WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:02.080 Well you seemed to like the jacket, so… 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:03.080 I’ll keep it. 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:07.140 I have a bit of a fascination with stop lights (or traffic lights, if you prefer). 00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:11.610 They boil down to remarkably simple devices, little more than indicators, but thanks to 00:00:11.610 --> 00:00:15.490 driver’s education and the magic of the human brain, they are remarkably effective 00:00:15.490 --> 00:00:17.970 at safely controlling traffic at intersections. 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:19.710 Well, most of the time. 00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:23.040 Now, there’s so much to get into regarding traffic lights. 00:00:23.040 --> 00:00:27.170 Traffic engineering is a fascinating subject which I don’t feel qualified to discuss, 00:00:27.170 --> 00:00:29.710 but there’s quite the rabbit hole to fall into. 00:00:29.710 --> 00:00:33.760 This video is about a simple but groundbreaking innovation in the traffic light and the lessons 00:00:33.760 --> 00:00:36.370 it can tell us about innovation in general. 00:00:36.370 --> 00:00:40.700 This is about the LED traffic light, and the caution of “but sometimes”. 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.079 I live in an area of my town that’s not terribly well traveled. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:48.649 Though there are many 4 lane roads with speed limits of 35 to 40 miles an hour, the traffic 00:00:48.649 --> 00:00:53.140 volume honestly doesn’t often justify having two lanes in each direction. 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:56.760 Many of the stop lights in this area have been neglected, and are still using good-’ol 00:00:56.760 --> 00:01:00.180 fashioned incandescent bulbs with colored glass lenses. 00:01:00.180 --> 00:01:03.949 Actually, some are so old that they still have the written text “WALK’ and “DON’T 00:01:03.949 --> 00:01:08.299 WALK” in their pedestrian signals, and there are even a few that use the old 8 inch lenses 00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:13.759 for the green and yellow lights, with only the important red light getting a full 12 inch lens. 00:01:13.759 --> 00:01:17.590 Granted, these stop lights have had their control systems upgraded over the years. 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:20.929 There are vehicle presence detectors embedded in the road surface to alter their timing 00:01:20.929 --> 00:01:25.579 and behavior, and they are equipped with photocells to detect the tuned strobe light on emergency 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:28.380 vehicles and stop traffic in opposing directions. 00:01:28.380 --> 00:01:32.119 And some have even had countdown timers added to the pedestrian signals. 00:01:32.119 --> 00:01:35.549 But the fixtures themselves have remained mostly unchanged. 00:01:35.549 --> 00:01:38.789 They are still the same incandescent traffic lights that may very well have been in place 00:01:38.789 --> 00:01:40.320 for a good number of decades. 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:44.240 I should add that vehicle presence detection has been around long before the LED traffic 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:47.459 light, and it’s very likely these intersections have the same control equipment they’ve 00:01:47.459 --> 00:01:48.459 always had. 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:52.460 But in any case, the fact that they are still using incandescent lamp technology... 00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:54.000 is a little odd. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.500 Setting aside the nostalgic or aesthetic reasons to prefer an incandescent stop light (I’ll 00:01:58.509 --> 00:02:03.069 admit the fade-in fade-out as each light changes states is charming), the LED traffic light 00:02:03.069 --> 00:02:06.780 is just objectively better in nearly every respect. 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:07.580 For example, 00:02:07.580 --> 00:02:12.200 Incandescent stoplight fixtures, because they are designed to be opened to replace the bulb, 00:02:12.209 --> 00:02:15.230 typically get dirty on the inside over time. 00:02:15.230 --> 00:02:18.950 And it seems the technicians who replace the lamps often don’t seem bothered to clean 00:02:18.950 --> 00:02:21.030 the lenses or reflectors. 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:25.129 This leads to many lights with a dull appearance that’s hard to see in bright sunlight. 00:02:25.129 --> 00:02:27.960 This obviously isn’t great, and is actually kinda dangerous, 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:28.800 but whatever. 