Traffic Signals installed that have never been activated

[roadman65]

In Orlando there are some signals that are installed along future intersections where the developer purchases the signal (either all its parts or at least the controller and wiring) and the signals remain either in flash mode or dormant for years.  We had one on Turkey Lake Road at where the current Cabana Bay Resort is where Universal paid for the typical Florida concrete strain poles, overhead wiring and signal sockets, crosswalk heads, and a control box, but no signal heads in anticipation for future expansion back in 1990.  Now, since most of Orlando is installing mast arms, when Universal opened their latest resort, they replaced it with a mast arm assembly.  It did, though, operate briefly during the Islands of Adventure Expansion in 1998 for construction workers to use, but then the heads were left and the signal turned to flash mode.

Then along Osceola Parkway in nearby Kissimmee you have four signals installed when both the Osceola Parkway and FL 417 Freeway were opened to traffic.   These signals were operational for a month before Osceola County decided the signals were not warranted.  Then after for over a decade and a half these signals are flashing awaiting for the traffic counts to increase or a series of fatal accidents to occur before they spend thousands of dollars on a study to see if they need to be reactivated.  Also because these signals are not proper signals anymore STOP signs are installed where the lights flash red on the FL 417 Exit 3 ramps to Osceola Parkway and on the Poinciana Boulevard ramps to and from the parkway.  The MUTCD does not allow red flashers as the sole traffic control device and even seasonal signals in many shore regions are required to install STOP signs during the long winter months as well.

On Innovention Way in Orlando where it ends temporarily at FL 417 there is a flashing signal there at the NB 417 on and off ramps awaiting for the road to be extended.

Any of these  type ofsignals that you know about that are for future use that are already installed awaiting its need, but not yet operational.

[roadfro]

Most of the time in Nevada, a developer may be required to dedicate right of way for future traffic signal, install the initial vertical mast pole, and/or do preliminary underground wiring for a future signal. However, the developer doesn't usually do more than that unless the governing agency requires the full signal be activated concurrent with the completion of construction.

More often than not, a developer will not put in the infrastructure, instead paying a development impact fee set by the governing agency. These fees are dedicated to funding future transportation improvements, such as signals, when traffic volumes and patterns warrant them.

[cl94]

New York will occasionally install sensors and other wiring at the possible location of a future traffic signal. One such location is US 20 at Leydecker Road in West Seneca. The small square sensors New York loved to use until the mid-2000s are embedded in the asphalt, likely dating to when that section was given a center turn lane at some point between 2002 and 2006. I've seen cases in multiple states where poles went up years before anything was hung, but never a full signal assembly.

[freebrickproductions]

There were some here in Huntsville like that at the intersection of Blanda Drive and Whitesburg Drive. They were removed a little while after the ones at Memorial Parkway and Whitesburg Drive were activated, IIRC. All that's left is a pair of span wires with loops where there were signals.

[PHLBOS]

These particular signals along MacDade Blvd. have been on flash mode ever since they were erected in the mid-to-late 80s (before I-476 north of there opened in 1991).

[The High Plains Traveler]

A few around Pueblo, CO, near commercial developments that haven't fully built out. One near my local Walmart was turned on for a while then put on perma-flash.

[Brandon]

IL-47 on the north side of Morris, Illinois:

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=41.396015,-88.42255&spn=0.00462,0.010568&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=41.395903,-88.422546&panoid=DPlF2ry0kTaTJVNnIBq8nQ&cbp=12,196.24,,0,2.74

These were installed years ago for the warehouse to the west, but have never been unbagged and activated.

[1995hoo]

The risk I could see with a traffic light that's installed and uncovered but isn't operative is the potential for some people to assume it's a broken traffic light that should be treated as an all-way stop while other people don't slow down because either (a) they know it's non-functional or (b) they think it's broken but they feel the "all-way stop" law doesn't apply to them (which is a common problem here whenever lights are knocked out by a power failure or a bad storm).

The example Brandon posted shows a good solution to that problem because the signal heads are all covered up so there can be no ambiguity.

[andrewkbrown]

I have no idea if these have ever been activated, or if this is a planned future intersection or a past decommissioned intersection.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.909233,-76.976845&spn=0.00119,0.002642&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=38.909148,-76.977418&panoid=-KfUgYdJ4HlIXev-AyYWZA&cbp=12,31.73,,0,-3.95

[spooky]

The risk I could see with a traffic light that's installed and uncovered but isn't operative is the potential for some people to assume it's a broken traffic light that should be treated as an all-way stop while other people don't slow down because either (a) they know it's non-functional or (b) they think it's broken but they feel the "all-way stop" law doesn't apply to them (which is a common problem here whenever lights are knocked out by a power failure or a bad storm).

The example Brandon posted shows a good solution to that problem because the signal heads are all covered up so there can be no ambiguity.

This is why the MUTCD requires non-operational signals to be covered, turned or taken down.

[hm insulators]

If we're including freeway ramp-meter signals, some were installed along Arizona 51 at various onramps a year or so back, but they're not activated and are covered with burlap.

[PHLBOS]

If we're including freeway ramp-meter signals, some were installed along Arizona 51 at various onramps a year or so back, but they're not activated and are covered with burlap.

Many of the ramp meter signals along I-476 in PA have never been turned on; especially the ones at the Ridge Pike interchange (Exit 18, onto I-476 South).

