ILLINOIS - Bikers can run red lights after ‘reasonable time’

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http://elmwoodpark.suntimes.com/news/9916358-418/bikers-can-run-red-lights-after-reasonable-time.html Bikers can run red lights after ‘reasonable time’

 By Paul Sassone Contributor
You can decide for yourself when you want to obey traffic laws ... if you ride a motorcycle or bicycle.
One of the new Illinois laws that went into effect Jan. 1 allows motorcyclists and bike riders to run red lights.
The Illinois General Assembly passed the law because bikes and motorcycles are too light to activate traffic-light sensors and thus have to wait for a light to change to green until a car or other vehicle heavy enough to activate the sensor comes along.
To avoid making motorcyclists and bike riders wait, state Rep. Dan Beiser (D-Alton) introduced House Bill 2860 allowing bike and motorcycle riders to go through a red light after waiting “a reasonable’’ amount of time.
What is a reasonable amount of time?
That was not defined in the bill.
But the House and the Senate passed the bill and sent it to Gov. Pat Quinn. Concerned over the vagueness of what “reasonable’’ meant, the governor issued an amendatory veto to define a reasonable amount of time as 120 seconds, two minutes.
The legislature overrode the veto and the bill became law Jan. 1.
Beiser has said, though, that the legislature will amend the law this year to define a reasonable amount of time for bike and motorcycle riders to wait as two minutes.
A spokesman for the Oak Park Police Department agreed that the law as now written is vague, which could make enforcement difficult.
“Reasonableness will play a part,’’ he said.
Illinois state police already have put motorcycle riders on notice that they can’t use stop lights as if they were stop signs and just stop and go. Riders must stop and wait, preferably for two minutes, or risk being ticketed for running a red light.
Until “reasonable amount of time’’ is specified in the law, judges will define it on a case-by-case basis when they hear cases of bike and motorcycle riders ticketed under the new law.
The new law applies only to municipalities with a population of less than two million. So, Chicago is not covered by the law.
The new law, as now on the books, states:
“After stopping, the driver of a motorcycle or bicycle facing a steady red signal which fails to change to a green signal within a reasonable period of time because of a signal malfunction or because the signal has failed to detect the arrival of the motorcycle or bicycle due to the vehicle’s size or weight, shall have the right to proceed subject to the rules applicable after making a stop at a stop sign as required by section 11-1204 of this code.’’