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:31.340 The LED light, on the other hand, is completely sealed. 00:02:31.820 --> 00:02:32.680 In fact... 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:37.500 here’s an LED traffic light module. 00:02:37.700 --> 00:02:41.140 Yes, they really are this big, they just seem much smaller when they’re grandstanding 00:02:41.200 --> 00:02:44.760 on their pedestals or hanging up high in the air . These are designed with the ability 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:49.580 to replace the lenses in existing incandescent lights and function as a retrofit device, 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:53.670 as well as simply be the default standard for new traffic light installations. 00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:57.719 Because the entire module is replaced if needed, it can be completely sealed. 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:00.380 LED lights thus don’t end up looking like... 00:03:00.380 --> 00:03:01.310 that. 00:03:01.310 --> 00:03:05.470 These LED modules use about a 10th the energy of the incandescent lights they replace, which 00:03:05.470 --> 00:03:09.219 is not only great for energy savings, but it means battery backups for the lighting 00:03:09.219 --> 00:03:13.989 control system can keep the intersection controlled for hours even during a blackout. 00:03:13.989 --> 00:03:19.459 And of course, they last so much longer than the light bulbs in an old fashioned fixture do. 00:03:19.459 --> 00:03:24.670 This 116 watt light from Sylvania only lasts 8,000 hours, which may seem like a lot, but 00:03:24.670 --> 00:03:30.349 assuming a roughly 50/50 on time for green and red, that won’t even cover two years. 00:03:30.349 --> 00:03:34.489 And since pretty much every intersection has at least 2 lights visible in each direction, 00:03:34.489 --> 00:03:38.871 there’s a total of at least 16 of these bad boys in a very small intersection, not 00:03:38.871 --> 00:03:40.290 including yellow. 00:03:40.290 --> 00:03:44.260 This would mean that a light will go out about every two months, and let me tell you, that’s 00:03:44.260 --> 00:03:47.760 remarkably in line with how often I see a light go out at any given intersection. 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:51.340 In fact, on the day I left to start taking photos of the stoplights around me like the 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:54.010 big ‘ol dork that I am, this light burnt out. 00:03:54.010 --> 00:03:57.969 Granted, there are two other lights providing redundancy, but they're also really dirty 00:03:57.969 --> 00:03:59.400 and hard to see anyway. 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:03.170 I went out again a few days later to take some photos I had forgotten to take, and now 00:04:03.170 --> 00:04:04.879 this light is also out. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:06.040 What fun! 00:04:06.040 --> 00:04:11.319 At this one intersection, including all arrows, pedestrian signals, and standard orb indicators, 00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:15.209 there are 94 lights just waiting to burn out. 00:04:15.209 --> 00:04:19.400 Conversely, you almost never see an LED stoplight with a signal that’s out. 00:04:19.400 --> 00:04:22.389 They last so long that it’s a very rare occurrence. 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:24.700 It does happen, it’s not like they last forever. 00:04:24.700 --> 00:04:29.300 But even when they do fail, some designs don’t even fail all at once, with this module still 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:32.330 mostly functional save for some dead diodes. 00:04:32.330 --> 00:04:37.389 In the past two years, I’ve only seen one LED light completely fail anywhere, whereas 00:04:37.389 --> 00:04:40.199 I’ve seen about a dozen lights go out just in my neighborhood. 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:44.840 Now, I can’t tell you why my local streets and sanitation department (or whatever agency 00:04:44.840 --> 00:04:47.940 is tasked with maintaining these specific traffic controls) 00:04:47.940 --> 00:04:50.050 hasn’t invested in retrofitting these stoplights 00:04:50.050 --> 00:04:51.310 with LED replacements. 00:04:51.310 --> 00:04:54.901 They’re just an odd holdout, I guess, or perhaps they think it’s cheaper to just 00:04:54.901 --> 00:04:56.740 do things as they are. 00:04:56.740 --> 00:05:02.160 News flash-- it isn’t, because if these lights do use 116 watt bulbs, then with pedestrian 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:07.460 signals included, at any given time the intersection is using around a kilowatt and a half (or more), 00:05:07.460 --> 00:05:13.320 meaning it costs about $3.60 to operate daily assuming average rates in Illinois. 