@@AbelG8781michigan has problem with it and it pisses me off. most of the iron and steel was used for cars back in the day. We look like a third world country with our lights. Kentucky is the worst offender though.
I was a signal technician the “wire” is called strand it runs from wood pole to wood pole across the road and it can support over 5000 pounds the part that failed here was the bracket attaching the head(traffic light) to the strand it broke off leaving the head hanging by the electrical cable this bracket and others can also break in the same way on a metal pole there is no solving this it will always happen over time this city needs to invest in preventative maintenance
Isn't there supposed to be a wire running from both poles on the top and bottom of the light to hold it up and down? I feel like this can be boiled down to just laziness and not installing it properly because this is the first time I've seen a traffic light not supported by the top and bottom, which would've kept it from swinging around and falling off like this
They are. They're very big and heavy. Even a "smaller" one is very big and weighs a lot. I think there's a picture online of a person standing next to one. I think the one they're standing next to is one of the "big" ones. Either way, don't get hit by one of those.
It has happened. There are videos of it here on RU-vid. iirc someone was actually killed when one of the heavier ones caved in the roof onto the driver. Lights belong on steel poles, not dangling by wires.
@@user-zq5gy2ri6othey're actually not. They are metal and very heavy and large. They are about 5 ft tall and 30 inches wide. My bar has one. You should Google them it's crazy how big they are.
@@poorlenore it's mostly a southeast thing, some Midwest too, that's where I've seen them, but here in Colorado it's never done either, everything on arms.
They are on wires most likely because the main traffic lights on metal poles are down for construction or maintenance. These wire setups are usually temporary.
@@jschackmann2Because it wasn’t properly attached. I live in a place where tornados are relatively common, and our wire lights like this has never fallen. This is a shoddy install.
@@Soeks77well considering how they look when you're in your car or far away they don't look big at all. There was this vieo someone was holding them and never realized how big they are either.
In Illinois, you only see hanging lights like these in construction zones as temporary lights. I’ve been to states like Georgia that uses hanging lights everywhere.
As a GA driver, ending up in places where traffic lights are horizontal, fixed to poles, and/or off to the side can be visually disorienting in busy intersections, simply because we're not used to it.
i personally have seen some of these dangling lights flying off / turning off due to wind while driving as well. it is honestly up to the city, so atlanta uses masts instead of cheap wires because it just doesn’t have space for wires
Because they’re safer, cheaper, and easier to maintain. Steel masts are susceptible to way more fatigue when blowing in the wind. Having the cables free flowing in the wind extends support. An entire steel structure falling is more dangerous than a single light falling
@@qafk2015 This is blatantly false. While wire masts are far cheaper, they are also far more fragile, far more unreliable and far more susceptible to spontaneous major malfunction from the elements as seen in this video, leaving an intersection suddenly without a traffic light which is not exactly safe. When it comes to maintenence, there is literally not much of a difference. The main thing that needs maintenance with a traffic light are the bulbs themselves which need to be replaced and the process is not gonna change just because the light itself is hanging by a wire, if anything, it makes it harder to replace than doing so on a fixed installation. The only advantage of wire masts is that they're cheap. In every other regard, they are just worse and unsafe, this video is a great demonstration as to why.
I mean Illinois has the highest tax rates in the county. Good infrastructure should be bare minimum with a 5% income tax. Jesus, for that much Y'all should have gold roads.
Its good for truck drivers who have oversized loads and need to use the intersection. Guys like electricians or traffic control officials (including police) can just help direct traffic while guys on bucket trucks can lift traffic signals and wires with poles and/or sticks. Please take a lesson from our fallen traffic signal here; stop being stiff and seeing things in black and white all the time and try to be more flexible. The fact of the matter is all things have a terminal wind velocity.
Houston Tx Over 40 years ago most of the lights in the SW section were on temp wires. Today many of those still are on temp wires. Might depend on how the city allocated the funds.
Traffic lights on poles and arms are prone to metal fatigue, especially in windy conditions. Those metal traffic light poles have fallen on cars before, which is much more threatening than a singular light falling.
I seen that happen in the Florida Keys. Key Largo to be exact the traffic light was waving back-and-forth, but it did not fall so I drove to the shopping center, and then I went out by going around the traffic light.
I read online that Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska and Florida have the signals horizontal instead of vertical is because of wind among other reasons I always thought all traffic signals were horizontal.
@@SilverXTikalhorizontal traffic lights started showing up in eastern North Carolina sometime in the past few years; not sure exactly when, but I’ve seen them on trips to the beach. That they’re in the eastern part of the state and nowhere else (that I know of) makes me think it could have something to do with hurricanes.
