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Well you seemed to like the jacket, so…

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I’ll keep it.

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I have a bit of a fascination with stop lights
(or traffic lights, if you prefer).

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They boil down to remarkably simple devices,
little more than indicators, but thanks to

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driver’s education and the magic of the
human brain, they are remarkably effective

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at safely controlling traffic at intersections.

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Well, most of the time.

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Now, there’s so much to get into regarding
traffic lights.

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Traffic engineering is a fascinating subject
which I don’t feel qualified to discuss,

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but there’s quite the rabbit hole to fall
into.

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This video is about a simple but groundbreaking
innovation in the traffic light and the lessons

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it can tell us about innovation in general.

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This is about the LED traffic light, and the
caution of “but sometimes”.

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I live in an area of my town that’s not
terribly well traveled.

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Though there are many 4 lane roads with speed
limits of 35 to 40 miles an hour, the traffic

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volume honestly doesn’t often justify having
two lanes in each direction.

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Many of the stop lights in this area have
been neglected, and are still using good-’ol

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fashioned incandescent bulbs with colored
glass lenses.

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Actually, some are so old that they still
have the written text “WALK’ and “DON’T

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WALK” in their pedestrian signals, and there
are even a few that use the old 8 inch lenses

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for the green and yellow lights, with only
the important red light getting a full 12 inch lens.

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Granted, these stop lights have had their
control systems upgraded over the years.

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There are vehicle presence detectors embedded
in the road surface to alter their timing

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and behavior, and they are equipped with photocells
to detect the tuned strobe light on emergency

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vehicles and stop traffic in opposing directions.

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And some have even had countdown timers added
to the pedestrian signals.

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But the fixtures themselves have remained
mostly unchanged.

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They are still the same incandescent traffic
lights that may very well have been in place

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for a good number of decades.

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I should add that vehicle presence detection
has been around long before the LED traffic

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light, and it’s very likely these intersections
have the same control equipment they’ve

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always had.

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But in any case, the fact that they are still
using incandescent lamp technology...

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is a little odd.

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Setting aside the nostalgic or aesthetic reasons
to prefer an incandescent stop light (I’ll

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admit the fade-in fade-out as each light changes
states is charming), the LED traffic light

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is just objectively better in nearly every
respect.

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For example,

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Incandescent stoplight fixtures, because they
are designed to be opened to replace the bulb,

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typically get dirty on the inside over time.

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And it seems the technicians who replace
the lamps often don’t seem bothered to clean

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the lenses or reflectors.

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This leads to many lights with a dull appearance
that’s hard to see in bright sunlight.

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This obviously isn’t great, and is actually
kinda dangerous,

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but whatever.

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The LED light, on the other hand, is completely
sealed.

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In fact...

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here’s an LED traffic light module.

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Yes, they really are this big, they just seem
much smaller when they’re grandstanding

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on their pedestals or hanging up high in the
air . These are designed with the ability

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to replace the lenses in existing incandescent
lights and function as a retrofit device,

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as well as simply be the default standard
for new traffic light installations.

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Because the entire module is replaced if needed,
it can be completely sealed.

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LED lights thus don’t end up looking like...

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that.

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These LED modules use about a 10th the energy
of the incandescent lights they replace, which

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is not only great for energy savings, but
it means battery backups for the lighting

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control system can keep the intersection controlled
for hours even during a blackout.

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And of course, they last so much longer than
the light bulbs in an old fashioned fixture do.

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This 116 watt light from Sylvania only lasts
8,000 hours, which may seem like a lot, but

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assuming a roughly 50/50 on time for green
and red, that won’t even cover two years.

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And since pretty much every intersection has
at least 2 lights visible in each direction,

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there’s a total of at least 16 of these
bad boys in a very small intersection, not

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including yellow.

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This would mean that a light will go out about
every two months, and let me tell you, that’s

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remarkably in line with how often I see a
light go out at any given intersection.

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In fact, on the day I left to start taking
photos of the stoplights around me like the

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big ‘ol dork that I am, this light burnt
out.

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Granted, there are two other lights providing
redundancy, but they're also really dirty

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and hard to see anyway.

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I went out again a few days later to take
some photos I had forgotten to take, and now

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this light is also out.

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What fun!

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At this one intersection, including all arrows,
pedestrian signals, and standard orb indicators,

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there are 94 lights just waiting to burn out.

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Conversely, you almost never see an LED stoplight
with a signal that’s out.

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They last so long that it’s a very rare
occurrence.

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It does happen, it’s not like they last
forever.

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But even when they do fail, some designs don’t
even fail all at once, with this module still

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mostly functional save for some dead diodes.

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In the past two years, I’ve only seen one
LED light completely fail anywhere, whereas

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I’ve seen about a dozen lights go out just
in my neighborhood.