00:05:13.330 --> 00:05:16.000 Add to that the cost of relamping the fixtures every two years , 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.770 or far more likely the reactionary 00:05:17.770 --> 00:05:22.620 maintenance when a lamp fails multiple times a year, and it seems really foolish to still 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:25.010 be using these traffic lights as they are. 00:05:25.010 --> 00:05:29.940 Especially because these modules typically end up on eBay or elsewhere for about $10 each. 00:05:29.940 --> 00:05:33.229 I don’t know how much they cost new from the manufacturer, but I can’t imagine they’re 00:05:33.229 --> 00:05:34.259 terribly expensive. 00:05:34.259 --> 00:05:39.300 But, when the LED stoplight first made its way onto the scene, one of its central advantages 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:40.509 became a disadvantage. 00:05:40.509 --> 00:05:45.300 See, because the good ‘ol incandescent bulb is so terribly inefficient, it spews a lot 00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:49.320 of heat out all sides and kept the fixtures toasty warm. 00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:54.000 This had the lovely side effect of keeping snow and ice from building up on them in cold climates. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.460 Many municipalities started discovering that their new LED fixtures, which are 10 times 00:05:58.470 --> 00:06:01.400 more efficient and thus release just 10% the heat, 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:03.060 didn’t do that. 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:07.009 In bad snow storms with high winds, it is very possible for the snow to make its way 00:06:07.009 --> 00:06:10.599 past the visor and stick to the face of the stoplight. 00:06:10.599 --> 00:06:14.860 Not producing enough heat to melt this snow, the LED stop light might become impossible 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:16.770 to see in this scenario. 00:06:16.770 --> 00:06:20.720 This caused quite a few accidents, some of which were regrettably fatal. 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:25.259 However, if the drivers at fault remembered their driver’s education, a stoplight that 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:29.159 isn’t indicating should be treated as a stop sign, turning the intersection into an 00:06:29.159 --> 00:06:30.740 all-way stop. 00:06:30.740 --> 00:06:33.180 But people are stupid, so accidents happen. 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:35.850 As you may imagine, the news reports started flooding in. 00:06:35.850 --> 00:06:38.169 “Energy efficient stop lights cause accidents!” 00:06:38.169 --> 00:06:40.240 “These new LED stoplights can’t melt snow!” 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:44.819 “The green revolution know no bounds--cold traffic lights leave drivers confused!” 00:06:44.819 --> 00:06:48.139 Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 00:06:48.139 --> 00:06:52.319 The really stupid articles pointed out that, while a solution might be possible, it would 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:55.539 eat into the energy savings presented by the LEDs. 00:06:55.539 --> 00:06:58.409 That is a really dumb argument, as we’ll discuss momentarily. 00:06:58.409 --> 00:07:02.340 I even recall a news report when I was younger suggesting that a heated surface would use 00:07:02.340 --> 00:07:06.639 MORE energy than an incandescent traffic light, so really, what’s the point?! 00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:09.040 This is the danger of “But sometimes”. 00:07:09.140 --> 00:07:13.159 It goes a little something like this: The LED stoplight is more energy efficient, costs 00:07:13.159 --> 00:07:17.770 less to operate, requires less maintenance, can allow for a feasible battery backup solution, 00:07:17.770 --> 00:07:23.240 lasts longer, are brighter and easier to see (particularly in direct sunlight) BUT SOMETIMES 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:26.630 snow and ice builds up on them, so clearly they are bad. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:29.880 Ugh, this makes me so disappointed in humanity! 00:07:29.889 --> 00:07:33.960 When there’s a new innovation which changes how we do things for the better, its benefits 00:07:33.960 --> 00:07:35.009 are obvious. 00:07:35.009 --> 00:07:37.409 The LED stoplight is a perfect example. 00:07:37.409 --> 00:07:41.740 It allows stoplights to better accomplish their rather important task of being visible, 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:45.400 makes them more reliable than (and with battery backup makes them functionally superior to) 00:07:45.400 --> 00:07:50.660 an incandescent light, and saves municipalities thousands of dollars, with Wisconsin reporting 00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:56.400 in 2009 that they save $750,000 in energy costs annually, which isn’t even mentioning 00:07:56.400 --> 00:07:57.660 maintenance costs. 