Why do traffic lights look different in certain parts of the country?

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Could be, but don't know for certain. My guess is just the way it was always done in Texas!

As for out west, most lights are not all black, they usually are black with a yellow border. Atleast with lights during the past decade or two.

My guess is Texas and Florida want to be like Japan, so that's why they have horizontal traffic lights, lol. Those are the only two places in the United States where I've seen them. In Japan they are all uniformly horizontal and the same poles that curve over.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Foamposite

Is NYC the only city with the guy wire traffic light posts? I've always thought those looked iconically NYC

Not at all. Very normal throughout urban east coast. Most things people think are very NYC are also very Boston very Philly Very Baltimore Very Hartford Very Providence etc..

most lights in BMORE are wore, many in Boston.

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Not at all. Very normal throughout urban east coast. Most things people think are very NYC are also very Boston very Philly Very Baltimore Very Hartford Very Providence etc..

most lights in BMORE are wore, many in Boston.

I haven't seen those anywhere else on the East Coast. Philly and Boston definitely don't have traffic lights like that.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Vegabern

Milwaukee seems to like to declutter intersections by mounting signals on vertical poles instead of overhead which I find much more aesthetically pleasing.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0337...7i13312!8i6656


https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0387...7i13312!8i6656

Even the ugly yellow looks better when simply mounted on a vertical pole.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0031...7i13312!8i6656

Most of the pedestal stoplights are from the mid 20th century with yellow plated housings dating back at least 45+ years in many cases. This was a common way of doing Downtown areas, but fixed armed poles with stoplight housings are safer from a visibility standpoint compared to pedestals and corners of intersections.

[GraniteStater]

Michigan ranks as some of the worst in stoplight infrastructure, unfortunately.

Here is a good example of an intersection "upgrade" in Mount Morris Township, MI outside of Flint from a diagonal span design to a signal housings in a more correct standardized design with housings on all four directional positions...

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0608...7i13312!8i6656

And the upgrade at the end of 2015:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0608...7i13312!8i6656


Then you have this horrific intersection abomination in suburban Troy, MI that is somehow still intact in 2018:
Take note of the "LEFT" cube fixed on the high tension wire for the left turn lane that actually illuminates at night and the offset pedestal stoplights with "LEFT" offset the intersection. This design dates back at least as far as the 1960s.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6066...7i16384!8i8192

[GraniteStater]

The major intersection of S. Livernois Rd and Walton Rd, in Rochester Hills, MI, is just brutal:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6813...7i16384!8i8192