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Now, I can’t tell you why my local streets
and sanitation department (or whatever agency

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is tasked with maintaining these specific traffic controls)

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hasn’t invested in retrofitting these stoplights

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with LED replacements.

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They’re just an odd holdout, I guess, or
perhaps they think it’s cheaper to just

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do things as they are.

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News flash-- it isn’t, because if these
lights do use 116 watt bulbs, then with pedestrian

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signals included, at any given time the intersection
is using around a kilowatt and a half (or more),

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meaning it costs about $3.60 to operate
daily assuming average rates in Illinois.

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Add to that the cost of relamping the fixtures
every two years ,

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or far more likely the reactionary

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maintenance when a lamp fails multiple times
a year, and it seems really foolish to still

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be using these traffic lights as they are.

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Especially because these modules typically
end up on eBay or elsewhere for about $10 each.

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I don’t know how much they cost new from
the manufacturer, but I can’t imagine they’re

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terribly expensive.

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But, when the LED stoplight first made its
way onto the scene, one of its central advantages

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became a disadvantage.

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See, because the good ‘ol incandescent bulb
is so terribly inefficient, it spews a lot

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of heat out all sides and kept the fixtures
toasty warm.

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This had the lovely side effect of keeping
snow and ice from building up on them in cold climates.

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Many municipalities started discovering that
their new LED fixtures, which are 10 times

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more efficient and thus release just 10% the
heat,

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didn’t do that.

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In bad snow storms with high winds, it is
very possible for the snow to make its way

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past the visor and stick to the face of the
stoplight.

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Not producing enough heat to melt this snow,
the LED stop light might become impossible

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to see in this scenario.

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This caused quite a few accidents, some of
which were regrettably fatal.

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However, if the drivers at fault remembered
their driver’s education, a stoplight that

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isn’t indicating should be treated as a
stop sign, turning the intersection into an

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all-way stop.

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But people are stupid, so accidents happen.

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As you may imagine, the news reports started
flooding in.

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“Energy efficient stop lights cause accidents!”

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“These new LED stoplights can’t melt snow!”

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“The green revolution know no bounds--cold
traffic lights leave drivers confused!”

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Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

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The really stupid articles pointed out that,
while a solution might be possible, it would

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eat into the energy savings presented by the
LEDs.

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That is a really dumb argument, as we’ll
discuss momentarily.

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I even recall a news report when I was younger
suggesting that a heated surface would use

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MORE energy than an incandescent traffic light,
so really, what’s the point?!

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This is the danger of “But sometimes”.

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It goes a little something like this: The
LED stoplight is more energy efficient, costs

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less to operate, requires less maintenance,
can allow for a feasible battery backup solution,

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lasts longer, are brighter and easier to see
(particularly in direct sunlight) BUT SOMETIMES

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snow and ice builds up on them, so clearly
they are bad.

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Ugh, this makes me so disappointed in humanity!

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When there’s a new innovation which changes
how we do things for the better, its benefits

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are obvious.

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The LED stoplight is a perfect example.

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It allows stoplights to better accomplish
their rather important task of being visible,

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makes them more reliable than (and with battery
backup makes them functionally superior to)

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an incandescent light, and saves municipalities
thousands of dollars, with Wisconsin reporting

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in 2009 that they save $750,000 in energy
costs annually, which isn’t even mentioning

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maintenance costs.

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However, when the “But Sometimes” rears
its ugly head, people tend to freak out.

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Suddenly, all those benefits go away, because
in this one particular facet of stoplight

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functionality, the wasteful and maintenance-heavy
incandescent lamp is accidentally superior.

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Suddenly, when the new solution presents a
new problem, all we think about is the problem.

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Which leads to the truly stupid part of this
argument.

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But Sometimes occurs only some of the time!

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It’s a sometimes!

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Articles that complain about a potential solution
requiring more energy, and thus reducing the efficiency

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of the new LED stop light, just kinda gloss over
the fact that on every day it’s NOT snowing,

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the issue is completely irrelevant.

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Sure, if we add heaters to the LED module
to melt snow it might need more power, but

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only when it’s snowing, dingus!

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It wouldn’t take too much imagination to
enable wireless control of an intersection’s

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stoplights to turn on the heaters while it
snows.

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Even if the lights used a bit more power while
the heaters are on, the other 300 days of

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the year when it’s NOT snowing don’t just
go away.

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It doesn’t take too much thinking to realize
that it's still saving a lot of energy over

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the long run.

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And again, the traffic light is not at fault
when an accident occurs.

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All drivers know (or at least should know)
that a malfunctioning traffic light means

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you must stop and proceed with caution.

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But we trust people so little on remembering
this simple procedure that nearly every intersection

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has a folded up stop sign ready to be deployed
when the traffic lights fail.

