The buttons at traffic lights for cyclists
It is a persistent rumor that has been circulating for several years: the buttons at traffic lights for cyclists are fake. As a cyclist you push the buttons for Jan Doedel. According to the whispers, the main purpose of the buttons is to give the illusion of control in order to make the wait a little easier. For example, people would be more inclined to wait neatly at the traffic light (and yes, you can just call it a traffic light). The truth seems to lie in the middle.
Are buttons at traffic lights fake or not?
Erik Vlek of consultancy Vlek Traffic lights says to it AD: ‘It is indeed true that such a button is often not the means to turn the light on green. The loop in the road surface has already done that. However, the button is also used to get the cyclist to a certain spot at the crosswalk. Because it is safer there or because you know for sure that he will go through the magnetic field of the loop with his bicycle. In addition, such a button is also useful if it turns out that the loop has not worked for whatever reason.’
So the buttons are extra
He adds that he has placed a fake button at most twice and that it does not actually occur. The buttons are therefore really connected to the traffic light system and are therefore not completely fake. The buttons at a traffic light (or in that case traffic light) are therefore there as plan B, if the other sensors do not work. These sensors do not react to pedestrians, by the way, so they are really there.
But conclusion: you will indeed notice that if you do not press the button as a cyclist, the light will probably also turn green. Pressing the button a hundred thousand times makes no sense at all. Incidentally, cycling through a red light costs a fine of 100 euros. By the way, going through the red only costs 75 euros. Do what you want with this info.
