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[roadman65]

I noticed that in the State of Texas for the most part the signal heads are hung horizontally.  In some areas they are hung standard like most states.  I noticed specifically that both San Antonio and Fort Worth use the standard vertical, but noticed that outside the city limits of both they also have the vertical assemblies.  So is that the county that prefers them or is it a state DOT thing for the area?

Also I noticed that in Houston's metropolis they are switching to black heads over the traditional yellow that Texas uses elsewhere.   Even Galveston is using black heads as well.  So is that a regional issue as the Houston metro area is hundreds of square miles and covers multiple counties?

[jlwm]

Most of Houston's new city installed installations have yellow signal heads. Black signal heads are mostly used in areas like the Galleria, Texas Medical Center, Downtown, and Midtown. Until recently, there was no rhyme or reason to the City of Houston's signal head colors. A few years ago, you could drive down a newly reconstructed street with all new signals and some intersections could have yellow signal heads and others could have black signal heads in the same neighborhood. But, it appears the City of Houston is attempting to be more consistent with signal head color depending on where the signals are being installed. Yet, despite that, it's not uncommon to see a mix and match of black and yellow signal heads at one intersection when it comes time to replace a downed signal.

[txstateends]

In Dallas, a few individual replacement heads are yellow, or yellow base with black visors.  Several recent locaal mast/signal installs, new and replaced, have been using all-black signal heads.  But as with past local installs, the signals are placed in a mixture of vertical and horizontal arrangements.

Other cities are a mixed bag.  Some places have all-vertical, some are all-horizontal, or could be like Dallas and have several instances of both/either.

[rte66man]

Most of Houston's new city installed installations have yellow signal heads. Black signal heads are mostly used in areas like the Galleria, Texas Medical Center, Downtown, and Midtown. Until recently, there was no rhyme or reason to the City of Houston's signal head colors. A few years ago, you could drive down a newly reconstructed street with all new signals and some intersections could have yellow signal heads and others could have black signal heads in the same neighborhood. But, it appears the City of Houston is attempting to be more consistent with signal head color depending on where the signals are being installed. Yet, despite that, it's not uncommon to see a mix and match of black and yellow signal heads at one intersection when it comes time to replace a downed signal.

At least Houston has installed some signals where the head is outlined with a red LCD when the main signal is red.  This should be done in more places.

[Brian556]

I noticed that in the State of Texas for the most part the signal heads are hung horizontally.  In some areas they are hung standard like most states.  I noticed specifically that both San Antonio and Fort Worth use the standard vertical, but noticed that outside the city limits of both they also have the vertical assemblies.  So is that the county that prefers them or is it a state DOT thing for the area?

Also I noticed that in Houston's metropolis they are switching to black heads over the traditional yellow that Texas uses elsewhere.   Even Galveston is using black heads as well.  So is that a regional issue as the Houston metro area is hundreds of square miles and covers multiple counties?

TxDOT District 2 (Ft Worth) uses vertical heads. All others use horizontal as far as I know. TxDOT typically uses yellow heads, but on the newly-reconstructed I-35E, they used black


The cities of Lewisville and Denton are both inconsistent on head color.

I have not seen any with the reflective outline in North Texas

[sparker]

Most of Houston's new city installed installations have yellow signal heads. Black signal heads are mostly used in areas like the Galleria, Texas Medical Center, Downtown, and Midtown. Until recently, there was no rhyme or reason to the City of Houston's signal head colors. A few years ago, you could drive down a newly reconstructed street with all new signals and some intersections could have yellow signal heads and others could have black signal heads in the same neighborhood. But, it appears the City of Houston is attempting to be more consistent with signal head color depending on where the signals are being installed. Yet, despite that, it's not uncommon to see a mix and match of black and yellow signal heads at one intersection when it comes time to replace a downed signal.

At least Houston has installed some signals where the head is outlined with a red LCD when the main signal is red.  This should be done in more places.

That's a pretty damn impressive signal array.  Is the red outside square an active display (LCD or an LED array) or simply reflective tape?  The latter would seem to be counterproductive for anything but the red light aspect; but an outer perimeter displaying either G, Y, or R depending on the signal phase would be quite useful, particularly with fog or inclement weather.  We sure could use that out here in CA!   BTW, does anyone have a picture of this installation showing green or even yellow lights?

