Timo Tolonen said...
As a side note, the automated inductive loops cause my friend and his motorcycle no end of headache.
The electromagnetic loop created by it does indeed notice large bodies of metal and adjust the traffic lights accordingly, but sometimes my friend's motorcycle isn't big enough to register ie. the light never changes. (He's especially fond of this happening in the middle of the night w/ no other traffic around).
He later figured out that turning off the engine and restarting it creates a big enough electric signature to make the loop notice him and his vehicle and adjust the light accordingly. The system may be fully automated but it's not sentient just yet.
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/geometry-of-traffic-control.html
