I live in Texas and had no idea this was considered uncommon. They weren't common when I was a kid in the '70s, but over time they just kinda became ubiquitous. I just figured they'd be ubiquitous everywhere.
In Phoenix in the '70s cable suspended traffic lights were common. For decades now around here they're only used as temporary solutions in construction zones. It seems odd to me when I travel and see them in abundance elsewhere.
@@gars129 a lot of newer construction where I grew up in north Texas has solid black stoplight houses, but yellow with a black flange was most common before they started to change to black ones. Yellow is still common in reconstruction, though, especially if that is what was at the intersection before.
In Japan most stoplights are sideways, so I was surprised to see most stoplights being vertical when I first went to the U.S. Also Japanese is traditionally written vertically, and when you write Japanese vertically the proper way of writing is from up to down, then the rows go from right to left, so it is not backwards.
I have an old Japanese railway book that's "back-to-front". The front cover opens to the right instead of the left. What most of us would expect to be the front cover is actually the back. Another from Taiwan is the same. And they mostly have horizontal traffic signals there as well.
similarly, their stop signs do not comply with the international standard (octagon shape). they are an upside triangle shape which means yield in many other countries. imagine thinking you didnt stop at the stop sign in Japan just because they are so unique and thought it meant yield? similarly, stop and yield signs should not be surrounded by a rectangular/square border as it removes the uniqueness should the sign be obscured by snow
Well, like he said in the video, we read left to right then top to bottom, while Japanese is read (traditionally) top to bottom then right to left. So, while both cultures read top to bottom, on a sideways traffic light, the order is reversed due to the horizontal switch. So while the reading couldn't quite be called backwards compared to English, the traffic light placement can be 🚥🚦
I lived in Florida all my life and never knew this was uncommon. I’ve traveled a ton to other states to but now that I think about it, I haven’t really seen horizontal lights all that much in other places.
@simplyafederalist Urban areas of Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville areas are heavily verticle though. It's not so much Urban vs rural but more so region. The far north and far south are majority horizontal but the central areas and NE of the state are generally vertical.
@@simplyafederalist In Orlando they are doing both polls and span wire. You still see new installations on span wire due to the cost saving factors. The Arm mast is what's primarily being used in the Downtown Orlando area (Polls are not the same thing, but are hardly used in Florida).
unclear why youtube put this in my recommended feed but i must applaud the content owner for stellar video production content. i did not know i needed to understand why traffic lights are mounted sideways, but now i know! thanks random youtube influencer guy!
I had no idea this wasn’t really a thing elsewhere, as a native Texan. This is super cool! I learned so much! Thank you for this video and information!
@@glennso47ya I was going to say, I’ve lived in Wisconsin my whole life and I thought this was normal. I’ve traveled quite a bit and across the country and I swear these are commonplace everywhere. I’m in baraboo, and we have at least 5 of those, if not more
The BeamNG simulations are such a nice touch - high production value for low cost. The color match of the scenery was great attention to detail too. Speaking of games, the first time I saw sideways stoplights was playing GTA Vice City (set in Miami)!
You should check out Quebec -- they mount lights horizontal, and the signals have different shapes too -- circle = green, diamond = yellow, and square = red. They also put 2 reds on every signal (at opposite ends). Not sure how permitted that would be in the US regs, but I've always thought it was really good for accessibility & safety.
@@JoePCool14 I rememebr hearing somewhere that Quebec makes the lights different shapes is for drivers that could be colour blind. If that's the case then it's a good idea.
For fellow Geoguessr players, stoplights are a crafty way to get these US States pinned down quickly. New Mexico tends to mount the light ABOVE the pole. Texas tends to be the one you see with the yellow casing and black outline (I believe it's also the only one to use span-wire horizontals). Nebraska is the only one to do horizontals + the offset doghouse left-turn signal (seen at 5:40).
more tips: CA: famous arm and black lights with black backplate or reflective backplate AZ: same as CA but there may be different poles and longer visors UT: yellow visors and black backplate IL: CA style but yellow back NY: wired with no backplate or clustered lights
@@kakahtukat Much of WI: Overhead signal is horizontal on the end of a spindly, ladderlike arm. (e.g., maps.app.goo.gl/KuA7sgYA9SHESd5r6, maps.app.goo.gl/Exz7P5nrJfyZhzVUA, maps.app.goo.gl/yhMeG2CtdQLRPNnB7 )
I don't know why UA-cam decided to recommend me this video at 1:30am, but screw it, I'm hooked on this channel now. I've lived in Texas for most of my life, and do a lot of cross country traveling, but haven't noticed that most other places use vertical stop lights. I figured it was just random whether they used horizontal or vertical lights.
I always figured it was the wind as the primary reason. And all the states that you mentioned often have high winds, whether plain straight line winds from wide open spaces or hurricanes, or tornadoes. It is good to know the color direction is standardized. In the police academy, we were taught to write traffic tickets violations as saying the person had violated the "top red" light. I never had occasion to write one that would have been the "left red" light.
8:16 In Japan you can also find vertical traffic lights. It's a sign you've entered snow country. Because the buildup of snow on a horizontal light is too heavy and can break it, but on vertical lights the top surface surface area is much smaller.
@@ogonbio8145 Historically, it may have been more of a problem with weaker materials or design, or just a perceived problem that never materialised. Or, there were just different standards at one point, and they were never harmonised.
This sounds like BS. We have horizontal stop lights in Alberta, Canada. Some are several decades old. Some lights do have slits cut in the back plate to cut down on wind resistance but the snow is no bother.
I have lived in Texas my whole life. It’s weird leaving Texas and seeing no frontage roads along the freeway, no U-turn lane on the frontage road, or stoplights mounted vertically.
I lived in Texas for 15 years and I missed the frontage roads when i left, for sure. If you think no frontage roads is bad, come visit South Carolina where the law says you can't build a shopping center right beside a highway. There has to be a natural (treed) buffer between them. So good luck trying to find anything because all the businesses are hidden behind trees.
@@johnd5398 North Carolina was the same way… would literally be next to a car dealership and couldn’t see it. Also from Texas. But I will say the extra trees are growing on me
@@johnd5398 That’s how it is throughout the northeast, I’d say. In Massachusetts, there are blue road signs where businesses can buy ads, but you generally can’t see actual businesses (there are exceptions). Having grown up near Boston, it was rare that U turns were legal, and it was also tare to have roads where you could cross the yellow line to pass. And, none of this is comfortable to do when I go elsewhere.
There is one stop light that I am aware of in the US where the red-yellow-green is inverted, with green on top. That's in Tip Hill in Syracuse, NY. The legend is that when the stop light was first installed long ago, the people who lived around it were primarily first & second generation Irish immigrants and were angry that the green was on the bottom. So they kept throwing rocks at it, breaking it. The city put the green on the top. There's now a statue of an Irish immigrant family on the corner, with the family looking at the light.
For vertical stoplights in Florida that are hung by a cable, they typically run a second cable further up to give the lights more stability in the wind. I get pretty frustrated when I go to other states that don't do this (e.g. in New England) there's a bit of wind that causes the lights flail all over the place.
@@xHadesStampsYou can not use the cable for support per the NEC. It is why drop lines to homes are always two conductors and a steel line, the steel line is for support and acts as the bond back to the utility transformer. Traffic lights are the same. I work on them quite a bit as an industrial electrician. It sucks because critters love to get into the meter or disconnect because the conductors keep it warm. There’s often snakes, mice, whatever coming out of them whenever you open them up.
@@xHadesStamps I’m always amused when people online feel the need to reply in disagreement by agreeing with me. Here, I’ll help you out for next time this situation occurs. You can reply, and say, “I agree.” Takes less time to type out, too.
8:27 the general rule for horizontal traffic lights as stipulated by international road convention is that green is on the side where you drive. So, since Japan drives on the left, they've got their horizontal traffic lights the other way, too.
The reading rule also technically works for Japan; traditional Japanese is read top to bottom, right to left. That's why those manga books were always "backwards".
@@kaitlyn__L Are there horizontal traffic lights anywhere in the UK? I've driven there a couple of times and the traffic light alignment I've seen has always been vertical.
These are the kinds of obscure traffic engineering topics I subscribe for! But also, your videos are *beautiful* and so polished. Most tv shows don't have as high of a production value as your videos do. All those animations must take hours!
A fun reason you'll see a mix of horizontal and vertical streetlights in New Orleans is because many streets need to be able to accommodate Mardi Gras parade floats. They're mounted horizontally so that floats can pass underneath.
@@RoadGuyRob I was in Pensacola for Mardi Gras this year, and at least two floats came very close to a vertical stoplight. One of them even stopped long enough for one of the revelers to scribble something on the back of the light.
I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have always noticed, since I was a kid, this one spot where we have horizontal traffic lights. I was watching this video with my parents and mentioned that spot to them and they remembered it too. 5 minutes later in the video you show that exact spot at 6:23! We were laughing so hard. We didn't think our one example of this in our state would be used in your video. Keep up the good content.
Years ago, my colorblind grandfather told me he had a problem at an intersection with a horizontal traffic signal because the intersection was at a slight angle (not a square intersection) and on one side of the street there was a red barn . . . you guessed it . . . when he came to that intersection from a certain direction, the barn was the backdrop for the traffic signal and my grandfather was only able to see the yellow light. He had to rely on the other traffic to know when it was safe for him to go.
