Traffic lights

[Mike M]

Kind of a silly question, but since traffic lights are different from state-to-state and city-to-city, I figured I'd post a topic to see how they are installed on your area.

Ours (in Lower Bucks) are mounted vertically, on mast-arm poles. Most of them were installed no earlier than the mid-late 90's, though there are still a few older ones hanging around here. Since 2000, newly installed signals have had LEDs on the red and green lights and eventually yellow, and in 2005 most of the existing signals had LEDs installed on them.

Here are a few examples:

[lfmusiclover]

Ours here in the Baltimore area are also installed vertically on mast arms. Most of them are relatively recent, as in within the past decade, but there are also a good many that have probably been around 30 years or more. All of the newer lights are LED, whilst the older ones have not been updated. Most of the light casings are yellow, but an increasing number of them are black. I guess there's some reason behind that change, though whatever it is its certainly lost on me. 

[wstarcraze]

The design in Toledo varies greatly. Toledo has a lot of standard lights. Toledo also has some weird, old looking traffic lights that were manufactured by 3M at some of the intersections in town.

[CartoonJazzLover]

The traffic light in my area are mounted horizonal and sometimes vertical.

[number1twcfan]

In Moline, there are for basic sets of signals that they use.
All images are property of Google Maps

Signal Set 1: This composition is used generally on two lane streets. It is composed of two Eagle Alusigs.

Signal Set 2: This composition is an old setup. They are composed of two Eagle Flat Backs. This composition is used on older streets.

Signal Set 3: This composition is used in areas with a higher traffic. They are composed of Alusigs.

Signal Set 4: This composition is used mainly in newly installed signals. Composed of Alusigs.

[WeatherWitness]

Wow Mike, I don't think your question is silly...in fact, it's great. I have been intersested in traffic lights ever since I was little and still am.

Here in the city of Dallas, the designs used to vary greatly (and still do somewhat), but now most of the lights are horizontal-mounted lights on mast-arms like in the picture below. (Picture is from Google.)
EDIT: As I went to school today, I realized that we still have a lot of vertically mounted lights on smaller poles with the turn signal on a separate pole. (See traffic light 2 picture below...Courtesy: Google Maps)

As for LED, all red and green lights have been replaced but most yellows have not. Does anyone know why this is?

[number1twcfan]

As for LED, all red and green lights have been replaced but most yellows have not. Does anyone know why this is?

They don't replace the yellow because it is not shown as often as the other lights.

Wow Mike, I don't think your question is silly...in fact, it's great. I have been intersested in traffic lights ever since I was little and still am.

I have always had an interest in traffic signals as well. You might want to check this site. It has a lot of interest facts regarding signals of any type... http://www.kbrhorse.net/signals/signals01.html

[Mike M]

First and third pics are old sets of Eagle signals hanging on wires near Newtown, PA. These were replaced with modern mast-arm signals within a few months after this was taken (October 2004).

Second is another set of old signals from the 1970's, with metal plates. These still remain AFAIK, and have always been on flash because this is on an abandoned portion of PA Route 23.

Pictures courtesy of AARoads.

[Jonathan]

Kind of a silly question, but since traffic lights are different from state-to-state and city-to-city, I figured I'd post a topic to see how they are installed on your area.

Ours (in Lower Bucks) are mounted vertically, on mast-arm poles. Most of them were installed no earlier than the mid-late 90's, though there are still a few older ones hanging around here. Since 2000, newly installed signals have had LEDs on the red and green lights and eventually yellow, and in 2005 most of the existing signals had LEDs installed on them.

Here are a few examples:

Ours here is SoMO are just like that...but we use a different typeface (Interstate Regular Condensed) on the green street signs. Attached is a sample of how they write things on those signs...the street name itself is all caps and the street type is sentence case.

[Mike M]

Those are actually older signs from when the lights were installed in 1997, the newer ones use a font that looks a lot like the font in TWC's logo. There are also signs that use Interstate.

[CartoonJazzLover]

Those are actually older signs from when the lights were installed in 1997, the newer ones use a font that looks a lot like the font in TWC's logo. There are also signs that use Interstate.

Yeah, I noticed that as well.

[Jonathan]

Those are actually older signs from when the lights were installed in 1997, the newer ones use a font that looks a lot like the font in TWC's logo. There are also signs that use Interstate.

The font in TWC's logo is Meta Medium...or it's dangerously close to that. So the font in your signs is probably Meta Medium or Meta Bold (which is more likely to be on a road signs for readability reasons).

Can you get a picture, in that case? I might know of one more font it might be...but I need a picture to confirm it.

EDIT: I see the second picture in the first post has a picture of that sign. Would you by chance have a higher-res version? If yes, PLEASE e-mail it to me! I see it is NOT Meta on those signs. I'm getting closer to deciding on that font I said it might be. It probably is.

[Mike M]

Here's the font they use now on the street signs. This is the highest quality I could find. It's not the same as the one in my first post; those are older. I pretty sure the signs on the second pic on my first post is Interstate.

[WeatherWitness]

Just to let everyone know, I have updated my previous post to show another type of traffic light we have in the area.

As for the street signs, most of ours are being updated from an Interstate font to Clearview (Thanks Raymie! ).

BTW, thank you for the link to that cool site, number1twcfan!

[Zach]

This is what the traffic lights look like in Hillsborough County. They vary depending on what area in the county you're in.

Pictures courtesy of www.aaroads.com.

Southern Hillsborough
http://www.southeastroads.com/florida300/us-301_nb_at_boyette_rd.jpg

Western Hillsborough
http://www.southeastroads.com/florida999/cleveland_st_eb_at_us-019a.jpg

Eastern Hillsborough
http://www.southeastroads.com/florida500/cr-579_sb_at_i-004_wb.jpg

Outside of Downtown Tampa
http://www.southeastroads.com/florida999/22nd_st_nb_at_hanna_av.jpg