@@michaeljohnson7493 yeah the weather undeniably is different these days. Infrastructure within our country is going to have to evolve with our climate. I’m not a climate change Nut but I do remember it used to be well into snow before and after Christmas. Now I’m wearing a T-shirt in February of all months only for it to be completely cold for only a week. In my opinion? Time to move underground xD
There's a reason most states put traffic lights on poles instead of wires. New York is one of the only places in the US you see almost every traffic light on wires. And they just look bad.
@@-YellowFruit- where in Michigan?? Either I'm not paying attention to how traffic lights are suspended or you don't live in Michigan. Also our roads/ALL MAJOR INTERSTATES/FREEWAYS have been completely redone/still going since Whitmer became governor. It was one of the main parts of her campaign, and she actually did it unlike 99% of politicians ever in history.
@@sjohnson65456 I live in a small town in South west Michigan. Just about every light I see has got cables except for lights in places like Grand rapids. While many of our roads have definitely been made better, many roads also haven't. Most roads I drive on the only work they have done on them has been just pouring asphalt into the cracks into the road which makes driving on said roads not exactly comfortable, sometimes even a little dangerous. Could just be this one specific area I'm from that has this issue or it could be a far bigger issue that effects more of the state than I think. Not saying that just because this is what I've seen in Michigan means that every place in Michigan is exactly what I say it is but that's just what I've seen and experienced.
The traffic lights on the other side were green with the left turn arrow, that's why the ones in this video were red. That's why no cars are going the other way.
Had this same thing happen while I was stationed in Norfolk,VA. Hurricane Bertha came through kicking up a fuss,and the traffic light about 1/2 block from the house broke loose and slid up the street until it wound up wedged under a neighbors car.😂
Noticed that the pedestrian signal goes out the instant the signal falls off. So does this mean the controller goes straight to flashing red when it detects a light has disconnected?
Look like the light fell, and then the pedestrian light went out shortly after that. Not sure where you’re getting it “flashing red” from. Am I missing something?
The one light pole in Mayfield KY, it had been severely damaged by this tornado on December 10, 2021. I looked at this pole in downtown Mayfield, and the traffic light pole was partialy broken and bent up. It was an EF4 tornado back then. Google that if yall didnt know about it.
de 2 traffic lights next to him: DONT DO IT MY MAN the traffic light: *cease in my life , bless you traffic jesus.* also the traffic light: *_dies in like one of those cartoon videos_*
They all fly away, even some that are on mast arms.. The signal is usually plastic and the wind puts stress on the weakest point which is the plastic. Ive seen some horizontal mounted signals still fail but it is better having the point of mounting on both ends which can add a lot better strength but no signal is invincible when mother natures in town..
This is something that has always been a concern of mine, and here we have a prime example, as to what can happen with one of these Traffic Lights! This business of putting them on lines and such, and having them hang out over Traffic, is, as far as I'm concerned, very irresponsible! Somebody could have gotten hit and killed like that!
I'm watching this video from Ghana 🇬🇭,which i am a road safety advocate too,i was scared to death that it was gonna come off to hit a moving vehicle but it was the opposite #Love4TheLight 🚦🚙🇬🇭
Absolutely. They need to do what we’ve done in the UK and in many other countries, to put their traffic lights on strong metal poles at the side of the road. People will still see them and will still stop at red lights
Why are US traffic lights always hanging from overhead lines? In the UK, even at our larger intersections, they’re on big thick poles that are sunken deep into the ground and often we have two sets of lights, a set mounted higher up for trucks and buses, and a lower one for smaller vehicles. There’s no need to be hanging them above your intersections, not only does it look incredibly tacky, it’s dangerous… as this video clearly demonstrates.
Most of the time it's pretty strong. It's quite cheap compared to large Poles, and if installed right shouldn't fall. This one was likely not installed correctly, and was obviously about to fall. People shouldn't have driven under it.
The hanging wire thing is a old design and is being phased out, it was just cheaper for small towns to use them instead of paying for the pole version.
Why are people outside of the usa so uneducated, ignorant and biased, refusing to do some research and judge the entire country and its people based on a single video?
Pretty common across the state of Georgia and other states as well, never liked how they look, and as you can see..they aren't very wind resistant compared to mast arm mounted lights
@@taylorleger2678 Until you get to the multi lane mast mounted lights. Those be doing a jig in light wind (which can take the entire pole down after a while)
@@movingtargetproductions5046 I know...I work on them for a living...hence my prof pic , I've seen them mounted across several lanes on a mast arm, but they have a pole on the other side to attach to so wind won't move them, now I've also seen them mounted on top of a pole, as high as 10+feet from the ground, and the plastic heads tend to snap off under extreme wind