I don’t think that’s an issue with the orientation though, that just happened to be an inconvenient situation. If there was a tall building as the background for a vertical light, you’d have the same issue.
@@toonpik7 It seems to be more of an issue at night for colorblind people. Prior to reflectors on Traffic Signals, you couldnt really tell what color the light was at night. Nowadays most Traffic Signals use LED instead of lightbulbs, and the signal uses a Blue-Green hue instead of the traditional Green to help aid with coloblindness.
@@toonpik7 It seems to be more of an issue at night for colorblind people. Prior to reflectors on Traffic Signals, you couldnt really tell what color the light was at night. Nowadays most Traffic Signals use LED instead of lightbulbs, and the signal uses a Blue-Green hue instead of the traditional Green to help aid with coloblindness.
My first thought, being from Texas, was "I thought everyone had both sideways and vertical stop lights" but when you brought up the point about being colorblind, I had a flashback from when we moved to Central Texas from the Texas Panhandle when I was 13, and my parents discussing how my step dad was going to be able to tell the red lights while being colorblind.
To anser your question: For this reason traffic lights in civilized countries have an amount of blue in them. Especially easy to see in Japan (which has to do with their language, I guess, because the word aoi can mean blue und green - basically "sea colored" (again my guess).) btw. did you know that not every culture distinguishes "blue" and that very likely the ancient greeks (Iliad etc.) would not? The language you use forms your worldview, literally.
I did wonder about this - it’s certainly the case in the UK that we have blue-green go signals ( though railway signals are pure green and drivers are required to not be colour blind)
Also, the green light's lens is clear, and its bulbs/LEDs are green, while the other two lenses are tinted their color. This is so when the sun is shining onto the signal at dawn (or dusk,) the drivers don't accidentally mistake the reflection for a green light.
@@ElectroDFW They _have_ made signal balls with true red and amber LEDs generating the color too but I think they have been phased out in new installations for a while. But they do have that benefit of just appearing white when off.
As someone with red-green colourblindness the two look identical but I don’t think it would be an issue as you could easily adjust but knowing the light position.
@@craigjensen6853 agreed, I have recently started to pay more attention and it does seem to depend on the light style, and even sometimes which direction it is facing. We have some here using LED arrays (which are very noticable when a pathway of them burn out) but it's harder to tell between the COB LED and the filament bulb ones. Technology Connections has a great video on the unintended consequences of the switchover to LED traffic lights.
When I started watching dash cam crash compilations, I would see these sideways stoplights, pretty often since most crashes seem to take place in Texas or Florida, and wondered why. Now I know, so thank you!
Very good video! Great job at giving information on that. I live in the prairie where high wind is at, our towns/cities in Alberta are all horizontals. Mixed with vertical/horizontal in Saskatchewan but I could see pole ones with vertical getting bent & replaced a few times, they should go with horizontal position. One time in a town they were putting up new lights, the horizontal lights was in the opposite! That caught my attention and first thing comes to my head was about blind drivers. Few days later, they corrected the position. Nowadays I noticed they've been putting up ridiculous long arms with traffic signal in the middle, wasting all the lengthy space on the arm at end. That annoys me for some reason!
Mandatory European perspective: We mount traffic light just after the line where you are supposed to stop. Visibility is a little tricky sometimes when you stand there, but it forces you to stop at the line, and in general I find it much more clear which traffic light is relevant when you encounter a new location.
we do that in the uk BUT we also have a second one so if you cant see the first no problem but to be fair american roads are wide compared to ours so i can see why they do it that way
In Copenhagen, Danmark i was see a lot of traffic light just on the other side, so it is not a Europe-wide rule. Also in France there are little repeater lights below on the pole for the first driver to also see what is the situation. So a big lamp at the top of the post, and a smaller one just a meter high.
A lot of Europe has cute little traffic lights at the driver's height to overcome that problem. Some people think they're for cyclists, but in most cases they're wrong.
I've never seen a horizontal traffic light in Europe either. I have a feeling they exist somewhere, but I've not seen one yet! If there's a horizontal light on a pole it's a "wig wag" signal for things like swing bridges and railway crossings.
Most interesting! One thing not mentioned is America's predilection for putting the traffic heads over the traffic lanes. That's a little uncommon in Australia. Most of our traffic lights are just on vertical poles, usually four per intersection, one on each corner. The only things underneath them are the pedestrian walk buttons. I've seen some only 2 metres off the ground, but of course most are higher than that.
I wouldn't call it uncommon; I'd say the majority of intersections have them on gantries/crossmasts as well. But the way they have crossmasts in the US, sometimes not even over a road, does seem strange. (And I've driven all over both countries, in all mainland states and territories except Alaska.)
Well, okay, a lot of intersections will have one or two clusters up over the intersection, but my point was that most Aussie traffic light heads aren't.
We used to have the the 4 poles lights, but modern standards put an end to it. Ocean City, NJ back in the '70s still used them at dozens of intersections... they were very short and roughly 1920~30 era traffic heads corresponding to the timeframe of Ocean City's heyday. Those traffic heads would be worth a fortune today. During the 1980's they started converting them to... surprise... horizontal traffic heads... and ones the city couldn't afford to convert were downgraded to red blinking 4-way stops. By 2000 they were all gone... and since, even most of the horizontal heads have been switched out for conventional traffic heads on over reinforced arms. But, yeah, I'd say in most places 4 poles fell out of favor during the early '50s.
I've wondered this as well. It does make things a little clearer, but it makes the engineering more complex and expensive. If you have two signal heads on the same pole on the other side of a junction, it's obvious the left is for the left lane and the right is for the right lane, anyway. For visibility, in the UK you can often see double-mounted signal heads kerbside, where you have your normal traffic light, with another mounted on the same pole about 4-5 feet higher.
This starts to make sense when you look at the prevalence of roadside Signage. There is lots of roadside signage next to intersections in the US, Canada and - of course - Japan (though becoming less thankfully)! Three countries where installation over lanes is much more common, obviously to avoid visual distraction between the lights and signage, and therefore where horizontal lights are much more common. My take anyway.
I live in Fort Myers, FL and I frequently drive through the intersection at 7:35. We had a LOT of signal damage from Hurricane Ian. The vertical signals took most of the damage but even some horizontals were as well. The county still hasn’t repaired them all. Also, to combat wind, Florida’s standard with span wire signals is to use two wires with heads attached to a metal brace between them.
Hello Neighbor! I live off Iona! I got so confused when they put the lights sideways a few years ago (am colorblind)... But finally got used to it! Hope you handled Ian OK!
on the west coast, the span wire signals have had top and bottom wires for a couple decades - but they still gallop pretty hard in strong winds. so next to no new span wire signals are installed.
@@kenbrown2808 Span wires sometimes handle wind better... The gallop, but wires can handle flexing better. Leaf in the breeze approach ;) Oh, and howdy not quite neighbor, but close enough. The eye of Nicole went directly over where I'm at. Nothing like Ian, but reminder that it could happen.
@@travcollier sometimes leaf in the breeze is an improvement, sometimes it's not. I've seen a lot more broken span wires than I've seen broken crossarms.
@@travcollier -- The cost savings of the span wires are overwhelming. Moreover, the support poles can be placed much further off the right of way. That alone can save lives. My only problem is that they seem to $0.05 & $0.10 them rather than make them nearly bulletproof.
Very interesting. Thanks for making this informative and fun video. I've wondered about this since I was a kid living in Colorado and occasionally visiting New Mexico. I always thought New Mexico stop lights looked "weird." But living in New Mexico now for 13 years has reversed my perception of what a "weird" stoplight looks like. I'm sure the #1 reason for horizontal stoplights in New Mexico is WIND! We have LOTS of it.
Joyous for me to see these videos - as a kid I LOVED traffic lights but felt like an alien because I was the only one who noticed things like horizontal vs. vertical, or box vs. diagonal span wire. I spent a week with relatives in Florida and asked them why their traffic lights were so different, and everyone looked at me so confused. “What’s different?”
I am really proud of Nebraska's traffic signal infrastructure. The majority of wire-span signals you'll find are considered temporary. Most permanent structures are pole mast with cantilevers. Many stand-alone signals have been moved off of the islands, but a few can still be found in places.
The cantilever are a visual improvement but are a safety hazard. I grew up in a city with streetcars and the network of overhead wires is quite acceptable to me.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island also use horizontal traffic lights. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia do this as well but some towns and cities still do the traditional vertical ones too in those two provinces. Many East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan also use horizontal traffic lights.
As someone from Quebec, horizontal trafic lights are extremely rare. I have almost excusivly seen vertical lights and can't even remember where i saw the last horizontal light
@@luminus3d the only places in Quebec where I've seen vertical lights are Montreal and Quebec City. All roads belonging to the MTQ have horizontal lights as far as I know
@@IliasCheriet It seems random, i was paying attention lately and there are quite a bit more horizontal lights than i tought, especially on numbered roads. However there is still a lot of vertical lights. And in a lot of cases both vertical and horizontal are present.
As a Floridian from Fort Myers, I can confirm a lot of our stoplights are sideways. The wind is a major factor since we are very close to the coast and get a lot of hurricanes. Most recently, after hurricane Ian so many stoplights were just on the ground but there was still plenty of sideways lights in the air. I never really thought about how I don’t see sideways stoplights elsewhere in the country. Great video, thanks for some more information.
