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Man, I'm a fan of studying traffic signals out in the U.S.A. There are so many traffic signals that are weird and I am going to talk about 'em here.
Before I go any further, I want to show you a few things:
There are quite a lot of traffic light companies to look out for. Usually there are these:
Crouse-Hinds
Econolite
Safetran
General Electric (G.E.)
Intuicom
Eagle
LFE
TSI
Marbelite
Siemens
Sargent-Sowell
Darley
Teeco
SSC
3M
and...
McCain
And lastly, these are in many locations. These pictures are taken mainly from Google Street View. You can drive around for a great experience, or, if you're lazy, you can look it up on Google Maps and get Google Street View. I will give you the location.
Let's See What's Here...
Let's See What's Here...
1. Reversible Lane Control Traffic Signal System
Location: Nicholasville Rd, Lexington, KY
Normally, reversible lanes are 1 lane, but this one is 3 lanes, plus the 2 that have one-way traffic. This road has more traffic coming toward downtown in the morning, so the system has to turn the signals around to support this much traffic, and also when traffic leaves downtown in the evening. In the afternoon, it acts like a standard 5-lane road with a left turn lane, as shown in the picture above.
The signals here are shown from left to right:
Left Turn Signal
3-Face w/ Arrow
3-Face w/ Arrow
Two 3-Faces
Something similar is described here: https://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/ltm-lcs.htm. I thought the four-faces were Yellow Traps.
2. Don't Go Straight!
Location: Wilmington, DE
Why the hell can I not go straight? It looks like that you can, and the signal on the right has a green dot, not a right arrow...
3. Doghouse Continuous Flow
Location: Wilmington, DE
I must be thinking that the green on the right is either out because of a bulb failure, or it's set to be off.
4. Flashing Red Arrow (FRA) and Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) Continuous Flow
Location: Wilmington, DE
A flashing red arrow is a stop sign, plus I'm not sure why there are those yellow arrows there instead of green ones.
5. Paired Up Doghouse Double Left Turn
Location: Newark, NJ
I think this configuration can be pretty efficient — although it may look weird — especially if there is only one thru lane instead of the usual two thru lanes. The doghouse has both red, yellow and green arrows. The bottom is green and yellow and the top is a red arrow. When the entire light goes into red phase, the red arrow turns off. But since there is no right turn available, there are green thru arrows.
A great source of this signal at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQl1f1xK3qQ
6. An Unusual Staggered Intersection
Location: Athens, AL
If you ever so happen to live in Alabama, especially here, you may have seen this one before, if not mistaken.
From left to right: LFE, Siemens, Siemens, Siemens double red indication, LFE, Siemens 12"-8"-8", Siemens, Siemens
7. Traffic Signal w/ Countdown
Very strange, isn't it? Oh, and look at where one of these is located:
Try another: (The one here on the bottom can be so dangerous and out of place; a dangerous situation.)
8. You're Overdoing It.
No wonder that many traffic signals that have four faces extend beyond the backboard on which is installed on, instead of adding an extra section of the backboard?
9. Double Doghouses!
This is a pretty weird design. (I keep having the feeling of saying "wierd" instead and every time I do so, a dolphin gets run over by a jet ski.) This is for double left turns, but yield on green?
10. Triple Left Turn! 😃
My mom laughed a bit when she saw this for the first time and said "Ooh, triple left turn!". It can be very busy and fill this left turn system big.
11. Double Doghouse Again!
This time, it's a double right turn...
A great source of this signal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u66oQ3dhIuA
12. 3M Signals with Tunnel Visors
Location: Transit Center, Cincinnati, OH
Usually, they have these visors show below:
Strange, but true!
13. Double Signal.
Location: Mini Drive in CA
Thru and right-turn signals in one 6-face signal.
14. Double Red Arrow? Let's Do Double Yellow Arrow.
Location: Dallas, TX
This is meant for double left turns, but what they really need to use is a doghouse with one red arrow, two yellow arrows and two green arrows, as shown below:
Texas DOT needs to get themselves together.
15. Griswold Signal Co.
Location: 1st Ave in MO
The special design of this signal is not only the look, but also the stop sign in the middle. The stop sign turns toward the driver for visibility. Plus, the signal shown here usually doesn't come with a bell. Very few of these are surviving. So are wig wags.
End of article starts here.
About StickyChannel92
About StickyChannel92
StickyChannel92 is a programmer in development. He is addicted to the stuff like this and lives out in Northern Alabama
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