Illinois-style traffic lights to built in the Metro Detroit area

[chi-det8]

Hanging traffic lights are old fashioned and it's out of style. Half of the nation including Michigan uses hanging traffic signals. I would like to see Illinois-style traffic lights built all over Metro Detroit. You would only see these modern traffic lights in a developed community.

I love the Illinois-style design of traffic lights, it is placed on the post. The turn signals [[green and yellow arrows) are placed below the green lamp. I think they have that in Minnesota too. There are only a few hanging traffic lights in Illinois

From Panoramio.com


From Panoramio.com

But in Chicago, most traffic poles are coated in green and the street name sign are all in capital letters including a street address.

From Panoramio.com

California-style traffic lights are the most modern in the country

From Wikipedia

But the Wisconsin-style traffic lights sucks. Traffic lights are arranged horizontally, you'll see those in New Mexico, Florida and Texas too.

From Panoramio.com

In almost all of Canada, traffic lights are coated in yellow.

[One Shot]

Its amazing all that weight can hang that far out on the poles!!! Those lights are huge when seen on the ground.

[lilpup]

1) Michigan already has some of those

2) Michigan also had cantilevered road signs on the freeways but found they were prone to structural failure due to corrosion of the base mount bolts along with the constant wind force loading/unloading cycles they suffered. The cantilevers are now all being replaced by simply supported structures. These cantilevered light designs are subject to similar loading/unloading dynamics.

[econ expat]

At least the hanging traffic lights are still centered over the traffic lanes.
What really sucks is the old style traffic lights, usually in tight urban areas, where the lights are on posts near the curb line.
I've had close calls accidentally running through those [[unintentional, but still....) hidden traffic lights.
Michigan is catching up with other states- more of those damn 4 cycle lights that leave you waiting a long time for the green!

[Jimaz]

My usual tech prediction: Someday traffic lights will be designed into your dashboard, coordinated by wireless.

[Onthe405]

Michigan is catching up with other states- more of those damn 4 cycle lights that leave you waiting a long time for the green!

Except during the peak of rush hour, you shouldn't have to wait through a full-length cycle. The technology is available [[and not ridiculously expensive) to embed sensors within the pavement, at measured distances, in each lane as it approaches the intersection. The length of the green light for each cycle is determined by the number of cars queued up. If there's no car at all in a lane [[e.g left turn), that green light is skipped altogether in the cycle, unless a pedestrian hits the Walk button.

At 12am, when you're the only one around, all of the lights are either green, or turn green in short order, as soon as you drive over the sensor. Also, a variation on jimaz thoughts can be deployed with regard to street-level mass transit. As busses or light rail approach the intersection, the traffic signal cycles are automatically accelerated to accommodate the approaching bus/train.

In the urban areas of CA---and many other states---- it's standard practice to install this technology whenever a street is repaved or a light rail line is added . They are certainly not a panacea for uber congestion like LA, NYC, DC, and Chicago, but every little bit helps. Hopefully, County Road Commissions in MI and MDOT will have the sense to incorporate some of these technologies in the long-overdue modernization of its streets.

[Ray1936]

Michigan, and particularly Detroit, has no money for infrastructure upgrades. Enjoy the swinging lights in the meantime.

[313WX]

Actually, the traffic lights at some intersections have been updated, and they're sporting off a different kind of hang now.

Basically the Illinois look minus the pole extension.

[goggomobil]

I would like to see traffic lights with working bulbs, even if they were made by Playskool.

[Meddle]

I would like to see Illinois-style traffic lights built all over Metro Detroit.

Get out your checkbook.

Detroit has a number of real problems to solve first.

[leland_palmer]

Hanging traffic lights are old fashioned and it's out of style. Half of the nation including Michigan uses hanging traffic signals. I would like to see Illinois-style traffic lights built all over Metro Detroit. You would only see these modern traffic lights in a developed community.

I love the Illinois-style design of traffic lights, it is placed on the post. The turn signals [[green and yellow arrows) are placed below the green lamp. I think they have that in Minnesota too. There are only a few hanging traffic lights in Illinois

You could move to Berkley
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,286.87,,0,1.9

[xphillipjrx]

I would like to see more traffic circles like at Maple/Farmington and Maple/Drake.