00:07:57.660 --> 00:08:01.949 However, when the “But Sometimes” rears its ugly head, people tend to freak out. 00:08:01.949 --> 00:08:06.629 Suddenly, all those benefits go away, because in this one particular facet of stoplight 00:08:06.629 --> 00:08:10.960 functionality, the wasteful and maintenance-heavy incandescent lamp is accidentally superior. 00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:16.219 Suddenly, when the new solution presents a new problem, all we think about is the problem. 00:08:16.219 --> 00:08:19.030 Which leads to the truly stupid part of this argument. 00:08:19.030 --> 00:08:21.650 But Sometimes occurs only some of the time! 00:08:21.650 --> 00:08:23.160 It’s a sometimes! 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:27.479 Articles that complain about a potential solution requiring more energy, and thus reducing the efficiency 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:32.440 of the new LED stop light, just kinda gloss over the fact that on every day it’s NOT snowing, 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:34.680 the issue is completely irrelevant. 00:08:34.680 --> 00:08:39.180 Sure, if we add heaters to the LED module to melt snow it might need more power, but 00:08:39.191 --> 00:08:40.820 only when it’s snowing, dingus! 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:45.090 It wouldn’t take too much imagination to enable wireless control of an intersection’s 00:08:45.090 --> 00:08:48.000 stoplights to turn on the heaters while it snows. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:52.100 Even if the lights used a bit more power while the heaters are on, the other 300 days of 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:54.940 the year when it’s NOT snowing don’t just go away. 00:08:54.940 --> 00:08:59.100 It doesn’t take too much thinking to realize that it's still saving a lot of energy over 00:08:59.100 --> 00:09:00.160 the long run. 00:09:00.160 --> 00:09:03.900 And again, the traffic light is not at fault when an accident occurs. 00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:08.010 All drivers know (or at least should know) that a malfunctioning traffic light means 00:09:08.010 --> 00:09:10.670 you must stop and proceed with caution. 00:09:10.670 --> 00:09:14.850 But we trust people so little on remembering this simple procedure that nearly every intersection 00:09:14.850 --> 00:09:18.890 has a folded up stop sign ready to be deployed when the traffic lights fail. 00:09:18.890 --> 00:09:22.690 I’m not opposed to that, I think it’s a good idea, but in reality it shouldn’t 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:23.690 be necessary. 00:09:23.690 --> 00:09:28.230 Also, in personal experience, a snow storm severe enough to cause buildup on the traffic 00:09:28.230 --> 00:09:30.380 light lenses is pretty out of the ordinary. 00:09:30.380 --> 00:09:34.690 I’ve never personally encountered a traffic light that’s completely obscured with snow. 00:09:34.690 --> 00:09:38.710 I’ve seen some partially, but never enough to make the signal impossible to distinguish. 00:09:38.710 --> 00:09:43.750 After all, there are pretty big visors over the lenses, so it’s got to be a real blizzard 00:09:43.750 --> 00:09:45.250 to cause a problem. 00:09:45.250 --> 00:09:49.700 And really, in those conditions, you should just avoid driving altogether. 00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:51.480 This isn’t to say that the problem doesn’t happen. 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:52.660 Surely it does. 00:09:52.660 --> 00:09:54.580 But come on, it’s not frequent at all. 00:09:54.580 --> 00:10:00.150 Now, the correct response to the “but sometimes” is to account for that sometimes and solve 00:10:00.150 --> 00:10:01.380 the problem. 00:10:01.380 --> 00:10:05.550 One potential way that doesn’t use any energy is through an altered visor with a scoop on 00:10:05.550 --> 00:10:10.770 top designed to redirect wind to flow across the lens and blow snow off of it. 00:10:10.770 --> 00:10:14.460 But for those wanting a more high-tech solution, well take a look at this. 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:20.160 General Electric now sells what they call “GTX Flex LED Heated Shell”. 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:23.640 These traffic light modules have defroster wires across their face, just like the rear 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:24.880 window of your car. 00:10:24.880 --> 00:10:28.530 What’s more, they have sensors onboard measuring temperature and humidity 00:10:28.530 --> 00:10:33.400 to determine when icing conditions are likely and automatically switch on the heaters. 