In states like Illinois and Utah motorcycles can legally run red lights under Dead Red laws

Certain US states will allow motorcycles to run red lights under Dead Red laws.

Yes, you read that right – a number of US states will let motorcycles legally run through red lights.

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t some sort of free pass to wheelie your Hayabusa through an intersection.

As a matter of fact, the Dead Red laws actually serve a very important purpose.

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What is a Dead Red law, and how does it help motorcycles?

At this point, you’re probably wondering what exactly a Dead Red law actually is.

Dead Red laws exist to allow motorcycles to run through red lights at the intersection.

Because motorcycles are much, much lighter than cars, traffic lights often don’t detect motorcycles.

The most common traffic light systems use something called an inductive loop sensor.

These use coils of wire under the pavement to detect vehicles entering their magnetic field.

It also means that this system does not detect traffic by measuring weight.

Because motorcycles are much smaller than cars, they often don’t have enough magnetic material to get detected by traffic lights on their own.

That means, on their own, motorcyclists could be left sitting at red lights for minutes on end.

Of course, motorcyclists are much more vulnerable on the roads than car users.

So lawmakers have enacted these Dead Red laws to help protect motorcycles from getting stuck at the lights.

Just under half the US states have these laws for motorcyclists

At the moment, 21 of the 50 US states have Dead Red laws in place for motorcycles. They are:

Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

As you might have imagined, each state has its own specific language on how the laws work.

Minnesota, for example, has some of the most liberal Dead Red laws in the US.

Under Section 169.06, Subdivision 9, motorcycles can run through a red light if the light has been red for an ‘unreasonable time.’

What constitutes an ‘unreasonable time’? That definition is pretty much up to the motorcyclist sitting at the lights.

By contrast, South Carolina has some of the most stringent Dead Red laws in place.

Under that state’s legislation, motorcycles have to wait at the red light ‘for one hundred twenty seconds.’

That means two whole minutes of cursing out the red light before you can run through it.

What do you think of the Dead Red laws? Do you think they should be as liberal as Minnesota’s, or stricter like South Carolina’s?