[English]

I would like to see more traffic circles like at Maple/Farmington and Maple/Drake.

The problem with traffic circles is that no one seems to know how to drive them. Does driver's ed cover it these days?

[reddog289]

Out here in Western Wayne County, The cities I travel through the most, Wayne,Westland,and Garden City have the pole mounted lights in their downtown areas.There are quite a few in Canton also.
If not for DDA $, I don't think there would be as many out here.

[shovelhead]

I would like to see more traffic circles like at Maple/Farmington and Maple/Drake.

Then you would LOVE Lee Road at U.S. 23 in Green Oak Township. THREE in a row. Need a definition of mass confusion? Go there.....I avoid it like the plague.

[Whitehouse]

Virtually all traffic lights in the Netherlands work with sensor loops in the asphalt, except on very busy junctions. There you'll see the four cycle method. I like it when there's a "green wave"


Here's an example in which the speed is given to maximize the effect. If you maintain this speed, the next traffic light on your way will be green. The speed is adjusted to the demand. It can be however that you have to wait some time before the first light turns green, but I don't mind.

[Ravine]

Virtually all traffic lights in the Netherlands work with sensor loops in the asphalt, except on very busy junctions. There you'll see the four cycle method. I like it when there's a "green wave"


Here's an example in which the speed is given to maximize the effect. If you maintain this speed, the next traffic light on your way will be green. The speed is adjusted to the demand. It can be however that you have to wait some time before the first light turns green, but I don't mind.

That stuff is cool. I like it... a lot.

Must be nice, to live in a country what ain't broke alla time.

[Hamtragedy]

Almost all the new lights around here, including the suburbs, are of the hanging variety.

[Mikeg]

Here's an example in which the speed is given to maximize the effect. If you maintain this speed, the next traffic light on your way will be green.

We had something similar to that that back in the 1960's along northbound and southbound Mound Road, between 12 and 13 Mile Roads. General Motors Research Labs and the Macomb County Road Commission collaborated on that project. Unfortunately, it never was implemented elsewhere and after about 10 years, the signals were removed.

Attachment 7353

If I remember correctly, the signals looked something like my sketch above and they were hung from overhead cables at the traffic signals and at regular intervals along Mound Rd. Their purpose was to pace the traffic so that the lead cars would arrive at the next traffic signal just as it was changing to green. There was a bulb behind each speed limit number and they would switch on and off sequentially. They were tied into the traffic signal control boxes and used electromechanical switches and timers to operate the speed number lights. There were no sensors involved that could take into account the traffic volumes.

[East Detroit]

Hanging lights can't be good if we have them and other cities don't.

[Ray1936]

Here's the other extreme. A couple years back I was driving down the main drag of Anthony, Kansas, on one of my genealogy hunts [[my family lines were pioneers to Kansas in territorial days. How I ended up being born in Detroit still puzzles me.) There's only one signalized intersection in that tiny burg which is needed like a hole in the head. But the signals are on two of the four corners; nothing overhead. Talk about it being easy to blow a red light! I barely caught myself several times when driving through the town. But that's Podunk for you. On the other hand, I can recall intersections in Detroit being like that in the forties....Schoolcraft and Meyers, for one.

[lilpup]

Ann Arbor has afew lights governed by sensors in the asphalt. Heaven help you if you stop too far forward for the light when it's red because you'll be sitting there for a while unless someone comes up behind you or you realize what's going on and back up a bit.

[313WX]

Out here in Western Wayne County, The cities I travel through the most, Wayne,Westland,and Garden City have the pole mounted lights in their downtown areas.There are quite a few in Canton also.
If not for DDA $, I don't think there would be as many out here.

Yeah, "downtown" Troy and downtown Detroit have them too.

[Bearinabox]

I noticed recently that there are now "Signal Under Study For Removal" signs on Second and Third at Euclid. The lights at these intersections [[which, incidentally, are hung from poles rather than wires) are completely nonfunctional, and have been for as long as I can remember. They haven't worked in so long that the city actually installed 4-way stop signage at both intersections. What I want to know is, what exactly are they studying?

[Whitehouse]

That stuff is cool. I like it... a lot.

Must be nice, to live in a country what ain't broke alla time.

Not to be confused, those are kilometers.... We're no maniacs.