I just saw backplates with yellow borders for the first time on VDOT-installed traffic signals (intersection of SR-621/Balls Ford Road and SR-1600/Ashton Ave in Prince William County). Oddly, enough, the signals facing the side street (Ashton Ave) have the backplates with yellow borders but the signals facing the more major thoroughfare (Balls Ford Rd) have traditional backplates.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDC2BeEg.jpg&hash=0f11d02e9686081e799cb25c0a80177229923cf6)
This has to be fairly new as I've been through the intersection in the past few months and not noticed them prior to today.
Here is a Google Street view from 2009 (most recent) showing the signals with traditional backplates: https://goo.gl/maps/utnjp
Are these popping up on VDOT-installed signals elsewhere in Virginia? (I'm not counting city-installations from Vienna, etc.)
-Dan
Which direction does the mainline go (EW or NS)? Sometimes if there is a crash problem this is used to increase visibility of the signals, but you usually get best results on an east-west road (sun glare).
I do not think this is a new VDOT standard but I'll ask someone to check.
The signals with the yellow-border backplates face traffic headed due-north (ever-so-slightly west). Maybe it's because Ashton Ave ends there?