I’m in Broward County on the Southeast coast (Ft lauderdale) . They started Putting lights mounted on poles horizontally after we were hit by Hurricane Wilma. In part because they lost so many hanging lights after Wilma that Cops had to spend too much time at major intersections directing traffic. I think it helps get businesses going again post storm. The other change they made then was requiring Gas Stations to have emergency generators so the pumps work even if electric is down.
hey! also a Floridian who lives in fort myers, i never realized that when i moved out of my hometown that a lot of the lights around here are sideways 😅 my college just barely dodged hurricane ian, but everywhere around here had messed up lights for months. the only ones not messed up were the sideways ones!
Wanted to share my appreciation for the colorblind issue. I had no idea other people also used the light position instead of the colors. This video helps a lot, since I didn't know there was "standard" for the lights direction, I always had to second guess myself when I come across a seemingly random horizontal light. Subscribed!
@@helpimnotdrowni They also have started making the green lights, a turquoise shade of green, to make them more colorblind-friendly. When a colorblind person has dichromatic vision, the turquoise color looks white, while the two other colors are indistinguishable. That way, a dichromatic colorblind person can still tell the difference between red and green lights. Canada has also started implementing shapes to tell traffic signals apart, where the red is a square, the yellow is a square on an angle, and the green is a circle. I haven't seen how (if they do) tell apart the colors of protected turn-arrows. A square boarder for the red arrow and a circle boarder for the green arrow, would be my solution.
To be honest I think this guy could make a video on paint drying, and I'd still watch. He has a way with his presentation that just works. Way to go road guy rob!
One of the best videos that you've ever made! I've always wondered about this, and it makes sense now. As for Texas, they get reeeeally windy in those areas without trees, so mounting them sideways in that state makes sense too.
It can, but if you center mount the signal, it's not much of a problem. Around here we've got transmission lines that get spoilers to help keep them from rising far enough to cause problems and even in those areas, I haven't noticed a difference in the signal orientation.
Traditional japanese used to be written in columns from right to left and a lot of things are still read that way (starting a manga from the rightmost page). I also love the use of beamng gameplay. I cant wait for more content from you.
Where I grew up, in my state and the surrounding states, there were lights at the stop line before the intersection, and lights at the other side of the intersection so if you were the first couple cars in line, you could tell when it was green again. When I went to college hundreds of miles away, they had lights only after the intersections, so with my unconscious expectation that 'traffic light pole means stop line is at start of intersection' or 'see red light, stop directly under red light', I went right into the intersection on a red light with the intention to stop at the only set of lights, which were after the intersection. It happened to me again years later after having lived where I grew up again, and then moving to another state. That time I stopped about a third of the way into the intersection instead of going completely through it. So that's an example of an unexpected change of standards between states/regions that can be a problem.
This is really interesting, I’ve lived in New Mexico most of my life and I always thought horizontal traffic signals were normal. It’s fascinating to find out that I live in one of four states that use this uncommon signal layout. The more you know!
Rio Rancho, New Mexico actually has a few intersections where there must arm signal heads are "properly" mounted vertically, with curved poles! Southern Blvd specifically, from Golf Course Rd to a business access just before the intersection of NM 528 and Southern Blvd, another set on Unser Blvd, at the intersections of Paseo Del Vulcan, and King Blvd. Finally, Paseo Del Vulcan and Broadmoor Rd. There's one on Unser Blvd two lights north of the Southern Blvd intersection. This is for those that follow Google Maps 😂
I get it. It's not something I've ever thought about, just adapted to it. I wasn't raised in New Mexico but have lived here for nearly 30 years. It's those little idiosyncrasies that we just ponder.
@@cali22boi Good grief, how much time do you have on your hands? And for the record, I've driven all those intersections more times than I care to count. FWIW, I live in ABQ, mom lives a couple of miles further down the way off of Southern after you pass the Walmart.
@@RonJDuncan I live in Albuquerque, so I have plenty of time to observe anomalies while driving around in the surrounding areas. In fact, Coors and Blake used to have vertical signal heads, including curved mast arms with 'J' curves found on the Sacramento area of California. Lastly, I'm from California, I worked for Caltrans, and many of the areas that are featured in his footage, I have frequented
8:18 Japan also drives on the left hand side. You can imagine mounting the signal head on a tall pole on the edge of the road (not the middle) and bending it sideways over the road.
I wonder if the color positions have something to do with line of sights. In a left turn with a wall to your left, you would see the right signal first.
I live in Mexico and that's pretty common here. Never thought it would be uncommon there Usually there are two horizontal ones and one vertical mounted lower on the pole
I love how the presentation style this guy has makes me feel like I just woke up in a cold sweat at 3:30 in the morning on a school night and TruTV was on an old 24" Sanyo CRT TV.
7:57 - The rule for horizontal traffic light involves the RED being the furthest away from the curb. US is right-hand driving, so the RED is always on the left side (RYG); meanwhile, if the lights were mounted sideways in left-hand driving countries, the RED should be on the right like it is in Japan (GYR). This reduces sightline issues from overgrown tree branches or taller vehicles stopped on the curb lane, the same as the reason why RED is always on the top when mounted vertically.
Even here in RI we have some horizontally mounted signals and I always assumed it had to do with clearance and wind above all else. I think we got stuck in the vertical mentality from the days when the majority of intersections were the strung wire type; it only made sense then. When we started using rigid stanchions, we just kept them vertical and even started ridigly mounting the signal heads. It's like nobody stopped to think about the best way to handle mounting orientation through the many years of material and design evolution.
There's no reason why you can't mount a horizontal signal on cable, you just can't mount it above cable without a great deal of effort and probably a second set of wires.
It depends on if you want your signals across the road, or at the sides. It's cheaper to have a single vertical signal on a slim pole than having a thicker and longer pole that is shaped to hang over the street with multiple signals. You obviously wouldn't do horizontal signals at the side of the road. That would just take up unnecessary space. The orientation is considered by proper designers, but tradition and existing standards and laws mean that it isn't practical to change it.
ב''ה, as you should know in New England, the early days of motoring featured vertical signals on poles, sometimes mechanical, sometimes manually operated by a traffic officer. Then, with electrification and all that, keeping the vertical shape of the signals then in use was a design goal for comprehensibility (and that vertical design could be made bottom heavy and thus somewhat stable once cheaply slung from wires).
I’m from New Jersey, and they are most common in some shore towns and city avenues. Occasionally near a highway overpass you will also see it due to obstruction. Still a rare oddity here though
Wisconsin used to have sideways traffic lights until last decade on their smaller poles. Only one light on each pole. I think Wisconsin still maintains and installs new sideways traffic lights on their smaller road projects, but not any large boulevards or avenues. I really miss the horizontal traffic lights in Wisconsin, they need to bring that back.
Thanks to UA-cam videos, I've discovered that there are sideways stoplights in places like Texas and Florida. I figured it must have to do with wind, so this video has been educational!
I’m familiar with Alabama and Louisiana, two of the “sometimes” sideways states. Mobile, AL is the only place in AL I’ve seen sideways traffic lights. They’re oriented that way in the downtown area to accommodate the tall floats to pass through the intersections during Mardi Gras. Back in the 90s they used to manually flip the lights sideways for carnival season. Then when they did a wholesale refresh of all the traffic lights downtown they permanently mounted them all sideways for uniformity.
Seriously Rob, your animations are superb! And congratulations on getting that plaque to commemorate 100K subscribers! And keep on keeping us informed about peculiarities of our roads and signs and signals.
Thanks Roadway gentleman Robert! Good insight into an issue with personal meaning for me. It was also funny seeing several intersections from my home town there! Several of the Florida intersections had traditional lights up until just a few years ago!
I've always thought, just a theory, not a fact or knowledge, that the red light is on the side of oncoming (dangerous) traffic. Which is why in japan, a country where they drive on the left rather than the right side of the road, would put the red light on the right, as that is where the danger would be. In the US where the danger would come from the left, that is where they would put the red light.
Absolutely. Places where they drive on the left and have horizontally-mounted signal heads (e.g.: Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan) have green on the left and red on the right. Places where they drive on the right (e.g.: USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam and China) all have red on the left and green on the right. Which is to say: red is always on the side closest to oncoming traffic, as you suggest. The only exception I can think of is Sri Lanka, which is... weird. They basically don't seem to have any rules or consistency there regarding signal head orientation. Driving is on the left, but you will see signal heads mounted both Green→Red, AND Red←Green. Basically, if you're colour blind in Sri Lanka, you're gonna have a bad time.
The protruding, curved bills above the lenses should keep out the majority of snowfall, rain, and sunshine (you can see some are massive or shaped oddly if it's known that the Sun can shine right at it). The heat of incandescent lamps, or built in heating wires for LEDs, should take care of the rest.
@@AndrooUK When they first started using LED lamps for traffic lights, they didn't include any heating and blown snow buildup was a problem in some places. Yeah, not a hard problem to solve or anything
@@mrcryptozoic817 this was an issue when i lived in Wisconsin and LED stoplights were first introduced. apparently it was an oversight or not a warm enough heater for our cold weather and the lights would stay entirely obstructed by snow.
