I got flashed by a red light camera when crawling into a green cycle box. I know stopping in the boxes is illegal. Anyone had this happen and got a ticket for it?
If you do get a letter it will come with 3 points attached to it.
Are you sure it was you and not the vehicle in front, those cameras face beyond the traffic lights and the green cycle box usually does not (Assuming you are talking about the Advanced Box for Cyclists to use, not all green btw).
I would be surprised if a camera could hit you for entering that box or it would be going off to cyclists all the time.
They are activated by a pressure pad under the Tarmac. Why are you creeping forward anyway? Those boxes aren’t for motorcycles and you don’t need to slowly move forward at a red light. Just stay still.
My defence to this, if the conditions are right, is to say you don’t know it is a Cycle only box until you get into it. For instance if you filtered into it.
The advance boxes are sometimes for Cycles and Motorcycles, and therefore you had a legitimate belief that it may be a Motorbike/Cycle box as you entered it.
This is the same reason that a white mark on the ground, saying Left Turn Lane, is not a punishable offence, unless there is a corresponding sign post indicating that the lane is a Left Turn only lane. If there are cars in that lane, you may not be able to see the white marking on the ground and therefore wouldn’t be committing an offence.
I will add that the above paragraph is based on a chat with a traffic cop at a First Bike on Scene training day, and not down to any particular legal research I have done myself.
They are triggered by magnetic coils under the road surface and you can see where the coils are by the rectangular lines in the tarmac. You need to pass over both coils. One is usually just before the final stop line, and one is just past the final stop line. I believe that the coils are not sensitive enough to catch a bike (but am not prepared to test this!)
Advanced stop lines can’t be policed automatically by cameras anyway.
Could you explain that please Giuliano.
Surely if the coils are placed under the first stop line then you could be detected going over it and fined? I would have thought that a camera that caught either first line or second line jumpers would be reasonably simple from a technology point of view.
Is there a legal reason they can’t flash you crossing the asl?
I was filtering through tight traffic, not just randomly creeping forwards