It can be a long wait on a bicycle for the light to turn green at Lascelles Blvd. and Eglinton Ave.

Many traffic signals in Toronto can detect when cyclists arrive at a red light and change it to green, one of the better things the city does to make cycling a viable way to get around.

Otherwise, they’d be stuck waiting for a car or have to get off their bike, wheel it onto the sidewalk and use the pedestrian crossing signal to change the light.

Mitch reported on SeeClickFix that the sensors for northbound bike traffic on Lascelles, at the point where it meets Eglinton, east of Avenue Rd., haven’t worked since last spring.

“It forces cyclists to cross illegally on the red light or push the pedestrian crosswalk button,” he said, adding, “what’s the use of having a bicycle-friendly intersection if it fails to notice bicycles?”

Mitch pointed out something that is not known to many drivers: Those three large white dots in the middle of the traffic lane just before an intersection? That’s where cyclists are supposed to stop to change the light.

Bruce Hawkins, who deals with media for transportation services, emailed to say that more than half of all signals are “semi-actuated,” where the light remains green until a vehicle arrives at the intersection to trigger a change.

Semi-actuated signals allow the light to stay green on busy streets until a vehicle arrives at the intersection from a smaller street, instead of automatically switching between red and green, he said.

“The presence of a vehicle is detected on the cross-street by a detector loop embedded in the pavement,” which can also tell when a bike rolls up, said Hawkins, if the bike stops along the three white dots.

The city has started replacing sensor loops with video detection of vehicles, he said, which is already in place at 29 intersections and will gradually be expanded.

STATUS: Hawkins sent a second email saying a city signals contractor will check it out and make the necessary repairs.

What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/thefixer or call us at 416-869-4823. To read our blog, go to thestar.blogs.com/thefixer . Follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.