[jlwm]

Most of Houston's new city installed installations have yellow signal heads. Black signal heads are mostly used in areas like the Galleria, Texas Medical Center, Downtown, and Midtown. Until recently, there was no rhyme or reason to the City of Houston's signal head colors. A few years ago, you could drive down a newly reconstructed street with all new signals and some intersections could have yellow signal heads and others could have black signal heads in the same neighborhood. But, it appears the City of Houston is attempting to be more consistent with signal head color depending on where the signals are being installed. Yet, despite that, it's not uncommon to see a mix and match of black and yellow signal heads at one intersection when it comes time to replace a downed signal.

At least Houston has installed some signals where the head is outlined with a red LCD when the main signal is red.  This should be done in more places.

That's a pretty damn impressive signal array.  Is the red outside square an active display (LCD or an LED array) or simply reflective tape?  The latter would seem to be counterproductive for anything but the red light aspect; but an outer perimeter displaying either G, Y, or R depending on the signal phase would be quite useful, particularly with fog or inclement weather.  We sure could use that out here in CA!   BTW, does anyone have a picture of this installation showing green or even yellow lights?

Those are lights on the backplate, not tape. Those signals are found at intersections with Houston's light rail lines and are an attempt to make the red lights a bit more conspicuous since our drivers have a tendency to hit the train. They only show red. When the lights are green or yellow, they are un-lit.

[rte66man]

Most of Houston's new city installed installations have yellow signal heads. Black signal heads are mostly used in areas like the Galleria, Texas Medical Center, Downtown, and Midtown. Until recently, there was no rhyme or reason to the City of Houston's signal head colors. A few years ago, you could drive down a newly reconstructed street with all new signals and some intersections could have yellow signal heads and others could have black signal heads in the same neighborhood. But, it appears the City of Houston is attempting to be more consistent with signal head color depending on where the signals are being installed. Yet, despite that, it's not uncommon to see a mix and match of black and yellow signal heads at one intersection when it comes time to replace a downed signal.

At least Houston has installed some signals where the head is outlined with a red LCD when the main signal is red.  This should be done in more places.

That's a pretty damn impressive signal array.  Is the red outside square an active display (LCD or an LED array) or simply reflective tape?  The latter would seem to be counterproductive for anything but the red light aspect; but an outer perimeter displaying either G, Y, or R depending on the signal phase would be quite useful, particularly with fog or inclement weather.  We sure could use that out here in CA!   BTW, does anyone have a picture of this installation showing green or even yellow lights?

Those are lights on the backplate, not tape. Those signals are found at intersections with Houston's light rail lines and are an attempt to make the red lights a bit more conspicuous since our drivers have a tendency to hit the train. They only show red. When the lights are green or yellow, they are un-lit.

I found the extremely useful as it is difficult to pick the signals out from all the other lights until you are almost on top of the intersection

[In_Correct]

Yes ... At Grade Trains. That Is A Bigger Problem.

But Keep The Lights!  Put Them On All The Other Traffic Signals Also.

[Brian556]

Yes ... At Grade Trains. That Is A Bigger Problem.

But Keep The Lights!  Put Them On All The Other Traffic Signals Also.

I'd say "in-street trains" is a better way to describe the problem. These in-street trains are involved in accidents very frequently. I disapprove of them. Also, are they really necessary? Would busses not be able to handle the volume of riders?

[In_Correct]

Yes ... At Grade Trains. That Is A Bigger Problem.

But Keep The Lights!  Put Them On All The Other Traffic Signals Also.

I'd say "in-street trains" is a better way to describe the problem. These in-street trains are involved in accidents very frequently. I disapprove of them. Also, are they really necessary? Would busses not be able to handle the volume of riders?

Buses are good enough to handle riders in areas where they can not or will not grade separate the rail lines. They should close the lines that aren't grade separated if they are not going to grade separate them. The type of service would be similar to much of DART.

But of course DART has problems in downtown. I remember the trains trying to be street cars or trolleys in the middle of down town. It would be nice to have a second line that does not run through down town like that. An Elevated Express. I was going to praise DART. They even have a small "Subway" system, but I can not be cause it is not perfect (such as an unfinished station or unfinished pair of stations between Pei Wei and La Quinta)

These rail services in their current form have been around for about 30 years.

It is plenty of time to improve the existing at grade rail lines and in street rail lines, perhaps reroute them so that they can be grade separated.

Also I noticed in the picture that this appears to be a one way street. Why not add the L.E.D. or L.C.D. or Neon frame for the

WRONG
WAY

signs?

[motorola870]

I noticed that in the State of Texas for the most part the signal heads are hung horizontally.  In some areas they are hung standard like most states.  I noticed specifically that both San Antonio and Fort Worth use the standard vertical, but noticed that outside the city limits of both they also have the vertical assemblies.  So is that the county that prefers them or is it a state DOT thing for the area?

