Cyclist Waits 40 Minutes For Lights

A cyclist sat at a set of red traffic lights for almost 40 minutes when they refused to turn green!

Colin Masters,aged 16,waited patiently for almost threequarters of an hour at a road junction in Northampton as he pedalled home from the town centre.

Instead of getting off his bike and pushing it across the busy road,he decided to wait for the lights to change.

He was still sitting there 40 minutes later.

The trip back to his house on the outskirts of the town usually takes just 20 minutes - half the time he had to wait before the traffic lights turned to green.

According to council officials,the new lightweight materials used in bicycles could be to blame for the sensors in the road not recognising a cyclist.

Colin said "There was quite an elderly gentleman on a bike who was sitting there with me,but he got fed up with waiting.

"He went across the road while the lights were still red,and nearly got run over by a car.

"I was not going to risk life and limb doing that,but the council and police cannot expect cyclists to have to wait as long as I did."

Colin had biked into town to collect a set of photographs,which he had taken on the last day of his school term.

"It was lucky I was not going to get my exam results,I think the tension would have been too much to bear" he said.

Colin said he was now considering finding another route into Northampton to avoid the set of traffic lights.

He has cycled into town up to three times a week during his summer break on his £170 silver Dorado mountain bike.

He opted for pedal power after the latest increases in bus fares,which he said now cost £2 for a return into Northampton.