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Traffic Signals that are not used as such, but as becaons

Started by roadman65, September 23, 2013, 02:07:49 PM

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roadman

Quote from: NE2 on September 25, 2013, 05:42:31 PM
http://grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Smiley-Face-Illegal

He also says that the idea is not completely dead, but rather that city council will try and come up with a workable solution.

Would be nice to know what the point of using the smiley faces in the first place was.

"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)


theline

Quote from: US71 on September 27, 2013, 09:24:32 AM
Quote from: froggie on September 27, 2013, 06:18:41 AM
Were those middle bulbs flashing yellow or red?

RED

Simultaneous flash (no wig-wag)
It's a bad idea, IMHO to flash the middle light red, rather than the top light. It's too easy to think that the light is actually yellow, especially in poor visibility situations, like heavy rain or with the sun behind the light. Thank goodness for the stop sign. Why would they choose to flash the middle light?

agentsteel53

Quote from: theline on September 27, 2013, 03:23:35 PM
It's a bad idea, IMHO to flash the middle light red, rather than the top light. It's too easy to think that the light is actually yellow, especially in poor visibility situations, like heavy rain or with the sun behind the light. Thank goodness for the stop sign. Why would they choose to flash the middle light?

I'll bet there is a strain of color-blindness under which the two appear identical, modulo brightness.

what an execrable idea.  and yes, this was an idea, not the result of decay or inaction - they specifically had to take the time to move the red lens into the middle slot.  what the shit were they thinking?
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

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signalman

Quote from: theline on September 27, 2013, 03:23:35 PM
It's a bad idea, IMHO to flash the middle light red, rather than the top light. It's too easy to think that the light is actually yellow, especially in poor visibility situations, like heavy rain or with the sun behind the light. Thank goodness for the stop sign. Why would they choose to flash the middle light?
I'm guessing it has to do with the controller used and its lack of an all red flash mode.  The only flash mode available was a typical yellow/red combo.  So instead of changing the controller, they simply moved the red section to the middle on the one street.

thenetwork

Quote from: PurdueBill on September 25, 2013, 09:56:23 PM
This one at Portside Drive (an office/industrial park driveway) and OH 18 has been reduced to a flashing beacon, but with the full signals (including westbound doghouse) left in place--even with diode signal heads.  They scrubbed off the stop bars on 18 and added a stop sign for the side street, so the signals are certainly on full-time beacon duty now.

When that first got installed (used to live about a mile from there), it was a full time traffic light.  Then it it was a traffic light only during the day/flash mode at night.  And probably about a year after it was installed I never saw it in full operation again, only flashing 24/7 -- the big industrial-park-to-be fizzled out, so there was no reason to put into full-operational mode again.

Alps

Fun in Asbury Park - the signal to the left is Red - Red - Yellow, and the signal to the right is... Yellow - Red - Yellow. The top sections flash until the firehouse needs it to turn solid red. Not quite in the realm of "signals not used as such," but in the spirit of colors in odd places.

WichitaRoads

In Newton, Kansas, there is a scenario like this in two spots - the interchange between U.S. 50 and K-15, near I-135. Wire spans, they were put up more than a year ago. US 50 has been undergoing widening about a mile west of this location, but these lights were installed and have never fully operated, only flashed since late last year. Prior to that, they were tarped.

I was lucky enough to find them on Street View:

http://goo.gl/maps/Cyn19
http://goo.gl/maps/AvNPB

These pics show them tarped still.

I don't see the point of leaving them flashing this long... if they needed them (which I think they did), turn them on. Otherwise, take them down.

