Ugly traffic signals

[traffic light guy]

Michigan's older Durasig installation get pretty ugly after 15-20 years after installation especially considering that there plastic, Pennsylvania's older installations are pretty nasty looking too, Pennsylvania also has ugly Durasigs with mismatched visors and faded orange paint burned lenses and even chipped visors, these date to the early-90s and 1980s, matter a fact these were so ugly these scared me as a kid, I also saw a nasty PennDOT 1980s era Durasig installed with all the examples listed above, and I got scared whenever we drove past it, luckily these got replaced with modern TCTs in summer of 2012.

[freebrickproductions]

Actually, the new signals that were installed in 2012 would've been either Peek or Chapel Hill, not TCT.
Also, before Huntsville replaced all of the greens in the city with LEDs, I always found that some of the Singer signals here to look rather ugly, especially since I think that most of the greens in the Singers were poly lenses.

[Ian]

Maine likes to use telephone poles to suspend their span wire set ups, which look similar to temporary construction installs. I've never really been a huge fan...

[freebrickproductions]

Maine likes to use telephone poles to suspend their span wire set ups, which look similar to temporary construction installs. I've never really been a huge fan...

I've never really minded that, but it's probably due to the fact that I'm from Alabama where span wires are strung from telephone poles a lot.

[roadman65]

All the signals along Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando between I-4 and Florida's Turnpike are either like this or full box trusses like in the former photo that completely span the entire intersection.

The reason for these signals is because of a bureaucracy created  by FDOT and Orange County, FL called the South Trail Improvement Board wanted to add a little something to a road through sketchy areas and therefore all new signals are to look like this except for the intersection of Sandlake Road, only because the intersection is too wide to support a long truss assembly, so traditional Florida span wires are used there.

[swbrotha100]

All the signals along Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando between I-4 and Florida's Turnpike are either like this or full box trusses like in the former photo that completely span the entire intersection.

The reason for these signals is because of a bureaucracy created  by FDOT and Orange County, FL called the South Trail Improvement Board wanted to add a little something to a road through sketchy areas and therefore all new signals are to look like this except for the intersection of Sandlake Road, only because the intersection is too wide to support a long truss assembly, so traditional Florida span wires are used there.

I've only seen signals similar to this setup at some SPUI interchanges in Arizona. Granted, there is only one long truss assembly in the middle of the intersection.

I personally would like to see the city of Phoenix/Maricopa County get rid of their older signal assemblies scattered around. Use the ADOT-style with curved mast arms or straight mast arms in the city.

[Ian]

Speaking of big ugly trusses over the intersection...



This is at the 5-way intersection of PA 309, PA 463, and old US 202 in Montgomeryville, PA. Google Street View of the intersection.

[Brian556]

Quote from roadman65:

All the signals along Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando between I-4 and Florida's Turnpike are either like this or full box trusses like in the former photo that completely span the entire intersection.

The reason for these signals is because of a bureaucracy created  by FDOT and Orange County, FL called the South Trail Improvement Board wanted to add a little something to a road through sketchy areas and therefore all new signals are to look like this except for the intersection of Sandlake Road, only because the intersection is too wide to support a long truss assembly, so traditional Florida span wires are used there.

These are awful. they create so much visual clutter that they detract from the visibility of the signal heads themselves. One of the things that is great about the traditional Florida span wire installations is that they look nice, and they create less visual clutter.

Some of the newer mast arms are so thick that they dwarf the signal heads, which looks crappy.

[Big John]

Dubuque, IA: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4919879,-90.6646276,3a,75y,291.54h,85.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_HsHd0JWrhKy96oNeMSFlQ!2e0!7i3328!8i1664

Not good design where the support gantry that is supposed to be the background overwhelms the feature is supposed to support.  Also looking at you Oklahoma where a sign gantry can overwhelm the BGS it is holding up.

[peterj920]

I'll still take any of those traffic signal assemblies over signals strung from wires.  Michigan, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee have the worst traffic signal assemblies I've seen. (I know there's a lot of other states that primarily string signals on wires).  Signals on mast arms are a lot easier to see and look a lot better. 

[xcellntbuy]

Speaking of big ugly trusses over the intersection...



This is at the 5-way intersection of PA 309, PA 463, and old US 202 in Montgomeryville, PA. Google Street View of the intersection.

There are a couple of those behemoths in south Florida, only painted in black.  Black traffic lights, too.  It may be easier to see these traffic lights at night, but during the day, the traffic lights get "lost" in all that overhead steel.

[traffic light guy]

Speaking of big ugly trusses over the intersection...



This is at the 5-way intersection of PA 309, PA 463, and old US 202 in Montgomeryville, PA. Google Street View of the intersection.

Some of these 1980s-era Durasigs have ugly mismatched visors

[freebrickproductions]

Speaking of big ugly trusses over the intersection...



This is at the 5-way intersection of PA 309, PA 463, and old US 202 in Montgomeryville, PA. Google Street View of the intersection.

IDK why, but I actually like that set-up.

[roadman65]

I would like to know how the 5 points intersection worked before the large gantry signals were in place?  Originally side mounted signals were used with absolutely no overhead signals before circa 1982.  Not even mast arms.  So I figure that the left turn signals were erected on the islands in the middle of PA 309, or maybe there was not any at all.

[formulanone]

I actually don't mind the gantries...they look different, and they can be spotted from a considerable distance. This one is located between FL 838 and FL 817 in Plantation, Florida.

[xcellntbuy]

There is also a similar behemoth at University Drive and Broward Blvd. in Plantation.

[traffic light guy]

I actually don't mind the gantries...they look different, and they can be spotted from a considerable distance. This one is located between FL 838 and FL 817 in Plantation, Florida.

Well at least they're sleek looking Eagle Marks instead of old ugly mismatched Generation 1 Durasigs.

[roadfro]

I actually don't mind the gantries...they look different, and they can be spotted from a considerable distance. This one is located between FL 838 and FL 817 in Plantation, Florida.

To me, having this huge gantry structure spanning the intersection looks kind of weird when the signals are suspended below the structure. Nevada would use a mono tube here.