Statistics on randomly observed traffic lights in ATLs.

All timelines branch off from March 5, 1865. The traffic light observed is Broadway and Libby in Maple Heights, Ohio (OTL names).
Code:
V vertical
H horizontal
R red
O orange
Y yellow
G green
B blue
Letters are listed top to bottom or left to right.
Thus OTL is VRYG.
CODE NUMBER
VRYG 4370
HRYG 3722
VGYR 3160
HGYR 2665
VRG 3851
HRG 2994
VGR 3419
HGR 2828
VOB 1666
HOB 1751
VBO 1824
HBO 1295
MISC 997
NONE 1833
Most two color styles have both lights lit for a short time to indicate a pending change.
 
There were only a few with the primary colors or orange with two others...they are included in MISC, along with some beautiful violet/indigo/purple ones. What I found surprising were the 19 two-state ones where an impending change was indicated by a loud whistle.
A very loud whistle.
Must do a real number on the neighboring property values.
 
Bad plan

I find it surprising white is not used, at least not widely.

In OTL, some railroads used white for "Proceede." This caused some wrecks, as when the colored glass was broken, but the light within was still working, the engineer saw a white light, and passed the signal as if all was well. If you don't use white, then a white light means that something's wrong with the signal.

Also, all the white lights for illumination would make ths signal itself less noticable.
 
There were only a few with the primary colors or orange with two others...they are included in MISC, along with some beautiful violet/indigo/purple ones. What I found surprising were the 19 two-state ones where an impending change was indicated by a loud whistle.
A very loud whistle.
Must do a real number on the neighboring property values.

Violet/Indigo/Purple? Presumably some form of mutation has allowed much greater differentiation of colour in the eye for that TL.
 
I'm surprised there aren't any lights that aren't strictly vertical or horizontal. A triangular "pyramid" arrangement would make a lot of sense to me, for example ("go" on top, and "impending stop" and "stop" on the bottom, say). Or now that I think of it some lights with four colours, adding one for "impending go", maybe in a TL where accelerating your vehicle is much harder than OTL.
 
The violet/indigo/purple ones all had different shapes, like circle/square/triangle. I did not see any pyramid ones, but one RYGB one for dividing traffic (red circle, yellow circle, green arrow, blue arrow). I saw three where there were stop/go flag signs that raised and lowered.
Come to think of it, maybe the volume on the 19 whistle ones was for overcoming envronmental noise or getting into sealed vehicles in inclement weather. I still think it would be a nuisance, though.
 
Or now that I think of it some lights with four colours, adding one for "impending go", maybe in a TL where accelerating your vehicle is much harder than OTL.
I read that Germany has added a Blue to the normal RYG to indicate restart your motor, at intersections where you turn off your engine while waiting at a red.
 
I read that Germany has added a Blue to the normal RYG to indicate restart your motor, at intersections where you turn off your engine while waiting at a red.

Yeah. That's the kind of situation I was thinking of, though I can't figure in what situations you come across an intersection where you need to turn your engine off. Maybe at bridges that open and train crossings and stuff like that?
 
I can't figure in what situations you come across an intersection where you need to turn your engine off
Studies have shown that it takes less gas/energy to turn your engine off and restart,, than to sit there idling for the full red lite.
 
Studies have shown that it takes less gas/energy to turn your engine off and restart,, than to sit there idling for the full red lite.

But you're hardly going to be waiting at a red light for more than a minute or two. You just about have time to stop the engine before you need to start it up again.
 
The thing is, I live in the midwest. Trains run here anywhere from 5-20 minutes. I just park it, turn off the car and kick the seat back until it's over because it's going to hit you once a week at least.

Anyhow, can we talk more about what was observed for pedestrians? Are the walk/don't walk symbols the same? Recently more lights are getting sounds as well, and of course numbers that countdown how long until your walk/don't walk signal changes.

What did you observed about those?

Also, how many traffic signals also had lights lower down? From what I can tell from OTL data, lights that have additional lights closer to driver eye level on their poles reduce accidents.
 
I did not observe pedestrians significantly. I would say less than half had walk/don't walk signs (and this was a major intersection). Usually said walk or an icon like OTL, several had cross/do not cross, although those were a little hard to read. I saw one (not OTL) with a countdown, I guess OTL is unusually advanced that way if we have a few. But as I said, I was more interested in the auto lights.
Most lights seemed lower than OTL at least a bit. Can't get too low or subject to tall trucks (or vandals if on the pole) I guess.
Another interesting thing might be electrical outlets Those aren't even standardized in OTL (http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm). Don't know how I would position my cross-time viewer to find out, though. I would think these would be standardized across a TL...can't have 20 plugs on a portable radio. But I guess not.
 
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