activating the left-turn signal and keeping the light red for oncoming traffic.
PennDOT's recommended strategy for folks on motorcycles and the like: Keep to the left portion of the lane, which gives you a better chance of being detected by the sensors. Those sensors are shaped like hexagons, so pulling a narrow vehicle into the middle of a sensor-equipped lane increases your chances of being ignored.
What's our metal-light scooter rider to do?
Carefully exploit an exception to the state's no-turn-left-on-a-red-arrow rule. If you wait through one full light cycle to be sure the loop is ignoring you and then proceed when it's safe to do so, you're acting legally, according to then-state House Transportation Committee Chairman Rick Geist, who offered the opinion during a June 2006 hearing.
Just be prepared to explain to a police officer that the motor vehicle code allows a driver to treat a left-turn signal like a stop sign when a traffic signal malfunctions.
You could also start rooting for House Bill 590, which would add a more specific exception to the state vehicle code: If, while on a bicycle, motorcycle or motorscooter, you've waited through a light cycle and been ignored by the magnetic loop, the bill would allow you to "proceed with due caution when it is safe to do so."
Charles Umbenhauer, the lobbyist for the motorcyclists' group ABATE of Pennsylvania, said the bill is needed because many police officers don't know about the exception, and the publicity surrounding the passage of a new and more explicit law would help motorcyclists and bicycle riders. The bill has been slowed down by controversial additions, including an amendment concerning the tolling of Interstate 80, he said.
But, Umbenhauer says, "We're going to keep working at it. We're going to keep pushing, and hopefully we can get it accomplished this session."
And, finally, you can encourage municipal officials — who are in charge of traffic signals, even those on state roads — to switch to video-detection sytems.
The half-million-dollar new traffic signals at the intersection of Route 322 and Railroad Avenue and Wanner Road in Earl Township includes cameras, which do not discriminate by weight or metal.
And a stretch of Route 30 — between Route 896 and Oakview Road — is to get them courtesy of a developer, according to Ralph Hutchison, the manager in East Lampeter Township.
The video monitors should help people on bicycles, on motorcyles and in buggies, and help the township reduce its costs, Hutchison said. Magnetic loops are expensive to repair when they malfunction, he said.
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The van reported abandoned June 9 near the former Stehli Silk Mill on Marshall Avenue was towed away Tuesday.
Manheim Township police have cited and fined the owner $500, plus other costs, department spokesman Sgt. Tom Rudzinski said Wednesday.
The towing will cost the township nothing, Rudzinski said, because an state-authorized salvor took it away. The salvage business must now follow state rules regarding what to charge the owner for the vehicle's return and, if the owner fails to claim the vehicle within a timeframe set in state law, the salvor gets to keep it, Rudzinski said.
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The leaning cupola on Buchanan Park's replica county courthouse that faces Race Avenue should be straightened "within a week or so," David Shaffhauser, facilities manager with Lancaster City Parks and Recreation, told Lancaster County Lookout on Wednesday.
Shaffhauser inspected the cupola recently and, finding it in "pretty bad shape," has decided to have a city carpenter fix its support structure — a temporary fix that should last for years.
Long term, he said he hopes to remove the cupola, repair its wood and tin flashing and replace it.
And Shaffauser is still hoping to get in touch with students at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, or some other organization interested in a community service project, to do some major repairs on the courthouse's windows and roof. During World War I, bonds were sold out of the replica Lancaster County Courthouse, which stood on Penn Square before making its move to Buchanan Park.
"We're going to try to repair it and redo it, so it's got another hundred years," Shaffhauser said.
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You have just read Lancaster County Lookout's final report.
The Lookout wants to thank the many readers who took the time to observe and report community problems across Lancaster County over the past 71 weeks.
Your efforts have been largely successful. Of 85 fixable problems addressed in this column, 53 have been fixed and 12 more at least partially fixed for a success rate of 76 percent overall.
A special tip of the cap goes to officials in Lancaster City, where 85 percent of the 27 problems reported in this space were corrected.
Best wishes to all.