Rob I just want to say that you are one of my favorite UA-camrs. Super entertaining. Super educational. Super nice guy! Everything I want out of a UA-camr. I can't afford a monthly Patreon payment but mark my words, if you're ever in Oklahoma City I will buy you a meal. You're awesome!
I live in Palm Beach County and I see them ALL! Span wire signals here are supported by 2 cables, one for wind resistance with a stabilizer arm between the top and load wire where the traffic signals are attached to. Those and even the new signal installations are all vertical. It’s rare to find a vertical set up, those are more in Broward and Dade
I've sometimes seen these used in Maryland when there's some sort of obstruction (such as an overhead bridge) that blocks the sightlines to the traffic lights until you get close to them, by having them horizontal, you can see all 3 lights earlier than if they're mounted vertically, although they're still quite uncommon. EDIT: I see RGR goes over this exact scenario at 5:43
A question I never ask but definitely happy to hear. And funny enough i used to live in Florida. For some reason I got used to it. Edit 4:06-5:00 that's pretty frightening and cool Edit 2 yeah even though it's good to design I remember that one intersection in Florida where I used to live one of the pole that hold the traffic light actually broke off. As a result they used wires with the traffic light temporarily with a horizontal way.
8:28 As a Nebraska resident, I noticed the video segment behind the Omaha tornado warning was of a Nebraska highway. Your attention to detail is amazing Rob! Please keep up with your incredible work! I hope to run into you the next time you're in the Cornhusker state!
I live in northern Canada, and we mostly use horizontal stoplights, too, but honestly, we use both types interchangeably. And I've traveled to many other parts of the country too and again it's usually a mixture of both types of stoplights throughout our towns and cities. I don't know why that is, but the reasons you've listed are probably the same for us in Canada, too.
@warwgn3 Alberta also does most of their overhead signals (except left turn signals) horizontal. In the US it tends to vary by state but some states like Florida vary by county but also can be almost random seeing them alternate on the street or using a mix of both at the same intersection.
I really enjoyed this video Rob. As many Hurricanes as we get in North Carolina, I'm really surprised we don't do this here (specifically in Wilmington and the surrounding coastal counties). The only place in North Carolina that I've seen a lot of the sideways traffic signals is in Morehead City, NC. Those are on the big mast arms like the ones in your video. 😎👍
Here in Quebec we also have sideways traffic lights with up to 9 lights in one cluster (two reds, amber, solid green, green left right and straight arrow that can also turn amber, bus lane light. A sight to behold.
East Asian horizontal writing is a mixed case. Up until Japan lost WW2 and had General McArthur run things and impose the modern way, a horizontal text is treated as a one-row vertical text, which is still written today, top to bottom, right to left. In that regard traffic lights there follow the old writing rule, vertical or horizontal.
So interesting, like always. When I moved to WI I remember thinking their horizontal stop lights looked weird. Now that I have been in this state for 30+ years, I have come to realize I haven't even noticed for the last 29 years which direction the stop lights were. I guess that is the idea. Great video!
In Canada, Alberta has horizontal lights and Saskatchewan does too, but interestingly in Saskatchewan, it depends where you are where you will see vertical or horizontal lights, in Saskatoon the lights are vertical, but in Regina they are horizontal. Quebec has some really weird looking lights that are horizontal, except in Montreal city limits you’ll see those. New Brunswick has those kind of lights too but it also depends where you are, and also, Prince Edward Island has those weird horizontal lights too. just wanted to give a Canadian perspective on this.
I appreciate this segment... I always wondered why some stop lights in other states are mounted horizontally... I live in Maryland, and ours are mounted vertical. I'm glad you gave me the information that was always intriguing to me.
They're also sideways in New Mexico, Wisconsin, parts of Louisiana, Nebraska and Peru, and in Japan and some other parts of Asia (but they go the other way, because most Asian counties drive on the left).
@@SYH653 So off the top of my head, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Macau, Hong Kong and East Temor drive on the left, while China, Vietnam, the Koreas and the Philippines drive on the right. I've never been to Borneo so I'm not sure which side they drive on there. But what other countries in Asia am I missing?
Light order definitely critical for us colorblind guys. There is a vertical stoplight in Tipperary Hill (Syracuse, NY) immortalizing the Irish heritage of the neighbourhood by putting Irish green on top of British red... A unique change spurred on by a bunch of constant vandalism a century back when traffic lights were first being rolled out. It's their claim to fame now!
@@SmallSpoonBrigadeI don't think dyslexia would affect anything to do with this, but the Tipp Hill light has signs facing all approaches blatantly saying green's on top
@@scottwalker8021 Or copying the tram system: Horizontal bar (red), circle (yellow), triangle (yield to crossing traffic), vertical bar (green for straight), diagonal bar (green for turns).
@@HenryLoenwind You can’t have vehicular traffic lights copy tram lights because sometimes those lights are along the same roads and at the same intersections. They need to be different to communicate actions to different groups. Like some intersections have regular traffic lights, then different lights for buses, and different lights for cyclists.
Went from Texas to Japan to Florida, back to Japan and then back to Texas. Had no clue other states had them arranged differently because literally everywhere I went was arranged like this.
As a "nerd," I don't really mind horizontal traffic signals. What annoy me is when some of the signal heads are horizontal and some of them are vertical (e.g. doghouse). GRRRR! I live in Nebraska, and I wouldn't say that horizontal ones are _super common_ but I hadn't realized they're unheard of in other states. Another nice video!
We meet again... Horizontal signals are basically unknown here in Minnesota. I can think of only one offhand that was done to make it visible with an unusually-tall grade crossing cantilever. I think there are some others out there done for clearance reasons, but they're exceedingly rare. We're getting some doghouses now, though...not sure what I think of them yet. Meanwhile across the river in -Cheeseland- Wisconsin, 'trombone' signals with horizontal heads are reasonably common, though I think they're slowly being phased out in favor of vertical signals
@@ebnertra0004 Hi T! The signal orientation here in Nebraska is pretty much up to the whim of the engineer/constructor. The horizontal ones tend to be more common in small towns. I only get to Wisconsin once in a while, but their phasing out of the "trombone" signals is news to me. The prevalence of near-side signals was more shocking to me when I first went there, though.
I was told that traffic light order on horizontal heads depends on which side of the road the country drives on, so that the red light is always closest to the centre of the road as it's the most important signal. That may be why Japan has red on the right and green on the left. In the UK (and probably much of Europe?) horizontal heads basically don't exist, and even overhead lights are quite rare, only really seen on large roads or where there's a steep downhill where you can't see the side-mounted lights from the further up the hill.
Having grown up in NJ, there were a few horizontal signals where I lived where the signals were out in the open. So I can only assume that for cost considerations, the signals were mounted horizontally. When I moved to Florida, I rarely saw horizontal signals, but tons of vertical signals mounted on wires. After Hurricane Andrew, with many wired signals blown away, FLDOT began to require that all new or replacement traffic signals be mounted on poles. What I would like to see you cover when driving in a car is traffic signals hidden by tall vehicles that you are following. When I lived in NJ, I always knew the status of a traffic signal in front of me because NJ installs additional signals on the opposing side of the street facing traffic coming the the opposing direction. So even if I was following a tractor trailer, I still could see the status of a signal by looking to my left. When I moved to Florida, I noticed that I started going thorough red lights when I had a tractor trailer or a bus in front of me. Florida still does not install additional signals on the opposing side of the street so drivers know the status of a signal in front of them when following a large vehicle. And now that I live in Tennessee, they are no better than Florida for knowing the status of traffic signals ahead when following a large vehicle. Although Tennessee will sometimes install a signal on the opposing side when a traffic signal is on a curve in the road.
A sideways stoplight at my NY place would hold more snow during winter months. That's extra stress on the arm/wires especially when there is heavy "wet" snowfall, so they mount stop lights vertically which minimizes horizontal surface area that can accumulate snow. A vertical stoplight at my TX place would, as mentioned in the video, be a problem with high winds when tornadoes come through, so they mount stoplights horizontally. High winds are not an issue in NY. Heavy snow is not an issue in TX.
Torrington, Wyoming has pretty much all horizontal traffic lights, so Wyoming should likely be included as mixed... or maybe not seeing Cali wasn't marked. Great video as always and definitely helps answer a question I've had since I first saw a horizontal traffic light a good decade ago.
@@RoadGuyRob Oh wowow!! Yep. Not all of them are horizontal, but along main street they are. If I recall correctly, I made it a point to photo some of them when I visited the area a while back!
that is only being done at interceptions that are controlled by WisDOT or certain counties. The City of Appleton still uses the standard horizontal signals at city street intersections. They are a sort of comfort thing, too. They tell me that I'm 'home'
@@mgk920 Ok I see here in SE Wisconsin they all use the vertical ones. The city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, The city of Waukesha Waukesha County ect. The only new horizontal setup that has been put up here in the last 10 years I am aware of is the one on Sunnyslope and Grange a rare instance in which it is sole jurisdiction of the city of New Berlin. I should mention that I noticed that the SE district is the only one that still does vertical lights on a singular assembly while the rest of the state keeps the old setup if it only has one light.
Here in Canada, there's more variation. In Quebec, PEI, and New Brunswick, the lights are horizontal with 2 square red lights on each end, then a yellow diamond second and a green round light third. Here in Alberta, as well as Yellowknife and Whitehorse standard round lights are mounted horizontally., although left turn signals are usually vertical. The rest of the country pretty much uses standard vertical lights.
