My City's Traffic Lights

Kinda Neat.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2006/02/03/1424229-sun.html

My city(Edmonton,Alberta) has completely switched all thier Red and Green traffic lights to LED's.
They figure, at about a savings of $800k a year, by power as said in the printed paper.
No mention of the ambers being switched however.
For me, they seem about same brightness, but much deeper colours.

Has anyone else'e done the complete switch, and did thiers include the amber?


IF

Anything bright is great! I really hate those traffic lights that have some kind of manifying optic on them that makes it difficult to see the status of the light until you're really close. Before you get close enough, the light looks dark. They always make me feel like like I'm driving too fast.

At my side here in Singapore, they already converted all their traffic lights to LEDs :naughty: Looks brighter...

yep here in california all lights (or almost all) are LED, at one light neer my home there are two turn lights that appear to be in a series of some sort, i find it hilarious because one is being obviously overdriven (VERY INTENSE, semi pulsing led light) the other is just barely sucking what juice it can get, but its an led so it still lights up pretty well. im just waiting for that light to go out ... lol overdriving leds might not be the best idea for a traffic light!

Flakey said:

yep here in california all lights (or almost all) are LED, at one light neer my home there are two turn lights that appear to be in a series of some sort, i find it hilarious because one is being obviously overdriven (VERY INTENSE, semi pulsing led light) the other is just barely sucking what juice it can get, but its an led so it still lights up pretty well. im just waiting for that light to go out ... lol overdriving leds might not be the best idea for a traffic light!

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When? I think some of the lights in our area are still incan (You can tell when they change color, since I'm not driving (Theres a "warmup" delay you can barely notice vs the instant blinkon)

Alot of the traffic lights switched to LED's many years ago. like 98' or so. At first they seemed really bright, but now I don't really notice the difference between them and the old incandescents that are still left.

NYC started putting in red/green LED bulbs in 2000 & finished all 11,000+ signals in 2004. The ambers remain incan. The city stated it will save $6.3 million a year in electrical costs.

NYC is in the process of putting the ambers in now. Major Manhattan cross streets (34th, 57th, etc. They started on Worth St. last summer).
Some scattered areas in the outer boro's, and flashing beacons are being done all over.

I really hate those traffic lights that have some kind of manifying optic on them that makes it difficult to see the status of the light until you're really close. Before you get close enough, the light looks dark. They always make me feel like like I'm driving too fast.

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3M's and McCains.
http://www.signalfan.com/ http://www.trafficsignalmuseum.com/
I'm wondering if those can be retrofitted with LED's.

Here in Saguenay City (Québec) they switched all (Red Amber Green) to LED except 2 or 3 intersections where the traffic lights mounting where probably incompatible with the LED modules. I like them since we can see them much far away and we see them lit even if we are almost blinded by the sun.

I hate the led signals when driving on darkrural roads late at night. The green is bright enough seriously jack up your night vision when you need to see peds or drunk drivers going through the intersections. The new Led lights need some sort of dimmer system on them.

It wouldn't be difficult to incorporate an ambient light sensor into a traffic light. It could be added onto the fixture or built into the LED modules themselves.

In Melbourne Au, most of the traffic lights and rail road signaling use Leds

AlienRFX -

I hear you.

PW -

This needs to be done at a particular signal I know of. The intersection is poorly lit. If you are entering from the east and the greens are on, it's very hard to see where you are going. Night vision blown sure but more than that you are temporarily blinded. I know this intersection well but still have to use caution because the street goes cattywompus. The other night I was approaching it from the west and saw a car slam on it's brakes to avoid going the wrong way. I was a half a block away to no real danger but I'm going to be real careful coming into it from the west from now on.

Blinding cattywompus intersection

The following is a link to the resume of the person who primarily developed LED technology for traffic signals. Note item 39 on the list of research and product development.

http://www.lightingsciences.com/Assets/pdf/ILResume.pdf

I think NYC has completely switched over to LED. I may be wrong, because I don't particularly pay attention. The crosswalk signs are also LED, but I noticed at least one of them on the fritz; several LEDs on one were flickering as if the sign had electrical problems.

Once again, NYC is progressing (somewhat slowly) on the final phase-- the yellows. All crosswalk signs, along with reds and greens have been completed (except for a few isolated places like 5th and 57th, (right under the holiday snowflake) which for some reason still has incandescent reds and greens on two sides, with amber LED's on the same sides)

I'm in Allentown PA
They have changed most of them, but now their are red LED lights
with a single line of white strobing LEDs in them to get you to see
that the light has changed to red.Have any of you seen them yet?

Not really but that reminds me of Xenopus's BloodTracker.

Interesting.

I think most of California is LED now, whats really cool are those pedestrian signal reflectors that go on the ground that flash when a pedestrian hit that walk button.

In my state Connecticut most of them are also LED with a few incandesent straglers left behind of the less known intersections. I have my own LED traffic light also a 12" eagle signal with Leotek LED Lenses it has a Lights To Go T3 Sequencer to make it work like a real traffic light

Pictures

http://h1.ripway.com/computerwizkid/trafficlight.jpg

http://h1.ripway.com/computerwizkid/trafficlightr.jpg

http://h1.ripway.com/computerwizkid/trafficlighty.jpg

http://h1.ripway.com/computerwizkid/trafficlightg.jpg

http://h1.ripway.com/computerwizkid/wiring.jpg