00:10:33.400 --> 00:10:37.870 The spec sheet says these heaters use only 30 watts, which means even when they are all 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:42.910 on, a three-light traffic light is using less power than a single incandescent bulb. 00:10:42.910 --> 00:10:48.360 Not much less, but I must remind you that the need for the heater is rare, and only a sometimes. 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:52.580 It looks like this is a relatively new product, with the site touting it as NEW and the copyright 00:10:52.590 --> 00:10:54.700 date on the spec sheet being 2016. 00:10:54.700 --> 00:11:01.130 So it seems we got along well enough without this innovation for, uh, for a while. 00:11:01.130 --> 00:11:06.160 Probably because people realized how infrequent the problem actually is, but anyway--the problem 00:11:06.160 --> 00:11:07.200 has been solved. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:09.980 The “but sometimes” is now a never. 00:11:09.980 --> 00:11:13.900 The moral of this story is that when faced with a unique, unforeseen, or difficult problem 00:11:13.900 --> 00:11:18.320 that comes about as a result of doing things in a different way, don’t just give up! 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:21.940 It’s beyond foolish to fly in the face of progress, especially when the result of the 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:27.220 progress is so obviously better, just because there’s a tiny little sometimes maybe issue 00:11:27.220 --> 00:11:28.720 that we haven’t had before. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.240 I’ll bet you no municipality that has switched to LED traffic signals wants to go back to 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:34.970 the old way of doing things. 00:11:34.970 --> 00:11:38.970 But that’s what news articles and media coverage like this seem to advocate for. 00:11:38.970 --> 00:11:41.900 Now, obviously I don’t want us to not acknowledge problems. 00:11:41.900 --> 00:11:43.150 That would be silly. 00:11:43.150 --> 00:11:46.990 But when discussing these problems, we need to look at them from all sides. 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:49.150 Just how bad is the problem, really? 00:11:49.150 --> 00:11:50.740 How often does it occur? 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:55.240 What would we be giving up if we abandoned our efforts, and should we abandon them? 00:11:55.250 --> 00:11:57.540 What can we do to combat the problem? 00:11:57.540 --> 00:12:01.350 Does the problem need a technical fix, or do we need to re-educate people and adjust 00:12:01.350 --> 00:12:02.910 their behavior? 00:12:02.910 --> 00:12:07.660 Perhaps the problem isn’t so much a problem, rather it’s a need for change elsewhere. 00:12:07.660 --> 00:12:11.510 But for goodness sake, we need to work to solve the problem. 00:12:11.510 --> 00:12:14.530 Every innovation has changed how we do things in some way. 00:12:14.530 --> 00:12:17.540 That’s the very idea of progress. 00:12:17.540 --> 00:12:21.430 Sometimes this change brings new issues to light, and may bring inconveniences from time 00:12:21.430 --> 00:12:22.640 to time. 00:12:22.640 --> 00:12:26.090 But I don’t think this should be seen as a reason to stop progress. 00:12:26.090 --> 00:12:30.500 I hope that as new technologies and innovations become available that provide us advantages 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:35.280 just as the LED traffic light has that we don’t simply focus on the new problems they 00:12:35.280 --> 00:12:36.280 might create. 00:12:36.280 --> 00:12:40.240 Together, we should be asking how to solve those new problems. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:45.700 When we ask that question and work towards the answers, we can truly make progress. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.440 Ok, so there’s some other stuff I want to bring up real quick. 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:52.910 First, I’m officially launching my second channel. 00:12:52.910 --> 00:12:56.000 Head on over to Tecnhnology Connections 2 if you’d like to see what’s on the inside 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:57.740 of one of these LED modules. 00:12:57.740 --> 00:12:59.120 I’ve always been a little curious. 00:12:59.130 --> 00:13:03.150 Don’t, uh, don’t go over just yet, hang on a sec. 00:13:03.150 --> 00:13:06.200 Ok, well here’s a card, but the endscreen will have it, too. 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:07.520 And there’s a link down below. 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:10.810 One thing that I’ve noticed change about traffic light behavior is the timing of the 00:13:10.810 --> 00:13:12.150 right turn arrow. 