Traffic Signals: Yellow or Black?

[Ian]

Another thing about what color signals are, is it depends on what brand of signal and what color of signal. One color might look good on one brand, but not on another, or vise versa.

[BigMattFromTexas]

Here's one stop light in Brownwood that has both yellow and black on it...
BigMatt

[roadfro]

Yellow Backplates and black signal housings

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=42.328763,-83.044214&spn=0.000656,0.003484&z=19&layer=c&cbll=42.328845,-83.044513&panoid=sEw3bFL-Y5d7vsspSky4XQ&cbp=11,346.88,,0,-5.18

What you have linked to in this street view appears to have black backplates with a yellow reflective strip around the edges. (I fairly certain there's been some official experimentation with this that was evaluated by FHWA before being put as an option in the next MUTCD--I don't think it's too common at this point.)  If you click ahead twice and look at the back of the signal, you can see the backplate is actually all plack.  The signal housing is yellow on the back side, although the doors and visors on the front appear to be black...

Here's one stop light in Brownwood that has both yellow and black on it...
BigMatt

Looks like that one has yellow housings and visors with black backplates.  That look isn't all bad, I guess...

[codyg1985]

Well there are many places in Michigan where backplates are used, at least that I've seen in pics. Its Delaware whre backplates are very rare.

Maybe it has to do with where I live and where I travel.  Most of my experience is with Grand Rapids, Lansing, and the Upper Peninsula.  Yes I have seen backplates occasionally in Michigan, but never on a brand new signal.  Can you give me some examples of these yellow backplates, Hellfighter or someone else?

That looks like a Kentucky signal installation. Kentucky is the only state I know of that has signals that have the red and green housings with partial covers on them (if that is what you call them) and yellow housing with full covers on them.

Alabama has used yellow housings for as long as I can remember, but Alabama has started to use black signal housings and some black/yellow signal housings.  The backplates are black here. Huntsville used to use very wide backplates:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34.726176,-86.656149&spn=0,359.99761&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=34.726174,-86.656189&panoid=3bxH0j2lzGRRyKaXfcvasw&cbp=12,90.86,,0,-13.69

[hbelkins]

Well there are many places in Michigan where backplates are used, at least that I've seen in pics. Its Delaware whre backplates are very rare.

Maybe it has to do with where I live and where I travel.  Most of my experience is with Grand Rapids, Lansing, and the Upper Peninsula.  Yes I have seen backplates occasionally in Michigan, but never on a brand new signal.  Can you give me some examples of these yellow backplates, Hellfighter or someone else?

That looks like a Kentucky signal installation. Kentucky is the only state I know of that has signals that have the red and green housings with partial covers on them (if that is what you call them) and yellow housing with full covers on them.

I would love to see a full-sized version of that image to be able to see the route markers in the background to know if it's a Kentucky installation.

I posed the question about the "hoods" on the lights to the folks in Frankfort and here's the answer I got:

There is no documentation that I am aware of that explains why the original decision was made to use this design.  The design is decades old, and the justification behind its use has been lost over time.

In recent years, the same question has been pondered by our staff.  Possible reasons behind the design include:

〈                     It is more important to keep yellow hidden from traffic on opposing approaches so drivers do not attempt to "jump"  the green light on their approach.
〈                     Yellow indication was more likely to suffer from "phantom effect"  where light trespass from the sun makes indication appear to be lighted when it is not.  As a result, the more compete visor was used.
〈                     When we did not provide signal indications for pedestrians, there was a need for pedestrians to see the red or green indication to determine if they could cross the street.  As a result, the visors were modified on those heads to make them more visible. 

I think the first bullet is the most common reason cited by our engineers for continuing the use of the different visor on the yellow indication. 

[Hellfighter]

Finally, found the photo I was looking for...

[jjakucyk]

Who says it has to be one or the other?   I've grown rather fond of Cincinnati's spec for black housings and visors, but yellow doors.  It can be pretty sharp, especially on these new Eagle Durasigs.  From the back they disappear, as they should, but the yellow on the front makes them pop a bit, especially if a lamp is out. 

[thenetwork]

For years, the city of Akron, OH used nothing but dark green signals (which I thought looked aesthetically pleasing because they meshed nicely with the surrounding greenery in the nearby trees). 

They briefly started to replace some of the lights with all black signals until around 2000, when it seemed to be a mass exodus towards all-yellow signals.  Seemed like it only was 3-4 years before all the traffic lights in Akron were yellow.

[US71]

Muskogee, OK has brown signals

[xcellntbuy]

After Hurricane Wilma destroyed hundreds of the 1300+ traffic-signalled intersections in Broward County, Florida (and a similar number in Palm Beach County) in October 2005 we have had occasionally some odd mixtures of traffic lights.  I have seen black-backed red and yellow lights, attached at the bottom with a yellow-backed green.

[ap70621]

I prefer yellow. In the nearby city of Port Jervis, NY, there is an intersection with blue signals.

[SidS1045]

The signals in the Boston area have all gray signals as well.

