It’s Dallas, and there is no such law in Texas. Motorcycles don’t always trip magnetic sensors either and that’s considered ‘too bad’ - so, nope, illegal here.
Then he was breaking the law. I don’t know what the law is in the city closest to me because I never ride in town. I ride in one city but only on the bike path and there are no lights to worry about. I try to stay off busy roads.
The law regarding turn lanes is confusing anyway because most of them are set by the city, not the state. Too much traffic makes me very nervous so I stick to country back roads and MUT’s (multi-use trails).
Regarding taxes for bicycles to use roads, if my county voted to do that I wouldn’t protest it as long as it was done correctly. Taxes like that should be done fairly depending on the weight of the vehicle using the road. Cars should pay less than large trucks, motorcycles less than cars, bicycles even less, etc. One thing that really annoys me living in the country are farm tractors running on the roads dumping diesel and oil all over the road while running on off-road fuel. They get a cut in price of the fuel and aren’t required to buy tags every year but are required by law to stay off-road. They don’t. They are all over the roads in my neighborhood. They dripped fuel and oil all over the roads making it very treacherous to drive.