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I’m not opposed to that, I think it’s
a good idea, but in reality it shouldn’t

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be necessary.

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Also, in personal experience, a snow storm
severe enough to cause buildup on the traffic

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light lenses is pretty out of the ordinary.

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I’ve never personally encountered a traffic
light that’s completely obscured with snow.

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I’ve seen some partially, but never enough
to make the signal impossible to distinguish.

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After all, there are pretty big visors over
the lenses, so it’s got to be a real blizzard

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to cause a problem.

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And really, in those conditions, you should
just avoid driving altogether.

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This isn’t to say that the problem doesn’t
happen.

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Surely it does.

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But come on, it’s not frequent at all.

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Now, the correct response to the “but sometimes”
is to account for that sometimes and solve

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the problem.

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One potential way that doesn’t use any energy
is through an altered visor with a scoop on

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top designed to redirect wind to flow across
the lens and blow snow off of it.

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But for those wanting a more high-tech solution,
well take a look at this.

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General Electric now sells what they call “GTX Flex LED
Heated Shell”.

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These traffic light modules have defroster
wires across their face, just like the rear

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window of your car.

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What’s more, they have sensors
onboard measuring temperature and humidity

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to determine when icing conditions are likely
and automatically switch on the heaters.

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The spec sheet says these heaters use only
30 watts, which means even when they are all

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on, a three-light traffic light is using less
power than a single incandescent bulb.

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Not much less, but I must remind you that
the need for the heater is rare, and only a sometimes.

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It looks like this is a relatively new product,
with the site touting it as NEW and the copyright

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date on the spec sheet being 2016.

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So it seems we got along well enough without
this innovation for, uh, for a while.

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Probably because people realized how infrequent
the problem actually is, but anyway--the problem

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has been solved.

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The “but sometimes” is now a never.

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The moral of this story is that when faced
with a unique, unforeseen, or difficult problem

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that comes about as a result of doing things
in a different way, don’t just give up!

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It’s beyond foolish to fly in the face of
progress, especially when the result of the

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progress is so obviously better, just because
there’s a tiny little sometimes maybe issue

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that we haven’t had before.

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I’ll bet you no municipality that has switched
to LED traffic signals wants to go back to

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the old way of doing things.

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But that’s what news articles and media
coverage like this seem to advocate for.

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Now, obviously I don’t want us to not acknowledge
problems.

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That would be silly.

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But when discussing these problems, we need
to look at them from all sides.

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Just how bad is the problem, really?

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How often does it occur?

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What would we be giving up if we abandoned
our efforts, and should we abandon them?

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What can we do to combat the problem?

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Does the problem need a technical fix, or
do we need to re-educate people and adjust

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their behavior?

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Perhaps the problem isn’t so much a problem,
rather it’s a need for change elsewhere.

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But for goodness sake, we need to work to
solve the problem.

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Every innovation has changed how we do things
in some way.

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That’s the very idea of progress.

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Sometimes this change brings new issues to
light, and may bring inconveniences from time

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to time.

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But I don’t think this should be seen as
a reason to stop progress.

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I hope that as new technologies and innovations
become available that provide us advantages

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just as the LED traffic light has that we
don’t simply focus on the new problems they

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might create.

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Together, we should be asking how to solve
those new problems.

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When we ask that question and work towards
the answers, we can truly make progress.

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Ok, so there’s some other stuff I want to
bring up real quick.

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First, I’m officially launching my second
channel.

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Head on over to Tecnhnology Connections 2
if you’d like to see what’s on the inside

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of one of these LED modules.

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I’ve always been a little curious.

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Don’t, uh, don’t go over just yet, hang
on a sec.

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Ok, well here’s a card, but the endscreen
will have it, too.

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And there’s a link down below.

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One thing that I’ve noticed change about
traffic light behavior is the timing of the

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right turn arrow.

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I realize this whole video has been from the
perspective of the US, where we drive on the

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right and our traffic signals look like,

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well like that

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and all the things you’ve been seeing in the

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video, so maybe this isn’t a thing in other
countries, and honestly this could be a regional

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thing within the US.

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But at intersections where there are both
left turn only and right turn only lanes,

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the right turn lane will typically get a green
arrow while the opposing traffic gets a protected

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left, because no one will be coming from the
left hand side going straight across.

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It used to be very common for the green arrow
to light up as soon as the the yellow light

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appeared, which was great because it meant
if you were turning right, you knew that you

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could just proceed even though forward traffic
was about to stop.

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Most intersections these days seem to wait
until the opposing traffic gets their protected

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left before illuminating the right turn arrow,
which means you need to stop before you actually

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get that arrow.