You left out NYC. With many highways and elevated rail lines they had to put the lights horizontally while lights and the side of the streets are vertical. Some of this has disappeared over the years as some vertical lights have been mounted higher up on bridges so that their bottoms are as high or higher than the lower parts of the bridges.
Japan does write from right to left in the case of vertical text (which is quite common there), but I'm more curious about whether the order of the lights depends on the writing system or the driving direction.
It would be a problem for the rest of the Anglosphere that drives on the left, and for the Arabic-speaking world that drives on the right. These places would have conflicting factors that would govern which way to mount a horizontal traffic signal. If you were in the UK, would it make more sense to have red on the right as the danger side for oncoming traffic, or would it make more sense to have red on the left, since you read left to right?
Before watching, I assumed it was a wind thing when I visited Florida. Threw off the colorblind person I travelled with for a while, though. On the other hand, I was generally dismayed at how little the architecture I saw (Miami to Gainesville and back a different route) seemed at all prepared for high winds.
Can you do a video on why traffic lights are different colors in different states? Like here in Pennsylvania they are yellow with a black border. In NJ and NY they are yellow without a border. In many places they are all black which I think can be very hard to see.
@jacobbaer785, yes, my county is starting to have those as well, especially in my town. I don't know what county you're in, but, Lancaster now has those colors on the signals.
In the UK, we generally have traffic lights off to the side or on the other side of a junction on a single post, so it's pretty much unheard of to see a sideways traffic light setup, especially with our love of pedestrian islands.
I'm familiar with both styles. I spent the first 16 years of my life in Chicago where all the traffic lights are vertical, then I moved to Texas where the lights are horizontal. It was here in Texas that I learned how to drive, so horizontal traffic lights are normal to me. I had no idea anyone considered them "weird" or that they were mainly a Texas thing.
I live in Minnesota and just across state lines in Wisconsin all their stoplights are horizontal… I think Wisconsin may also be a mostly horizontal state.
I live in Texas and had no idea this was considered uncommon. They weren't common when I was a kid in the '70s, but over time they just kinda became ubiquitous. I just figured they'd be ubiquitous everywhere.
Here in Puerto Rico we shifted from yellow to black around the late 90s. Assumed this happened in all of the US.
In Phoenix in the '70s cable suspended traffic lights were common. For decades now around here they're only used as temporary solutions in construction zones. It seems odd to me when I travel and see them in abundance elsewhere.
@@gars129 a lot of newer construction where I grew up in north Texas has solid black stoplight houses, but yellow with a black flange was most common before they started to change to black ones. Yellow is still common in reconstruction, though, especially if that is what was at the intersection before.
I live in Alberta, Canada, and everywhere I've been in Canada have this as a common feature
Yeah, I live in Florida and i notice most lights are vertical
In Japan most stoplights are sideways, so I was surprised to see most stoplights being vertical when I first went to the U.S. Also Japanese is traditionally written vertically, and when you write Japanese vertically the proper way of writing is from up to down, then the rows go from right to left, so it is not backwards.
I have an old Japanese railway book that's "back-to-front". The front cover opens to the right instead of the left. What most of us would expect to be the front cover is actually the back.
Another from Taiwan is the same. And they mostly have horizontal traffic signals there as well.
Interestingly enough we are not fucking Japan
similarly, their stop signs do not comply with the international standard (octagon shape). they are an upside triangle shape which means yield in many other countries. imagine thinking you didnt stop at the stop sign in Japan just because they are so unique and thought it meant yield? similarly, stop and yield signs should not be surrounded by a rectangular/square border as it removes the uniqueness should the sign be obscured by snow
Well, like he said in the video, we read left to right then top to bottom, while Japanese is read (traditionally) top to bottom then right to left.
So, while both cultures read top to bottom, on a sideways traffic light, the order is reversed due to the horizontal switch. So while the reading couldn't quite be called backwards compared to English, the traffic light placement can be
🚥🚦
I've noticed a lot of the stoplights in northern Japan (Hokkaido Island, for example) are vertical.
I lived in Florida all my life and never knew this was uncommon. I’ve traveled a ton to other states to but now that I think about it, I haven’t really seen horizontal lights all that much in other places.
You should travel more
Same Floridian hers. I have traveled a lot in the south. I thought it was more a urban area thing. Rual areas you dont really see it in Florida.
@simplyafederalist Urban areas of Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville areas are heavily verticle though. It's not so much Urban vs rural but more so region. The far north and far south are majority horizontal but the central areas and NE of the state are generally vertical.
@@Blaze6432 No I live in Orlando they are all going to polls. But they are mostly vertical.
@@simplyafederalist In Orlando they are doing both polls and span wire. You still see new installations on span wire due to the cost saving factors. The Arm mast is what's primarily being used in the Downtown Orlando area (Polls are not the same thing, but are hardly used in Florida).
unclear why youtube put this in my recommended feed but i must applaud the content owner for stellar video production content. i did not know i needed to understand why traffic lights are mounted sideways, but now i know! thanks random youtube influencer guy!
You're lucky because this is possibly the best channel on traffic theory from America and worth a subscribe
I had no idea this wasn’t really a thing elsewhere, as a native Texan. This is super cool! I learned so much! Thank you for this video and information!
In Canada I've seen them both ways constantly so I've never thought about it lol
If you ever come to Madison Wisconsin you should see horizontally mounted traffic lights also.
You should travel more
@@codypendency9482 What province?
@@glennso47ya I was going to say, I’ve lived in Wisconsin my whole life and I thought this was normal. I’ve traveled quite a bit and across the country and I swear these are commonplace everywhere. I’m in baraboo, and we have at least 5 of those, if not more
The BeamNG simulations are such a nice touch - high production value for low cost. The color match of the scenery was great attention to detail too.
Speaking of games, the first time I saw sideways stoplights was playing GTA Vice City (set in Miami)!
He needs to make these BeamNG simulations are regular thing moving forward.
Now I need to.
(Booting up Steam)
@Road Guy Rob yes that and the chicken needs to be featured whenever possible too. 😋
@@RoadGuyRob it was a surprise lol
There were some horizontals near where I grew up in NY, but Vice City was the first time I saw them in a video game lol
You should check out Quebec -- they mount lights horizontal, and the signals have different shapes too -- circle = green, diamond = yellow, and square = red. They also put 2 reds on every signal (at opposite ends). Not sure how permitted that would be in the US regs, but I've always thought it was really good for accessibility & safety.
2 reds on one signal is very, VERY rare in the US, but they do exist!
I don't like Quebec signals, honestly. I think the shapes are overkill, and just plain ugly. I guess they're interesting for being unique but eh.
stupid design
I was going to say, Quebec needs it’s own video. They take sideways stoplights to a whole new level.
@@JoePCool14 I rememebr hearing somewhere that Quebec makes the lights different shapes is for drivers that could be colour blind. If that's the case then it's a good idea.
For fellow Geoguessr players, stoplights are a crafty way to get these US States pinned down quickly. New Mexico tends to mount the light ABOVE the pole. Texas tends to be the one you see with the yellow casing and black outline (I believe it's also the only one to use span-wire horizontals). Nebraska is the only one to do horizontals + the offset doghouse left-turn signal (seen at 5:40).
Yes! Horizontal stop lights make a great party trick when playing!
Thanks!
more tips:
CA: famous arm and black lights with black backplate or reflective backplate
AZ: same as CA but there may be different poles and longer visors
UT: yellow visors and black backplate
IL: CA style but yellow back
NY: wired with no backplate or clustered lights
I was thinking our turn arrows a weird
@@kakahtukat Much of WI: Overhead signal is horizontal on the end of a spindly, ladderlike arm. (e.g., maps.app.goo.gl/KuA7sgYA9SHESd5r6, maps.app.goo.gl/Exz7P5nrJfyZhzVUA, maps.app.goo.gl/yhMeG2CtdQLRPNnB7 )
I don't know why UA-cam decided to recommend me this video at 1:30am, but screw it, I'm hooked on this channel now. I've lived in Texas for most of my life, and do a lot of cross country traveling, but haven't noticed that most other places use vertical stop lights. I figured it was just random whether they used horizontal or vertical lights.
I always figured it was the wind as the primary reason. And all the states that you mentioned often have high winds, whether plain straight line winds from wide open spaces or hurricanes, or tornadoes. It is good to know the color direction is standardized. In the police academy, we were taught to write traffic tickets violations as saying the person had violated the "top red" light. I never had occasion to write one that would have been the "left red" light.
8:16 In Japan you can also find vertical traffic lights. It's a sign you've entered snow country. Because the buildup of snow on a horizontal light is too heavy and can break it, but on vertical lights the top surface surface area is much smaller.
We have horizontal traffic lights in Saskatchewan. So obviously snow isn’t an issue with them 😂
@@ogonbio8145same down in NY State
@@ogonbio8145 Historically, it may have been more of a problem with weaker materials or design, or just a perceived problem that never materialised.
Or, there were just different standards at one point, and they were never harmonised.
This sounds like BS. We have horizontal stop lights in Alberta, Canada. Some are several decades old. Some lights do have slits cut in the back plate to cut down on wind resistance but the snow is no bother.
That's cool.