00:13:12.150 --> 00:13:16.080 I realize this whole video has been from the perspective of the US, where we drive on the 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:18.640 right and our traffic signals look like, 00:13:18.640 --> 00:13:20.180 well like that 00:13:20.180 --> 00:13:21.670 and all the things you’ve been seeing in the 00:13:21.670 --> 00:13:25.410 video, so maybe this isn’t a thing in other countries, and honestly this could be a regional 00:13:25.410 --> 00:13:27.010 thing within the US. 00:13:27.010 --> 00:13:31.100 But at intersections where there are both left turn only and right turn only lanes, 00:13:31.100 --> 00:13:35.580 the right turn lane will typically get a green arrow while the opposing traffic gets a protected 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:40.060 left, because no one will be coming from the left hand side going straight across. 00:13:40.060 --> 00:13:44.430 It used to be very common for the green arrow to light up as soon as the the yellow light 00:13:44.430 --> 00:13:47.990 appeared, which was great because it meant if you were turning right, you knew that you 00:13:47.990 --> 00:13:52.110 could just proceed even though forward traffic was about to stop. 00:13:52.110 --> 00:13:56.240 Most intersections these days seem to wait until the opposing traffic gets their protected 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:00.970 left before illuminating the right turn arrow, which means you need to stop before you actually 00:14:00.970 --> 00:14:02.260 get that arrow. 00:14:02.260 --> 00:14:07.160 I suppose this might be a safety thing, but really I can’t see how much safer it is because 00:14:07.160 --> 00:14:11.580 pedestrians would not be entering the intersection at all while there’s a protected left because 00:14:11.580 --> 00:14:15.480 vehicles will be crossing their path no matter which direction they are going. 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:19.730 And it’s really annoying in this age of distracted driving, because some drivers see 00:14:19.730 --> 00:14:23.960 the light turning red, come to a stop, and then look at their phones without realizing 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:26.190 there's a turn arrow now illuminated. 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:30.780 If the arrow were already lit, they could have just kept going and annoyed someone elsewhere 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:34.580 Going back to my particular town’s situation, there’s one intersection near me that’s 00:14:34.590 --> 00:14:37.070 an absolute hodge podge of stuff. 00:14:37.070 --> 00:14:39.970 Almost nothing matches anymore in this intersection. 00:14:39.970 --> 00:14:44.790 There are individual LED retrofits among incandescent lights, such as this pair of signals where 00:14:44.790 --> 00:14:48.280 there is only one LED signal among the 10 total lights. 00:14:48.280 --> 00:14:53.000 But most amusingly, the pedestrian signals are almost all completely different. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.760 There are still some old written Walk/Don’t Walk signs combines into a single fixture, 00:14:56.760 --> 00:14:58.490 then there’s the newer pictographic 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:02.720 signals with the talk to the hand and the walking white guy, then there’s an LED version of 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:06.420 the same thing with two distinct shapes, and there’s an LED signal where the shapes are 00:15:06.420 --> 00:15:10.450 combined, and finally there’s ONE that has a countdown timer. 00:15:10.450 --> 00:15:13.690 That strikes me as particularly odd because it means the controller for this intersection 00:15:13.690 --> 00:15:18.220 is capable of driving a countdown timer, so clearly it has been updated within the last 00:15:18.220 --> 00:15:21.920 decade or two, but there are some comparatively ancient fixtures here. 00:15:21.920 --> 00:15:25.360 I realize this style of light where there are multiple diodes right at the face that 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.880 fail over time is kind of an old style at this point. 00:15:28.880 --> 00:15:32.620 Most newer traffic lights are like these, where they are designed to mimic how incandescent 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:33.620 fixtures look. 00:15:33.620 --> 00:15:36.240 In fact, GE calls these “incandescent look”. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:38.860 That’s part of why I want to check out the innards of one of these. 00:15:38.860 --> 00:15:43.650 I doubt there’s a single 10W LED chip in here, so I would imagine they also don’t 00:15:43.650 --> 00:15:47.500 necessarily fail all together, but it would be a lot harder to tell if it’s failing 00:15:47.520 --> 00:15:48.720 at a glance. