New traffic light style being tested

They think of next.

That has to be a goof. It will not work for obvious resons..... :rolleyes:

but it appears this is not in the USA. I guess anything is worth a try. Curious about cost of these versus regular light.

This is wonderful!
Think of the cost savings from never having to put up Christmas (er...Holiday) lights again.

And people will be in the holiday mood all year long and road rage will be reduced.

I was thinking of the same thing!

It's Christmas in July in that photo!

They'll attach a holiday bow to the pole and the bow will turn green, yellow, and red with the light too!

They always come up with these brilliant ideas to raise the taxes. After they find out it doesn't work and/or is just a distraction to drivers, they will drop the idea, but not the taxes.

It's either a goof - or it won't work because people at the other ends of the intersection will confuse which lit pole is theirs.

Nice and colorful but I don't think it will help.

Cities and states couldn't begin to afoord replacing the 250,000 or more poles holding signals.

The name of the gif file is "stop-light-idea.gif", I'd bet it's a concept rather than a real world test.

Even with these new poles, it's still hard to see them when your head is down and your texting while driving! Perhaps the traffic light should send you a text before changing?

Have you ever been driving towards a bright sky and have difficulty looking into that sky to see what color the traffic light is? That happens quite often for me. Have you ever been driving during a wet snow and have the snow completely cover the lights by filling up the hole the lights are set into? This happens quite often now that LED's are replacing incandescent bulbs in traffic lights. The incandescent bulbs would melt the snow.

If you look at the example above, I would assume traffic coming from the other direction sees the correct color light as both poles display the colors of the lights the way they are facing.

Now another traffic control device I'd like to see changed are stop signs. I'd like to see both sides painted red with STOP. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort to make out if the traffic coming from the right or left actually have a stop sign too. You should never assume of course.

And while I'm on my soapbox, who ever decided that stop lights facing you should be on the other side of the intersection? Makes finding where you need to stop harder especially when there is snow cover on the roads. I'm in Northern Illinois and not sure if that's the case all over.

At least use red paint on the back side of the sign.

That would work.

While they will certainly be easy to see, I'm not sure people will pay any more attention to them.

Hopefully it work. They should make the red light blinking. That will get to driver attention.

Interesting

blinking red light means stop, and then proceed with caution...basically like a stop sign.

I'll bet it's not real. Probably just Photoshopped.

Very possible. It would be much cheaper and faster to photoshop it than to build it. The guy whose website I linked to said it was being tested, and I don't think he's the one who Photoshopped it--somebody probably sent it to him--but maybe it is just a concept for now.

That wouldn't be all that difficult to do. I know the picture above makes it look like the whole light structure is blinking red, yellow and green. But actually all that would be needed is a multicolored LED light rope..

http://tinyurl.com/aq9xq3h

http://tinyurl.com/b976a97

I still think count down timers on the lights is the answer especially when the light is on a road with a higher speed limit. Probably a lot cheaper too.

I'd like that. Then I would know whether I need to brake or floor the accelerator to make the light.

It would also help with stop light racing, kind of like the christmas tree lights at the drag strip. Providing of course I could see the timer.

As the pictures change, I noticed that the intersection was filled with pedestrians while the light was yellow. That makes me think the pictures have been photshopped.

If not, it would never work here because too many drivers interpret a yellow light to mean "speed through the intersection".

I have seen and heard of other projects like this, Some were to reflect the color / words on the ground in fron fo the car.. Other were to change color of stips on the road itself..

You stop before the intersection.

In my area most of the light signals that used to be low on the pole are gone, in favor of walk signals, the only red/green/yellow/ lights are on the overhead pole, which, if on the side you want, can't been seen without craning your neck or stopping a couple car lengths before the intersection and even farther if you drive a truck..

I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell you...

Pretty cool, but most of the traffic lights I see are hung on cables and stretched across the roadway at the intersections. I don't see many that are placed on poles on the corners of the intersections.

if we can save one child

When will the government people change that mantra to "If we can save one dollar."

Looks pretty fake to me also.

If it is true, it won't work because it will cost too much to upgrade and maintenance.