I have lived in Texas my whole life. It’s weird leaving Texas and seeing no frontage roads along the freeway, no U-turn lane on the frontage road, or stoplights mounted vertically.
Texas is a stroad disaster area.
everytime i leave the state, i really start to appreciate our roads
I lived in Texas for 15 years and I missed the frontage roads when i left, for sure. If you think no frontage roads is bad, come visit South Carolina where the law says you can't build a shopping center right beside a highway. There has to be a natural (treed) buffer between them.
So good luck trying to find anything because all the businesses are hidden behind trees.
@@johnd5398 North Carolina was the same way… would literally be next to a car dealership and couldn’t see it. Also from Texas. But I will say the extra trees are growing on me
@@johnd5398 That’s how it is throughout the northeast, I’d say. In Massachusetts, there are blue road signs where businesses can buy ads, but you generally can’t see actual businesses (there are exceptions). Having grown up near Boston, it was rare that U turns were legal, and it was also tare to have roads where you could cross the yellow line to pass. And, none of this is comfortable to do when I go elsewhere.
There is one stop light that I am aware of in the US where the red-yellow-green is inverted, with green on top. That's in Tip Hill in Syracuse, NY. The legend is that when the stop light was first installed long ago, the people who lived around it were primarily first & second generation Irish immigrants and were angry that the green was on the bottom. So they kept throwing rocks at it, breaking it. The city put the green on the top. There's now a statue of an Irish immigrant family on the corner, with the family looking at the light.
I lived up the street from that light and heard it was because it was the Irish section of town. Interesting!
Some weird stuff right there
oh my, looking at the signal on google street view makes me quite nervous.
That’s pretty sweet
@Phillip Banes Ok buddy
I loved how people kept interrupting you. Most folks would cut that but you keep our shenanigans in!
For vertical stoplights in Florida that are hung by a cable, they typically run a second cable further up to give the lights more stability in the wind. I get pretty frustrated when I go to other states that don't do this (e.g. in New England) there's a bit of wind that causes the lights flail all over the place.
It's because it's far cheaper to do and Span wire is far more flexible.
Here, back when span wire signals were still regularly installed, they’ve always had a taut cable attached to the bottom
@@xHadesStampsYou can not use the cable for support per the NEC. It is why drop lines to homes are always two conductors and a steel line, the steel line is for support and acts as the bond back to the utility transformer.
Traffic lights are the same. I work on them quite a bit as an industrial electrician. It sucks because critters love to get into the meter or disconnect because the conductors keep it warm. There’s often snakes, mice, whatever coming out of them whenever you open them up.
@@TheSpicyLeg That steel line is actually the neutral. It’s completely dead, however, on traffic signals, making this completely irrelevant.
@@xHadesStamps I’m always amused when people online feel the need to reply in disagreement by agreeing with me.
Here, I’ll help you out for next time this situation occurs. You can reply, and say, “I agree.” Takes less time to type out, too.
8:27 the general rule for horizontal traffic lights as stipulated by international road convention is that green is on the side where you drive. So, since Japan drives on the left, they've got their horizontal traffic lights the other way, too.
Now I need to pay attention and see if that holds true to the UK, or if we swapped like with the indicator and windscreen wiper stalks.
That's not the case in the Indian subcontinent, where people also drive on the left.
@@mirzaahmed6589 that's interesting, Singapore also drives on the left and has the green on the left, like Japan.
The reading rule also technically works for Japan; traditional Japanese is read top to bottom, right to left. That's why those manga books were always "backwards".
@@kaitlyn__L Are there horizontal traffic lights anywhere in the UK? I've driven there a couple of times and the traffic light alignment I've seen has always been vertical.
These are the kinds of obscure traffic engineering topics I subscribe for! But also, your videos are *beautiful* and so polished. Most tv shows don't have as high of a production value as your videos do. All those animations must take hours!
The animations are from a game called BeamNG Drive
As someone that lives on the border of Alabama and Florida that travels between the border on a weekly basis. I’ve simply never noticed this.
What Kevin said!
A fun reason you'll see a mix of horizontal and vertical streetlights in New Orleans is because many streets need to be able to accommodate Mardi Gras parade floats. They're mounted horizontally so that floats can pass underneath.
I didn't know that. That's interesting. Thanks!
@@RoadGuyRob I was in Pensacola for Mardi Gras this year, and at least two floats came very close to a vertical stoplight. One of them even stopped long enough for one of the revelers to scribble something on the back of the light.
I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have always noticed, since I was a kid, this one spot where we have horizontal traffic lights. I was watching this video with my parents and mentioned that spot to them and they remembered it too. 5 minutes later in the video you show that exact spot at 6:23! We were laughing so hard. We didn't think our one example of this in our state would be used in your video. Keep up the good content.
Years ago, my colorblind grandfather told me he had a problem at an intersection with a horizontal traffic signal because the intersection was at a slight angle (not a square intersection) and on one side of the street there was a red barn . . . you guessed it . . . when he came to that intersection from a certain direction, the barn was the backdrop for the traffic signal and my grandfather was only able to see the yellow light. He had to rely on the other traffic to know when it was safe for him to go.
I don’t think that’s an issue with the orientation though, that just happened to be an inconvenient situation. If there was a tall building as the background for a vertical light, you’d have the same issue.
@@toonpik7 It seems to be more of an issue at night for colorblind people. Prior to reflectors on Traffic Signals, you couldnt really tell what color the light was at night. Nowadays most Traffic Signals use LED instead of lightbulbs, and the signal uses a Blue-Green hue instead of the traditional Green to help aid with coloblindness.
@@toonpik7 It seems to be more of an issue at night for colorblind people. Prior to reflectors on Traffic Signals, you couldnt really tell what color the light was at night. Nowadays most Traffic Signals use LED instead of lightbulbs, and the signal uses a Blue-Green hue instead of the traditional Green to help aid with coloblindness.
My first thought, being from Texas, was "I thought everyone had both sideways and vertical stop lights" but when you brought up the point about being colorblind, I had a flashback from when we moved to Central Texas from the Texas Panhandle when I was 13, and my parents discussing how my step dad was going to be able to tell the red lights while being colorblind.
My Dad was colorblind as well.
To anser your question: For this reason traffic lights in civilized countries have an amount of blue in them. Especially easy to see in Japan (which has to do with their language, I guess, because the word aoi can mean blue und green - basically "sea colored" (again my guess).)
btw. did you know that not every culture distinguishes "blue" and that very likely the ancient greeks (Iliad etc.) would not?
The language you use forms your worldview, literally.
Off topic but I'm from the midwest, and I have an insatiable love for Corpus / Port Aransas. Was just out there 2 weeks ago
No bro! Just your sideways state. Sideways on politicians, human rights, guns, weed…..you guys can’t do anything right….I’m questioning your bbq now
@@luv2bbq how dare you! BBQ is the one thing we do right
Rob, the "green" lights actually have a bluish tinge to them to distinguish them from the red lights for those who have red-green colorblindness.
I did wonder about this - it’s certainly the case in the UK that we have blue-green go signals ( though railway signals are pure green and drivers are required to not be colour blind)
Also, the green light's lens is clear, and its bulbs/LEDs are green, while the other two lenses are tinted their color.
This is so when the sun is shining onto the signal at dawn (or dusk,) the drivers don't accidentally mistake the reflection for a green light.
@@ElectroDFW They _have_ made signal balls with true red and amber LEDs generating the color too but I think they have been phased out in new installations for a while. But they do have that benefit of just appearing white when off.
As someone with red-green colourblindness the two look identical but I don’t think it would be an issue as you could easily adjust but knowing the light position.
@@craigjensen6853 agreed, I have recently started to pay more attention and it does seem to depend on the light style, and even sometimes which direction it is facing.
We have some here using LED arrays (which are very noticable when a pathway of them burn out) but it's harder to tell between the COB LED and the filament bulb ones.
Technology Connections has a great video on the unintended consequences of the switchover to LED traffic lights.
I like that you put your bloopers right in the middle of the content, where they naturally happened.
When I started watching dash cam crash compilations, I would see these sideways stoplights, pretty often since most crashes seem to take place in Texas or Florida, and wondered why.
Now I know, so thank you!
Very good video! Great job at giving information on that. I live in the prairie where high wind is at, our towns/cities in Alberta are all horizontals. Mixed with vertical/horizontal in Saskatchewan but I could see pole ones with vertical getting bent & replaced a few times, they should go with horizontal position.
One time in a town they were putting up new lights, the horizontal lights was in the opposite! That caught my attention and first thing comes to my head was about blind drivers. Few days later, they corrected the position.
Nowadays I noticed they've been putting up ridiculous long arms with traffic signal in the middle, wasting all the lengthy space on the arm at end. That annoys me for some reason!
Mandatory European perspective: We mount traffic light just after the line where you are supposed to stop. Visibility is a little tricky sometimes when you stand there, but it forces you to stop at the line, and in general I find it much more clear which traffic light is relevant when you encounter a new location.
we do that in the uk BUT we also have a second one so if you cant see the first no problem
but to be fair american roads are wide compared to ours so i can see why they do it that way
In Copenhagen, Danmark i was see a lot of traffic light just on the other side, so it is not a Europe-wide rule.
Also in France there are little repeater lights below on the pole for the first driver to also see what is the situation. So a big lamp at the top of the post, and a smaller one just a meter high.