The only agency in the Boston area that uses gray signals is the Commonwealth's Department of Conservation and Recreation (formerly the Metropolitan District Commission).  Otherwise, there's a mixture of black and yellow ones.

[Takumi]

I'm used to yellow, so I think black ones stand out. I want to say I've seen a red one at a fire station around here too.

[The High Plains Traveler]

In Colorado it depends on your CDOT district. In SE Colorado all signals are black, while up north they are yellow with black backplates. 

I always associate yellow backplates with Canada, especially when used with 12-8-8 lights.

[Takumi]

The only surviving 12-8-8's in the wild around here that I know of are in Hopewell, and they're all yellow, with no back plate. The only black 12-8-8 I've ever seen is owned by my brother, and he painted it that way.

[nyratk1]

Here in Suffolk County, for the most part green/black is used for NY state installations (and a few villages) and yellow is county/town installations. Both quite nice (although I probably favor the yellow).

[Tarkus]

Almost all signals in Oregon are all-black (or some other very dark shade) with backplates, excepting a few older installs mostly in Portland, which lack backplates (there's even a handful of yellow ones).  Because of that latter situation, whenever I've been in Maryland or Tennessee or some other places and the standard is yellow with no backplate, even new signal installations look like they're old and about to fall apart.

[kj3400]

Maryland's starting to shift over to yellow backs and black fronts. Baltimore City, however tends to be a bit random. So you might see a yellow signal, a yellow signal with black fronts and some completely different colored signal in a couple of blocks' radius.

[roadman65]

New Jersey was all green back in the 70s except for Newark, Jersey City, and some urban communities in North Jersey.  Then in the 80s they went all yellow and some for a long time had both during the transitional period. 

Now I see in Google street view that Rahway, NJ is going black and Newark a city that always used horizontal mounted heads are starting to go verticle on some signals. 

Also, New Jersey and New York seem to use the 8 inch lenses the most while most use the 12 inch lenses.  Some places in New Jersey use the 12 inch and 8 inch at the same intersection where a divided highway intersects a small side road.

NJDOT said to me once back in the snail mail days that it was the MUTCD that made them go yellow.  However, Florida went black at the same time NJ went yellow. 

To me all colors are cool and it makes great contrast.  I find Illinois to be most cool cause statewide they use Black and yellow with back plates, but in Chicago they are all green with NO backplates.   Sort of like New York that has green span wires all over except NYC that uses the old double guy mast arms with yellow heads.  Staten Island has traffic light mast arms attached to the wooden telephone poles, but old style Jersey double guys and not like the other city signals.  Fifth Avenue for some reason is grey with large brackets instead of the usual mast arms, but are now being changed to look like the rest of the city, but still grey.

[US71]

Arkansas seems to be transitioning to all black. Some older signals are still yellow, but are being replaced with black.

Arkadelphia, AR has a 4Way signal that was yellow, but was repainted.

[US12]

The Washtenaw County Road Commission in Michigan has yellow signals with black back plates on all posts, but with the overhead span wires it is a yellow signal with no back plate. This is typical of MDOT.

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[Tom89t]

In California, new traffic signals are black and older ones are greenish.
http://www.vaconsultinginc.com/services/project.php?id=TRA-Amar

http://www.rkagroup.com/images/Image/San%20Jose%20HillsF.JPG

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/raymondyue/4212295489/

[roadman65]

How about silver?  Roselle, NJ and Florham Park, NJ both had signal heads painted silver.  I do not know if that is the case now, as even Rahway, NJ had some that were changed to black that were silver for decades. 

I am guessing now that the Garden State is abandoning the yellow signal heads after 30 years, unless Rahway doing their own thing as Plainfield never complied when NJ did the initial change.

[Alps]

How about silver?  Roselle, NJ and Florham Park, NJ both had signal heads painted silver.  I do not know if that is the case now, as even Rahway, NJ had some that were changed to black that were silver for decades.  

I am guessing now that the Garden State is abandoning the yellow signal heads after 30 years, unless Rahway doing their own thing as Plainfield never complied when NJ did the initial change.

Florham Park has only dark green that I've seen, and newer yellow. NJDOT is determinedly yellow. Any black signals are on an individual agency's basis.

[PHLBOS]

The signals in the Boston area have all gray signals as well.

The only agency in the Boston area that uses gray signals is the Commonwealth's Department of Conservation and Recreation (formerly the Metropolitan District Commission).  Otherwise, there's a mixture of black and yellow ones.

Once upon a time, the MDC signals were all dark green.  My hometown of Marblehead, MA (way back when) used to had green signals w/black visors & faces.  At present, only 2 of those old signals still exist (though the green was repainted yellow back in the late 80s): the pedestrian signal (12-8-8 with its visors missing) along Atlantic Ave. at The Star of the Sea Catholic church and the intersection signal at Atlantic (Route 129) and Clifton Avenues.  The latter signal was erected in the early 70s and was the first traffic signal in Marblehead to feature 12-12-12 signal-heads (for the Route 129 traffic).