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I was wondering if anyone knows what the largest (by population) town or city is that does not have any traffic lights. Barrow, AK comes close; this town of about 4,500 people has only one traffic light: a pedestrian signal next to an elementary school, which is only activated when school is in session. Anyone know of any signal-less place larger than that?
I was wondering if anyone knows what the largest (by population) town or city is that does not have any traffic lights. Barrow, AK comes close; this town of about 4,500 people has only one traffic light: a pedestrian signal next to an elementary school, which is only activated when school is in session. Anyone know of any signal-less place larger than that?
There have to be a bunch. Freetown, Massachusetts (where I grew up) doesn't have any. Population is around 9,000. I'm certain it's not the biggest. I'm guessing in the South and Southwest, you probably have towns that cover hundreds of square miles and have a population of 20,000+ that appear rural due to how spread out they are. Many of these places won't have stop lights.
There have to be a bunch. Freetown, Massachusetts (where I grew up) doesn't have any. Population is around 9,000. I'm certain it's not the biggest. I'm guessing in the South and Southwest, you probably have towns that cover hundreds of square miles and have a population of 20,000+ that appear rural due to how spread out they are. Many of these places won't have stop lights.
I had to double check this (because there is no interstate in Freetown), but you're right. There are lights along Innovation Way near the Route 24 ramps in the S.W. Corner of town on the Fall River line. That road and that set of ramps is <3 years old so they didn't exist until about 2012 or 13, but they're there now. Good catch.
Ashburnham, MA (6,081) doesn't have a single light.
Is this a satire piece, or is that author actually recommending the stuff she wrote about? There are more holes in her plan than in an entire crate of swiss cheese, but I'll just give you this one: how "green" is it to rely on electronic signage (powered, no doubt, by a pollution-spewing coal-fired power plant that is located someplace where the author can't see it, so it doesn't matter), when the current plain-jane signs cost nothing to operate?
Technically a CDP, not a town or city, but Vashon, WA is at 10,624 people and only has (I think) a single flashing red. It deliberately cultivates a rural aesthetic so that's unsurprising.
With the growth in roundabouts, it should be possible to find larger towns without stoplights. Vail, Colo. has a peak daytime population over 10K and no stoplights that I can remember.
I would think, any town not having traffic lights is becoming quite rare. My home town population 2,000+ had just one red-yellow flashing light at the intersection of the two main highways when I was growing up in the 1960s. Since then one of the highways has bypassed the center of town. The number of red-yellow flashing lights had increased to four about 10 years ago, on both the old and new highways. But looking at the current Google Maps images I see that there are now two full traffic lights on the new highway and all the red-yellow flashing lights have been removed.
Before the current traffic lights were put in, there would have been no traffic lights for over 50 miles in any direction from the town. I remember traveling to the nearby towns when I was a kid and being pretty amazed to see traffic lights.
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