A lot of Europe has cute little traffic lights at the driver's height to overcome that problem. Some people think they're for cyclists, but in most cases they're wrong.
I've never seen a horizontal traffic light in Europe either. I have a feeling they exist somewhere, but I've not seen one yet! If there's a horizontal light on a pole it's a "wig wag" signal for things like swing bridges and railway crossings.
@@nomadMik Well, the most cute litle traffic lights i know have bicycle on it. But maybe even in Europe this is different from country to country.
Most interesting! One thing not mentioned is America's predilection for putting the traffic heads over the traffic lanes. That's a little uncommon in Australia. Most of our traffic lights are just on vertical poles, usually four per intersection, one on each corner. The only things underneath them are the pedestrian walk buttons. I've seen some only 2 metres off the ground, but of course most are higher than that.
I wouldn't call it uncommon; I'd say the majority of intersections have them on gantries/crossmasts as well. But the way they have crossmasts in the US, sometimes not even over a road, does seem strange. (And I've driven all over both countries, in all mainland states and territories except Alaska.)
Well, okay, a lot of intersections will have one or two clusters up over the intersection, but my point was that most Aussie traffic light heads aren't.
We used to have the the 4 poles lights, but modern standards put an end to it. Ocean City, NJ back in the '70s still used them at dozens of intersections... they were very short and roughly 1920~30 era traffic heads corresponding to the timeframe of Ocean City's heyday. Those traffic heads would be worth a fortune today.
During the 1980's they started converting them to... surprise... horizontal traffic heads... and ones the city couldn't afford to convert were downgraded to red blinking 4-way stops. By 2000 they were all gone... and since, even most of the horizontal heads have been switched out for conventional traffic heads on over reinforced arms.
But, yeah, I'd say in most places 4 poles fell out of favor during the early '50s.
I've wondered this as well. It does make things a little clearer, but it makes the engineering more complex and expensive. If you have two signal heads on the same pole on the other side of a junction, it's obvious the left is for the left lane and the right is for the right lane, anyway. For visibility, in the UK you can often see double-mounted signal heads kerbside, where you have your normal traffic light, with another mounted on the same pole about 4-5 feet higher.
This starts to make sense when you look at the prevalence of roadside Signage. There is lots of roadside signage next to intersections in the US, Canada and - of course - Japan (though becoming less thankfully)! Three countries where installation over lanes is much more common, obviously to avoid visual distraction between the lights and signage, and therefore where horizontal lights are much more common. My take anyway.
I live in Fort Myers, FL and I frequently drive through the intersection at 7:35. We had a LOT of signal damage from Hurricane Ian. The vertical signals took most of the damage but even some horizontals were as well. The county still hasn’t repaired them all. Also, to combat wind, Florida’s standard with span wire signals is to use two wires with heads attached to a metal brace between them.
Hello Neighbor! I live off Iona! I got so confused when they put the lights sideways a few years ago (am colorblind)... But finally got used to it! Hope you handled Ian OK!
on the west coast, the span wire signals have had top and bottom wires for a couple decades - but they still gallop pretty hard in strong winds. so next to no new span wire signals are installed.
@@kenbrown2808 Span wires sometimes handle wind better... The gallop, but wires can handle flexing better. Leaf in the breeze approach ;)
Oh, and howdy not quite neighbor, but close enough. The eye of Nicole went directly over where I'm at. Nothing like Ian, but reminder that it could happen.
@@travcollier sometimes leaf in the breeze is an improvement, sometimes it's not. I've seen a lot more broken span wires than I've seen broken crossarms.
@@travcollier -- The cost savings of the span wires are overwhelming. Moreover, the support poles can be placed much further off the right of way. That alone can save lives. My only problem is that they seem to $0.05 & $0.10 them rather than make them nearly bulletproof.
Very interesting. Thanks for making this informative and fun video. I've wondered about this since I was a kid living in Colorado and occasionally visiting New Mexico. I always thought New Mexico stop lights looked "weird." But living in New Mexico now for 13 years has reversed my perception of what a "weird" stoplight looks like. I'm sure the #1 reason for horizontal stoplights in New Mexico is WIND! We have LOTS of it.
Joyous for me to see these videos - as a kid I LOVED traffic lights but felt like an alien because I was the only one who noticed things like horizontal vs. vertical, or box vs. diagonal span wire. I spent a week with relatives in Florida and asked them why their traffic lights were so different, and everyone looked at me so confused. “What’s different?”
I am really proud of Nebraska's traffic signal infrastructure. The majority of wire-span signals you'll find are considered temporary. Most permanent structures are pole mast with cantilevers. Many stand-alone signals have been moved off of the islands, but a few can still be found in places.
The cantilever are a visual improvement but are a safety hazard. I grew up in a city with streetcars and the network of overhead wires is quite acceptable to me.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island also use horizontal traffic lights. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia do this as well but some towns and cities still do the traditional vertical ones too in those two provinces. Many East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan also use horizontal traffic lights.
because typhoons.
As someone from Quebec, horizontal trafic lights are extremely rare. I have almost excusivly seen vertical lights and can't even remember where i saw the last horizontal light
@@luminus3d They have horizontal lights in Gatineau.
@@luminus3d the only places in Quebec where I've seen vertical lights are Montreal and Quebec City. All roads belonging to the MTQ have horizontal lights as far as I know
@@IliasCheriet It seems random, i was paying attention lately and there are quite a bit more horizontal lights than i tought, especially on numbered roads. However there is still a lot of vertical lights. And in a lot of cases both vertical and horizontal are present.
As a Floridian from Fort Myers, I can confirm a lot of our stoplights are sideways. The wind is a major factor since we are very close to the coast and get a lot of hurricanes. Most recently, after hurricane Ian so many stoplights were just on the ground but there was still plenty of sideways lights in the air. I never really thought about how I don’t see sideways stoplights elsewhere in the country. Great video, thanks for some more information.
Hi neighbor! Fort Myers Beach here...well, hopefully back to my home this year. Living in Fort Myers until it gets rebuilt.
It's funny, on the east coast of florida the sideways ones are rare unless you're in a bigger city
Yea, its a little funny especially the light by the six mile cypress slew, it *was* a cable mount but now their replacing them with poles
I’m in Broward County on the Southeast coast (Ft lauderdale) . They started Putting lights mounted on poles horizontally after we were hit by Hurricane Wilma. In part because they lost so many hanging lights after Wilma that Cops had to spend too much time at major intersections directing traffic. I think it helps get businesses going again post storm. The other change they made then was requiring Gas Stations to have emergency generators so the pumps work even if electric is down.
hey! also a Floridian who lives in fort myers, i never realized that when i moved out of my hometown that a lot of the lights around here are sideways 😅 my college just barely dodged hurricane ian, but everywhere around here had messed up lights for months. the only ones not messed up were the sideways ones!
Wanted to share my appreciation for the colorblind issue. I had no idea other people also used the light position instead of the colors. This video helps a lot, since I didn't know there was "standard" for the lights direction, I always had to second guess myself when I come across a seemingly random horizontal light. Subscribed!
Surely it's a part of your driving test?!?
@@dzzope you overestimate the driving tests in this country lol
agreed
@@dzzope They give you that information in the driver's ed handbook, but I don't think it is necessarily part of the written exam you take in the DMV.
@@helpimnotdrowni They also have started making the green lights, a turquoise shade of green, to make them more colorblind-friendly. When a colorblind person has dichromatic vision, the turquoise color looks white, while the two other colors are indistinguishable. That way, a dichromatic colorblind person can still tell the difference between red and green lights.
Canada has also started implementing shapes to tell traffic signals apart, where the red is a square, the yellow is a square on an angle, and the green is a circle. I haven't seen how (if they do) tell apart the colors of protected turn-arrows. A square boarder for the red arrow and a circle boarder for the green arrow, would be my solution.
We love roads, and the road army will do whatever it takes to spread the love for roads.
To be honest I think this guy could make a video on paint drying, and I'd still watch.
He has a way with his presentation that just works.
Way to go road guy rob!
One of the best videos that you've ever made! I've always wondered about this, and it makes sense now. As for Texas, they get reeeeally windy in those areas without trees, so mounting them sideways in that state makes sense too.
It can, but if you center mount the signal, it's not much of a problem. Around here we've got transmission lines that get spoilers to help keep them from rising far enough to cause problems and even in those areas, I haven't noticed a difference in the signal orientation.
Traditional japanese used to be written in columns from right to left and a lot of things are still read that way (starting a manga from the rightmost page). I also love the use of beamng gameplay. I cant wait for more content from you.
Sideways traffic lights are quite common in Wisconsin too.
Where I grew up, in my state and the surrounding states, there were lights at the stop line before the intersection, and lights at the other side of the intersection so if you were the first couple cars in line, you could tell when it was green again.
When I went to college hundreds of miles away, they had lights only after the intersections, so with my unconscious expectation that 'traffic light pole means stop line is at start of intersection' or 'see red light, stop directly under red light', I went right into the intersection on a red light with the intention to stop at the only set of lights, which were after the intersection.
It happened to me again years later after having lived where I grew up again, and then moving to another state. That time I stopped about a third of the way into the intersection instead of going completely through it.
So that's an example of an unexpected change of standards between states/regions that can be a problem.