ICTRds

Scott5114

US-77 and Hamilton Drive in Noble, OK is one of these. Leads to some sort of industrial company headquarters–maybe it only goes into full service at shift change, or maybe something greater was planned for that area that fizzled out.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

national highway 1

These lights flash when the upcoming intersection's traffic lights turn red, because of the crest of the hill making it difficult to notice the upcoming traffic lights.
http://goo.gl/maps/D3LVJ
"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take." Jeremiah 31:21

NE2

Quote from: national highway 1 on September 30, 2013, 05:08:59 AM
These lights flash when the upcoming intersection's traffic lights turn red, because of the crest of the hill making it difficult to notice the upcoming traffic lights.
http://goo.gl/maps/D3LVJ
This is pretty normal.
pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

dfnva

The only example I can think of in Virginia -- and it's long gone -- was at the original intersection of SR-645/Burke Lake Rd and SR-652/Burke Rd in Burke, VA for a number of years after SR-645's routing to the west of Burke was built.  Before this routing was built, it functioned as a normal traffic signal, but afterward, it remained in flash mode all of the time. Most of the signals were 12-8-8's, though, and odd couple of 2-section 12-inch signals with red lights (that flashed at the same time) replaced a couple of the 12-8-8's at one point.  The signal was taken down at some point in the late 1990s or early 2000s I believe.

CJResotko

#36
There is an old four-way Sargent Sowell traffic signal in East Tawas, Michigan, that has been in permanent flash mode since the '80s.
I'm new, and I don't know how to put photos in my posts, so here is just a link to a video that I made on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/erUpodPZDBs

jakeroot

#37
I don't know if they were ever active, but the off-ramp from I-705 northbound in Tacoma, WA to E 26 St is in permanent flash mode. Off-ramp has the stop signs, with 26 St having priority. The off-ramp has a double right turn, clearly meant to facilitate traffic that was Dome-bound; if the stop signs weren't there, they could activate it during shows. But traffic cops run things instead, so the signals aren't used...

...But, they probably were used at one point. The 12-inch reds appear to be Eagle Flatbacks, but the 12-inch up arrow (used on eastbound 26 St) is a SafeTran. I assume the only reason for the mix of signals is that the up arrow came later, after a few wrong-turns up the off-ramp, but the Flatbacks were out of production by that point.

https://goo.gl/fcvKuK

index

There's this setup in Alloy, WV that uses a reconfigured 12-8-8 with the middle section flashing red. The rest just seem to be plain old beacons, one or two section. One of them's a 12-8.


https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1408015,-81.2788558,3a,75y,121.9h,102.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sImRG2y8GaU6zTXZtZ50X3w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
I love my 2010 Ford Explorer.



Counties traveled

jakeroot

Quote from: index on November 07, 2018, 08:08:13 PM
There's this setup in Alloy, WV that uses a reconfigured 12-8-8 with the middle section flashing red. The rest just seem to be plain old beacons, one or two section. One of them's a 12-8.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1408015,-81.2788558,3a,75y,121.9h,102.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sImRG2y8GaU6zTXZtZ50X3w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Flashing red in the middle seems like an MUTCD violation (though I know it's not the only one in this thread). Those with Protanomaly could mistake that center orb for a very dim flashing yellow.

US71

Until a few years ago, there was a 4-way in old town McAlester , OK that was a 4-way flashing red.  It has since been replaced with a regular flashing red signal
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

ErmineNotyours

A former curiosity in the Renton Boeing plant: a 1970s City of Renton traffic light installation that was flashing only.  Boeing made this a closed campus when the Burlington Northern merger made the through rail line redundant.  Renton must have just installed the light on Logan Avenue, and Boeing didn't want to maintain it as such, so it went on permanent flash mode.  About 10 years ago, half the Boeing plant was given over to a shopping mall, and Logan was opened to traffic again, with new traffic lights.

jakeroot

Quote from: ErmineNotyours on November 09, 2018, 12:15:31 AM
A former curiosity in the Renton Boeing plant: a 1970s City of Renton traffic light installation that was flashing only.  Boeing made this a closed campus when the Burlington Northern merger made the through rail line redundant.  Renton must have just installed the light on Logan Avenue, and Boeing didn't want to maintain it as such, so it went on permanent flash mode.  About 10 years ago, half the Boeing plant was given over to a shopping mall, and Logan was opened to traffic again, with new traffic lights.