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I suppose this might be a safety thing, but really
I can’t see how much safer it is because

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pedestrians would not be entering the intersection
at all while there’s a protected left because

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vehicles will be crossing their path no matter
which direction they are going.

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And it’s really annoying in this age of
distracted driving, because some drivers see

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the light turning red, come to a stop, and
then look at their phones without realizing

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there's a turn arrow now illuminated.

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If the arrow were already lit, they could
have just kept going and annoyed someone elsewhere

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Going back to my particular town’s situation,
there’s one intersection near me that’s

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an absolute hodge podge of stuff.

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Almost nothing matches anymore in this intersection.

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There are individual LED retrofits among incandescent
lights, such as this pair of signals where

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there is only one LED signal among the 10
total lights.

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But most amusingly, the pedestrian signals
are almost all completely different.

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There are still some old written Walk/Don’t
Walk signs combines into a single fixture,

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then there’s the newer pictographic

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signals with the talk to the hand and the walking
white guy, then there’s an LED version of

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the same thing with two distinct shapes, and
there’s an LED signal where the shapes are

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combined, and finally there’s ONE that has
a countdown timer.

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That strikes me as particularly odd because
it means the controller for this intersection

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is capable of driving a countdown timer, so
clearly it has been updated within the last

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decade or two, but there are some comparatively
ancient fixtures here.

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I realize this style of light where there
are multiple diodes right at the face that

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fail over time is kind of an old style at
this point.

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Most newer traffic lights are like these,
where they are designed to mimic how incandescent

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fixtures look.

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In fact, GE calls these “incandescent look”.

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That’s part of why I want to check out the
innards of one of these.

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I doubt there’s a single 10W LED chip in
here, so I would imagine they also don’t

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necessarily fail all together, but it would
be a lot harder to tell if it’s failing

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at a glance.

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I glossed over the vehicle presence detection
a little bit and just showed what it looks

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like, and sometimes this isn’t even visible.

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Generally, there will be a loop of wire embedded
below the road surface that's designed...

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(camera beeped)

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Really?

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I glossed over the vehicle presence detection
a little bit and just showed what it looks

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like, and sometimes this isn’t even visible.

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Generally, there will be loops of wire embedded
below the road surface that are designed to

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detect a change in their magnetic field brought
about by a large metal object above them

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(such as a vehicle)

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You can often see these, particularly if they
were added to an already existing road surface.

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Sometimes you’ll notice them way far back
from the intersection, and by adding them

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here the traffic control system can count
how many vehicles are approaching and thus

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how much time is needed for them to cross
the intersection.

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There’s some pretty clever thought going
into all these systems.

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Oh, and sometimes you’ll see cameras up
where the traffic signals are, and some of

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these are used for presence detection using
computer vision.

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Also, the emergency vehicle detectors are
a pretty neat thing that perhaps you know

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how they work, but I’ll tell ya anyway.

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I said “tuned strobe light” earlier.

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What I mean by that is that emergency vehicles
have a single white strobe light, often in

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the center of their light bars, which flashes
at a very specific frequency.

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It’s often hard to see on video because...
strobe lights and video just don’t

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really get along, but it’s this one here
on this ambulance.

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The traffic light controller is looking for
a signal at that specific frequency coming

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from the photocells up top, and when it sees
it it will begin stopping traffic.

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These white indicators are used to confirm
to the driver of the emergency vehicle that

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the signal was received and that opposing
traffic is being stopped.

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In Illinois, where I live, the lights will
flash in the direction the emergency vehicle

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is coming from, and they will illuminate steadily
for opposing traffic to warn them an emergency

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vehicle is coming.

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Interestingly, this isn’t really taught
in driver’s ed, and the lights don’t have

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any sort of sign to explain their purpose,
but hopefully enough people have figured this

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out to make them useful.

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Lastly, for those towns who like the charm
of these old 8 inch stop light fixtures, you’ll

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be happy to know that GE (and probably others,
too) make LED retrofits for these.

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So come on, guys.

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Let’s get with the program.

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Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the
video!

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00:17:58,409 --> 00:18:02,320
If this is your first time coming across the
channel, please consider subscribing.

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00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:05,090
As always, a HUGE thank you to supporters
on Patreon!

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00:18:05,090 --> 00:18:07,399
Your support is what keeps these videos coming.

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00:18:07,399 --> 00:18:11,690
If you’re interested in supporting the channel
too, please check out my Patreon page!

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00:18:11,690 --> 00:18:12,820
Thanks for your consideration.

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00:18:12,820 --> 00:18:17,190
Alright, so if you would, head on over to
Technology Connections 2, and it’d be super

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00:18:17,190 --> 00:18:18,600
great if you’d subscribe there!

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00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:22,060
I’ll be putting more extra content up there
as time goes on.

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I’ll see you next time!