[jeffandnicole]

I have no idea if these have ever been activated, or if this is a planned future intersection or a past decommissioned intersection.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.909233,-76.976845&spn=0.00119,0.002642&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=38.909148,-76.977418&panoid=-KfUgYdJ4HlIXev-AyYWZA&cbp=12,31.73,,0,-3.95

Even the right turn lane directly into a fence still exists!  And judging by the barricade there...it did surprise at least someone.

[Pete from Boston]

This sounds like a phenomenon of states with scads of open land ripe for development.  Up here we don't see a lot of the plats of streets in wide-open fields (something I've seen a lot of in the Midwest, for example) where I suspect this more often occurs.

[cl94]

This sounds like a phenomenon of states with scads of open land ripe for development.  Up here we don't see a lot of the plats of streets in wide-open fields (something I've seen a lot of in the Midwest, for example) where I suspect this more often occurs.

I've seen it around Columbus. City is rapidly expanding into the surrounding farmland and they're just building infrastructure all at once to avoid having to add later and disrupt a populated area.

[mrsman]

I think it's a good idea to force developers to pay for the infrastructure for a new traffic signal.  But at the same time, it's wasteful to run the electricity of these signals before they are warranted by traffic.  So the signals should be covered until the houses in the development are occupied.

[jakeroot]

I have no idea if these have ever been activated, or if this is a planned future intersection or a past decommissioned intersection.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.909233,-76.976845&spn=0.00119,0.002642&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=38.909148,-76.977418&panoid=-KfUgYdJ4HlIXev-AyYWZA&cbp=12,31.73,,0,-3.95

Even the right turn lane directly into a fence still exists!  And judging by the barricade there...it did surprise at least someone.

Where is the second southern-facing signal head? I only see the one close to the aforementioned wrong turn.

EDIT: The signal was installed in 2004-2005, but I can't figure out why. The road points directly at a hill. Were they going to build a tunnel and connect the road all the way to Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave near the 295?

[mrsman]

I have no idea if these have ever been activated, or if this is a planned future intersection or a past decommissioned intersection.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.909233,-76.976845&spn=0.00119,0.002642&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=38.909148,-76.977418&panoid=-KfUgYdJ4HlIXev-AyYWZA&cbp=12,31.73,,0,-3.95

Even the right turn lane directly into a fence still exists!  And judging by the barricade there...it did surprise at least someone.

Where is the second southern-facing signal head? I only see the one close to the aforementioned wrong turn.

EDIT: The signal was installed in 2004-2005, but I can't figure out why. The road points directly at a hill. Were they going to build a tunnel and connect the road all the way to Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave near the 295?

This is right outside the Arboretum, so I think they probably expected a new entrance/exit of the Arboretum to be placed here.  But it never came to be.

Look, this was supposed to be a major intersection with left turn arrows.  Yet it was never constructed.  And the current entrance to the Arboretum is at R Street. Yet, there is no signal at the corner of Bladensburg and R Street, making a left turn from the Arboretum to Bladensburg difficult.

[MillTheRoadgeek]

It is new (only has been up for about a year), but a signal at VA 28 (Center St), Prescott Ave. and Zebedee St. has a signal installed with the Olde Towne Square development which is still wrapped in black.

[jakeroot]

A signal at the end of an off-ramp from I-705/I-5 near Tacoma was, I presume, installed for the Tacoma Dome nearby (in case of heavy traffic), but I've never seen them activated. The road that the ramp intersects is a priority road; as expected, the signal flashes amber in those directions:

[busman_49]

Medina Rd (Ohio 18) and Portside Dr has had a signal up since at least the early 2000s that has been in flash mode ever since.  18 was widened through that area a while back and the signals were left alone; all the other signals on that stretch of 18 from I-77 all the way to Medina were upgraded to Ohio's new spec (all black with yellow-bordered backplates) except, as streetview from last year shows, these signals.
http://goo.gl/maps/PevNs

[RG407]

This is why the MUTCD requires non-operational signals to be covered, turned or taken down.

The problem with covering the signals is the plastic or burlap coverings could eventually come off if they are left in place for a long time.  In my opinion, if the signals are not going to be operational for an extended or undetermined period of time they should be turned or, better yet, never installed in the first place.

[RG407]

A signal at the end of an off-ramp from I-705/I-5 near Tacoma was, I presume, installed for the Tacoma Dome nearby (in case of heavy traffic), but I've never seen them activated. The road that the ramp intersects is a priority road; as expected, the signal flashes amber in those directions:

Do the signals for the off-ramp flash red?

It would appear if the signals were ever activated the stop signs would need to be covered so they didn't conflict with the signals.

[jakeroot]

A signal at the end of an off-ramp from I-705/I-5 near Tacoma was, I presume, installed for the Tacoma Dome nearby (in case of heavy traffic), but I've never seen them activated. The road that the ramp intersects is a priority road; as expected, the signal flashes amber in those directions:

Do the signals for the off-ramp flash red?

It would appear if the signals were ever activated the stop signs would need to be covered so they didn't conflict with the signals.

They flash red. And I thought the same thing...clearly they no longer have an interest in activating the signal, otherwise the stop signs wouldn't be there.

[Revive 755]

One on Peace Road in the DeKalb/Sycamore, IL area:

Streetview