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:52.020 I glossed over the vehicle presence detection a little bit and just showed what it looks 00:15:52.020 --> 00:15:54.320 like, and sometimes this isn’t even visible. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.620 Generally, there will be a loop of wire embedded below the road surface that's designed... 00:15:58.620 --> 00:16:00.160 (camera beeped) 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:00.880 Really? 00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:05.300 I glossed over the vehicle presence detection a little bit and just showed what it looks 00:16:05.300 --> 00:16:07.680 like, and sometimes this isn’t even visible. 00:16:07.680 --> 00:16:11.780 Generally, there will be loops of wire embedded below the road surface that are designed to 00:16:11.780 --> 00:16:16.800 detect a change in their magnetic field brought about by a large metal object above them 00:16:16.800 --> 00:16:18.100 (such as a vehicle) 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:22.860 You can often see these, particularly if they were added to an already existing road surface. 00:16:22.860 --> 00:16:26.780 Sometimes you’ll notice them way far back from the intersection, and by adding them 00:16:26.780 --> 00:16:31.460 here the traffic control system can count how many vehicles are approaching and thus 00:16:31.460 --> 00:16:34.370 how much time is needed for them to cross the intersection. 00:16:34.370 --> 00:16:37.290 There’s some pretty clever thought going into all these systems. 00:16:37.290 --> 00:16:41.170 Oh, and sometimes you’ll see cameras up where the traffic signals are, and some of 00:16:41.170 --> 00:16:44.250 these are used for presence detection using computer vision. 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:47.870 Also, the emergency vehicle detectors are a pretty neat thing that perhaps you know 00:16:47.870 --> 00:16:50.110 how they work, but I’ll tell ya anyway. 00:16:50.110 --> 00:16:52.430 I said “tuned strobe light” earlier. 00:16:52.430 --> 00:16:57.090 What I mean by that is that emergency vehicles have a single white strobe light, often in 00:16:57.090 --> 00:17:01.360 the center of their light bars, which flashes at a very specific frequency. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:06.000 It’s often hard to see on video because... strobe lights and video just don’t 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.600 really get along, but it’s this one here on this ambulance. 00:17:09.600 --> 00:17:13.730 The traffic light controller is looking for a signal at that specific frequency coming 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:18.199 from the photocells up top, and when it sees it it will begin stopping traffic. 00:17:18.199 --> 00:17:22.380 These white indicators are used to confirm to the driver of the emergency vehicle that 00:17:22.380 --> 00:17:26.059 the signal was received and that opposing traffic is being stopped. 00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:30.120 In Illinois, where I live, the lights will flash in the direction the emergency vehicle 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:34.909 is coming from, and they will illuminate steadily for opposing traffic to warn them an emergency 00:17:34.909 --> 00:17:35.929 vehicle is coming. 00:17:35.929 --> 00:17:39.690 Interestingly, this isn’t really taught in driver’s ed, and the lights don’t have 00:17:39.690 --> 00:17:43.710 any sort of sign to explain their purpose, but hopefully enough people have figured this 00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:45.080 out to make them useful. 00:17:45.080 --> 00:17:49.100 Lastly, for those towns who like the charm of these old 8 inch stop light fixtures, you’ll 00:17:49.100 --> 00:17:54.070 be happy to know that GE (and probably others, too) make LED retrofits for these. 00:17:54.070 --> 00:17:55.070 So come on, guys. 00:17:55.070 --> 00:17:56.250 Let’s get with the program. 00:17:56.250 --> 00:17:58.409 Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video! 00:17:58.409 --> 00:18:02.320 If this is your first time coming across the channel, please consider subscribing. 00:18:02.320 --> 00:18:05.090 As always, a HUGE thank you to supporters on Patreon! 00:18:05.090 --> 00:18:07.399 Your support is what keeps these videos coming. 00:18:07.399 --> 00:18:11.690 If you’re interested in supporting the channel too, please check out my Patreon page! 00:18:11.690 --> 00:18:12.820 Thanks for your consideration. 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 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:18.600 great if you’d subscribe there! 00:18:18.600 --> 00:18:22.060 I’ll be putting more extra content up there as time goes on. 00:18:22.060 --> 00:18:23.180 I’ll see you next time!