Anybody have any idea what this is?

[bmeiser]

These have been cropping up all around the south side of Indianapolis.  Look to be some sort of antenna or something.  Lots of boxes on the pole.  At their most dense, they are spaced every 200ish yards on one side of the road.   My apologies for the shotty cell phone picture.

[DaBigE]

Until I read the part about how fair they're spaced, my first guess was going to be some electronic civil defense (aka Tornado) sirens. The boxes further down the pole look similar to the control boxes and battery box found on the siren poles around here.

Could be some kind of traffic monitoring device...for determining travel speeds/density? That would make a bit more sense with the spacing. But that looks to be mounted a bit too high based on other similar traffic detection units I've seen. The height would suggest a camera, but it doesn't really look like a camera from this photo.

Are they just at intersections?

[Scott5114]

Maybe some sort of wifi broadcast antenna?

[bmeiser]

Until I read the part about how fair they're spaced, my first guess was going to be some electronic civil defense (aka Tornado) sirens. The boxes further down the pole look similar to the control boxes and battery box found on the siren poles around here.

Could be some kind of traffic monitoring device...for determining travel speeds/density? That would make a bit more sense with the spacing. But that looks to be mounted a bit too high based on other similar traffic detection units I've seen. The height would suggest a camera, but it doesn't really look like a camera from this photo.

Are they just at intersections?

Nope, they're just along one side of the road placed every 200 or so yards.  They seem to be placed more based on spacing than proximity to anything of any sort of significance.  One is in front of a Max and Erma's restaurant, one is in front of an apartment complex, and another is just kind of by some trees for example.  The control boxes reminded me of sirens as well, but they don't look like any sort of siren that I know about.  I posted this on a siren forum as well to see what they thought about it just in case.  In person I don't think they look like cameras either and they don't look like INDOT's traffic monitoring devices.  These are Indy-owned roads though, so maybe it's something the city owns.

Strange thing is that they are on (at least) 2 major north south roads for only about a mile or 2 and then they disappear.  Maybe they're still being installed.

Scott, I'm thinking wifi as well but I have no proof of that.  I scoured Google for any stories about a system being installed but came up with nothing.  I've seen similar poles around Lucas Oil Stadium so it could very possibly be wifi or cellular related.  I'll keep an eye out for more information.

[DaBigE]

Scott, I'm thinking wifi as well but I have no proof of that.  I scoured Google for any stories about a system being installed but came up with nothing.  I've seen similar poles around Lucas Oil Stadium so it could very possibly be wifi or cellular related.  I'll keep an eye out for more information.

Could be something cellular-related. I seem to recall reading AT&T was experimenting with utility pole-based repeaters to boost the signal.