Also I noticed that in Houston's metropolis they are switching to black heads over the traditional yellow that Texas uses elsewhere.   Even Galveston is using black heads as well.  So is that a regional issue as the Houston metro area is hundreds of square miles and covers multiple counties?

TxDOT District 2 (Ft Worth) uses vertical heads. All others use horizontal as far as I know. TxDOT typically uses yellow heads, but on the newly-reconstructed I-35E, they used black


The cities of Lewisville and Denton are both inconsistent on head color.

I have not seen any with the reflective outline in North Texas

Don't know if TXDOT is changing their plans in the Fort Worth District. They have converted all of the vertical installments that were on TX360 to horizontal with the upgrade to tolling the new main lanes and also in Forest Hill on I20 TXDOT changed the traffic signals at Forrest Hill Drive and U.S. 287 Business (mansfield hwy/Kennedale Pkwy) to horizontal from vertical. Arlington and Grand Prairie have used horizontal installations across the cities for a while and Grand Prairie has converted most of theirs to horizontal. Mansfield is a mix of horizontal and vertical depending on what street you are on and even then you have alternating patterns such as debbie lane having a mix of horizontal and vertical intersections.

[roadman65]

I just saw a doghouse assembly along US 59 mounted along side a horizontal head in two cities between Lufkin and Marshall.

Thought that is weird as other places use a five section horizontal mount where the arrows are in between the standard yellow ball and green.

[roadman65]

In Marshall the FLYA has aneon sign also that lights up “Left turn yield” when flashing.  Also in Central Texas no double red balls or two red arrows like in Houston area.

[Brian556]

In Marshall the FLYA has aneon sign also that lights up “Left turn yield” when flashing.  Also in Central Texas no double red balls or two red arrows like in Houston area.

I'm wondering if the "LEFT TURN YIELD" signs were installed before the flashing yellow arrows came in to existence

[roadman65]

I noticed that in San Antonio there are normal one red (either ball or arrow) for protected lefts.  Other places I have seen either two arrows or two red balls for left turns, especially Houston area uses them galore.

[djlynch]

Also in Central Texas no double red balls or two red arrows like in Houston area.

There have been a few around Austin, but they tend to be short-lived. Although they seem to be popping up more frequently as an easy/cheap way for the City of Austin to convert signals to FYA without replacing the five-lens signal head.

[jlwm]

I noticed that in San Antonio there are normal one red (either ball or arrow) for protected lefts.  Other places I have seen either two arrows or two red balls for left turns, especially Houston area uses them galore.

The City of Houston uses a double red ball whenever there's only one signal for a movement. It's not just limited to protected left turn signals. It's a redundancy thing. Here's an example of R-R-Y-G signals being used at Hirsch and E. Mt. Houston. They use double red ball indications since there's only one primary signal in each direction. https://goo.gl/maps/hvDgrTGNnVNZzoxa6

The City of Houston has been getting away from double red ball left turn signals since about 2011. Now, they usually have two left turn signals per direction at most intersections; one is on the mast arm and the other is mounted on a pole on the corner of the intersection. Though there are some intersections with dual left turn signals with double red balls, but those came about during the transition period. Ex: https://goo.gl/maps/81L3vZEbfFW8hWa29

They still use double red left turn signals if they can't install a second left turn signal for some reason. Ex: https://goo.gl/maps/EDXZKAYp1VgwBDBq8

I've seen some TxDOT Houston District installations within the city limits conform to the City of Houston standard like at I-610 and S. Main, but they still use single double ball left turn signals for the most part on new installations within the Houston District, even in Houston City limits along the completed rebuilt sections of the US 290 feeder.

[roadman65]

Galveston uses vertical assemblies except on Seawall Blvd. and the Spur 342 interchange of IH 45.  Must be a city thing for them and the IH 45 Exit 1A signals are state owned for their horizontal mounts.

[TechZeke]

I'm a traffic engineer in the San Antonio area.

City of San Antonio and TxDOT San Antonio thankfully like their vertical heads(Which look so much better than the horizontals, come at me bro)

Austin and TxDOT Austin likes Horizontals. All seem to like yellow heads.

However, on a recent field visit to a future flasher signal I'm working on, I noticed that at the brand new intersection of SH 45 and FM 1626 south of Austin that they put up black heads. They look really slick.

[djlynch]

CTRMA seems to like black signals. They're all along 183A as well.