Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
As for flashing red, that's the fail-safe mode for modern traffic signals that use solid-state or sophisticated electro-mechanical controllers. If one of the relays or controller boards fails, you don't want to take chances that one of the intersection legs will show the wrong aspect or no aspect at all. In many cases, though, you'll see that a technician is already there with the control box opened up and has switched the signal to flashing red while he replaces a control board.
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Interesting - so the problems tend to be with the controllers, rather than in any of the actual fixtures themselves. That's infinitely easier to triage, as you don't need a cherry-picker or cops to effect lane closures. Now, when a fixture bulb goes out (I've seen a lot more of this in the last year or two), does the equipment automatically contact somebody, or is the system reliant on an Alert Citizen calling 311?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Just to be clear, we're not talking about an intentional downgrade of a signal to a four-way stop, which often happens at sleepy intersections during the night?
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Right, I guess I figured that would be people's assumption (plus, most frequent commenters here live in the city, where the former is a frequent nuisance and the latter rarely if ever occurs).
Now let me throw in something related a lot of people might not know about. I haven't seen these for eons, but a long time ago (let's just say late last century) on a drive in rural New England you could encounter flashing-green traffic signals. These were "sleepy intersections" that, at night, didn't even merit a flashing red or flashing yellow -- they'd go all the way to flashing green, meaning that you could completely ignore there was any light there at all, and not worry about yielding, not worry it was a green about to turn yellow, but just feel free to continue zipping along. Remarkably driver-friendly. I'd guess that nowadays any accident that occurred there could result in an injured person suing the town/county/state for negligence in not at least warning drivers of an intersection with a flashing yellow or something, so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't exist anymore.
I actually have a vague recollection of flashing green being taught in driver's ed, so maybe it's something people know about, but I sure haven't seen one in the Midwest. I think that given the way narrow, windy roads connect little towns in New England, where there are few interstate highway options, maybe they wanted to lessen the noise impact of vehicles slowing down and accelerating just steps from people's homes at night -- as well as the (dangerous, in small towns) urge to speed up upon spotting each green, fearing it might soon go yellow.
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