Do you know which intersection along Logan had that signal? I'm guessing N 8th.

renegade

The traffic signals in downtown Sandusky, OH used to be set as four-way stops, but they changed them to single beacons a few years ago.
Don’t ask me how I know.  Just understand that I do.

thenetwork

Quote from: renegade on November 09, 2018, 12:18:05 PM
The traffic signals in downtown Sandusky, OH used to be set as four-way stops, but they changed them to single beacons a few years ago.

I always felt sorry for those who were coming to Cedar Point from the west and followed US-6 through downtown Sandusky.  There were a LOT of traffic lights and turns between SR-2 and the Causeway.  There were a lot of quicker ways if they stayed off of US-6 (Perkins Road or SR-2) to US-250. 

steviep24

#45
This signal at Lake Rd. and Bay Rd. in Webster, NY has been operating as a beacon for decades.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2401351,-77.5148767,3a,75y,227.62h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjvSieU1fLWPQaYz5N8d3Gw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0

It's been that way since the original Irondequoit Bay Outlet bridge was removed sometime back in the late 70's. (The current Bay Outlet bridge that was built in the 90's is seasonal and is open to traffic only from November 1 through April 1. The rest of the year it is swung 'closed" to allow boats to pass through the Irondequoit Bay outlet.)

Edited to add Google Streetview link which I forgot for some reason.

ErmineNotyours

Quote from: jakeroot on November 09, 2018, 01:32:36 AM
Quote from: ErmineNotyours on November 09, 2018, 12:15:31 AM
A former curiosity in the Renton Boeing plant: a 1970s City of Renton traffic light installation that was flashing only.  Boeing made this a closed campus when the Burlington Northern merger made the through rail line redundant.  Renton must have just installed the light on Logan Avenue, and Boeing didn't want to maintain it as such, so it went on permanent flash mode.  About 10 years ago, half the Boeing plant was given over to a shopping mall, and Logan was opened to traffic again, with new traffic lights.

Do you know which intersection along Logan had that signal? I'm guessing N 8th.

Yes.  I could see it from Park, and I got a job in there and got to see it up close before it went away.

index

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.654291,-122.322409,3a,48.3y,353.13h,96.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sb1CClk1Sg2Ld4a_Dl7oGig!2e0!7i13312!8i6656


Here is a setup in Seattle directly under a deck truss bridge that is used as an all-way stop. Round door bullseyes are also present on the signals, the whole setup and intersection is pretty neat.
I love my 2010 Ford Explorer.



Counties traveled

PHLBOS

Until sometime between 2008 and 2012 & based on vintage GSV; there was always a traffic signal set-up at this intersection (Humphery St./MA 129 & Ingalls Terrace) but it never operated on the standard R-Y-G mode for decades (as far back as the at least the 1970s).  It was always operated on flash-mode.  Note the original, 1940s or 1950s era signalheads mounted on the street light feaured flashing yellow for both Humphery (eastbound 129) & Ingalls.  The final streetlight-post mounted signalheads (shown in the above-GSV) replaced the old, original signalheads sometime during the late 80s when the old post was knocked over in a car accident (IIRC).  I believe the updated signalhead still flashed yellow for Ingalls Terrace.

IIRC, the signals were ultimately turned off flash-mode at least a decade prior to being ultimately taken down.

Note: at present, there's no STOP sign posted for Ingalls Terrace at Humphery St.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

jakeroot

Quote from: index on November 12, 2018, 05:47:39 AM
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.654291,-122.322409,3a,48.3y,353.13h,96.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sb1CClk1Sg2Ld4a_Dl7oGig!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here is a setup in Seattle directly under a deck truss bridge that is used as an all-way stop. Round door bullseyes are also present on the signals, the whole setup and intersection is pretty neat.

That intersection is always a mess at rush hour. Not sure why they turned it off. Most examples in this thread, I understand...this isn't one of them. It used to have (what I assume was) a very helpful double left turn from 6th to Northlake, but they removed that when it was changed to flash mode, and the stop signs installed.



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