The production on these videos has gotten so much better. And the graphics and models really help 🙏
This is really interesting, I’ve lived in New Mexico most of my life and I always thought horizontal traffic signals were normal. It’s fascinating to find out that I live in one of four states that use this uncommon signal layout. The more you know!
In Texas, they also most have the horizonal mounted traffic signals as does New Mexico. In Arizona,, they have vertical mounted traffic signals.
Rio Rancho, New Mexico actually has a few intersections where there must arm signal heads are "properly" mounted vertically, with curved poles! Southern Blvd specifically, from Golf Course Rd to a business access just before the intersection of NM 528 and Southern Blvd, another set on Unser Blvd, at the intersections of Paseo Del Vulcan, and King Blvd. Finally, Paseo Del Vulcan and Broadmoor Rd. There's one on Unser Blvd two lights north of the Southern Blvd intersection. This is for those that follow Google Maps 😂
I get it. It's not something I've ever thought about, just adapted to it. I wasn't raised in New Mexico but have lived here for nearly 30 years. It's those little idiosyncrasies that we just ponder.
@@cali22boi Good grief, how much time do you have on your hands? And for the record, I've driven all those intersections more times than I care to count. FWIW, I live in ABQ, mom lives a couple of miles further down the way off of Southern after you pass the Walmart.
@@RonJDuncan I live in Albuquerque, so I have plenty of time to observe anomalies while driving around in the surrounding areas. In fact, Coors and Blake used to have vertical signal heads, including curved mast arms with 'J' curves found on the Sacramento area of California. Lastly, I'm from California, I worked for Caltrans, and many of the areas that are featured in his footage, I have frequented
8:18 Japan also drives on the left hand side.
You can imagine mounting the signal head on a tall pole on the edge of the road (not the middle) and bending it sideways over the road.
I wonder if the color positions have something to do with line of sights. In a left turn with a wall to your left, you would see the right signal first.
I live in Mexico and that's pretty common here.
Never thought it would be uncommon there
Usually there are two horizontal ones and one vertical mounted lower on the pole
I love how the presentation style this guy has makes me feel like I just woke up in a cold sweat at 3:30 in the morning on a school night and TruTV was on an old 24" Sanyo CRT TV.
7:57 - The rule for horizontal traffic light involves the RED being the furthest away from the curb. US is right-hand driving, so the RED is always on the left side (RYG); meanwhile, if the lights were mounted sideways in left-hand driving countries, the RED should be on the right like it is in Japan (GYR). This reduces sightline issues from overgrown tree branches or taller vehicles stopped on the curb lane, the same as the reason why RED is always on the top when mounted vertically.
Except for where we have two red lamps, on both ends (visit PEI! It’s lovely!).
Even here in RI we have some horizontally mounted signals and I always assumed it had to do with clearance and wind above all else. I think we got stuck in the vertical mentality from the days when the majority of intersections were the strung wire type; it only made sense then. When we started using rigid stanchions, we just kept them vertical and even started ridigly mounting the signal heads. It's like nobody stopped to think about the best way to handle mounting orientation through the many years of material and design evolution.
There's no reason why you can't mount a horizontal signal on cable, you just can't mount it above cable without a great deal of effort and probably a second set of wires.
It depends on if you want your signals across the road, or at the sides. It's cheaper to have a single vertical signal on a slim pole than having a thicker and longer pole that is shaped to hang over the street with multiple signals.
You obviously wouldn't do horizontal signals at the side of the road. That would just take up unnecessary space.
The orientation is considered by proper designers, but tradition and existing standards and laws mean that it isn't practical to change it.
ב''ה, as you should know in New England, the early days of motoring featured vertical signals on poles, sometimes mechanical, sometimes manually operated by a traffic officer.
Then, with electrification and all that, keeping the vertical shape of the signals then in use was a design goal for comprehensibility (and that vertical design could be made bottom heavy and thus somewhat stable once cheaply slung from wires).
I’m from New Jersey, and they are most common in some shore towns and city avenues. Occasionally near a highway overpass you will also see it due to obstruction. Still a rare oddity here though
Wisconsin used to have sideways traffic lights until last decade on their smaller poles. Only one light on each pole. I think Wisconsin still maintains and installs new sideways traffic lights on their smaller road projects, but not any large boulevards or avenues. I really miss the horizontal traffic lights in Wisconsin, they need to bring that back.
Thanks to UA-cam videos, I've discovered that there are sideways stoplights in places like Texas and Florida. I figured it must have to do with wind, so this video has been educational!
I’m familiar with Alabama and Louisiana, two of the “sometimes” sideways states. Mobile, AL is the only place in AL I’ve seen sideways traffic lights. They’re oriented that way in the downtown area to accommodate the tall floats to pass through the intersections during Mardi Gras. Back in the 90s they used to manually flip the lights sideways for carnival season. Then when they did a wholesale refresh of all the traffic lights downtown they permanently mounted them all sideways for uniformity.
I've also seen them near the Birmingham Airport. Presumably to alleviate jet wash.
I used to live near Mobile around that time and totally forgot about them flipping the lights! Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Seriously Rob, your animations are superb! And congratulations on getting that plaque to commemorate 100K subscribers! And keep on keeping us informed about peculiarities of our roads and signs and signals.
Thanks Roadway gentleman Robert! Good insight into an issue with personal meaning for me. It was also funny seeing several intersections from my home town there! Several of the Florida intersections had traditional lights up until just a few years ago!
It's fun to see a familiar intersection! And thank you very much for your generous contribution!
As someone who’s family is almost exclusively from Florida and Texas, we never noticed we were different
The LED era has been a big help for me, when I visit other states that have incandescent bulbs, I often can’t tell if it’s red or green.
I've always thought, just a theory, not a fact or knowledge, that the red light is on the side of oncoming (dangerous) traffic. Which is why in japan, a country where they drive on the left rather than the right side of the road, would put the red light on the right, as that is where the danger would be. In the US where the danger would come from the left, that is where they would put the red light.
Absolutely. Places where they drive on the left and have horizontally-mounted signal heads (e.g.: Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan) have green on the left and red on the right. Places where they drive on the right (e.g.: USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam and China) all have red on the left and green on the right.
Which is to say: red is always on the side closest to oncoming traffic, as you suggest.
The only exception I can think of is Sri Lanka, which is... weird. They basically don't seem to have any rules or consistency there regarding signal head orientation. Driving is on the left, but you will see signal heads mounted both Green→Red, AND Red←Green. Basically, if you're colour blind in Sri Lanka, you're gonna have a bad time.
Up here in Wisconsin, I thought it might be to allow the snow to fall out of the lens area so it doesn't obstruct the signal.
Snow packed by the wind doesn't fall out. I'm sure with LEDs, there also has to be a heater circuit.
@@mrcryptozoic817 Technology Connections has a video about that.
The protruding, curved bills above the lenses should keep out the majority of snowfall, rain, and sunshine (you can see some are massive or shaped oddly if it's known that the Sun can shine right at it).
The heat of incandescent lamps, or built in heating wires for LEDs, should take care of the rest.
@@AndrooUK When they first started using LED lamps for traffic lights, they didn't include any heating and blown snow buildup was a problem in some places. Yeah, not a hard problem to solve or anything
@@mrcryptozoic817 this was an issue when i lived in Wisconsin and LED stoplights were first introduced. apparently it was an oversight or not a warm enough heater for our cold weather and the lights would stay entirely obstructed by snow.
Rob I just want to say that you are one of my favorite UA-camrs. Super entertaining. Super educational. Super nice guy! Everything I want out of a UA-camr.
I can't afford a monthly Patreon payment but mark my words, if you're ever in Oklahoma City I will buy you a meal. You're awesome!
We got an OKC shoutout in the video! Loved seeing that
I live in Palm Beach County and I see them ALL! Span wire signals here are supported by 2 cables, one for wind resistance with a stabilizer arm between the top and load wire where the traffic signals are attached to. Those and even the new signal installations are all vertical. It’s rare to find a vertical set up, those are more in Broward and Dade
I've sometimes seen these used in Maryland when there's some sort of obstruction (such as an overhead bridge) that blocks the sightlines to the traffic lights until you get close to them, by having them horizontal, you can see all 3 lights earlier than if they're mounted vertically, although they're still quite uncommon. EDIT: I see RGR goes over this exact scenario at 5:43
A question I never ask but definitely happy to hear. And funny enough i used to live in Florida. For some reason I got used to it.
Edit 4:06-5:00 that's pretty frightening and cool
Edit 2 yeah even though it's good to design I remember that one intersection in Florida where I used to live one of the pole that hold the traffic light actually broke off. As a result they used wires with the traffic light temporarily with a horizontal way.
8:28 As a Nebraska resident, I noticed the video segment behind the Omaha tornado warning was of a Nebraska highway. Your attention to detail is amazing Rob! Please keep up with your incredible work! I hope to run into you the next time you're in the Cornhusker state!
I live in northern Canada, and we mostly use horizontal stoplights, too, but honestly, we use both types interchangeably. And I've traveled to many other parts of the country too and again it's usually a mixture of both types of stoplights throughout our towns and cities. I don't know why that is, but the reasons you've listed are probably the same for us in Canada, too.
I’ve only seen horizontal traffic lights in Québec.
@warwgn3 Alberta also does most of their overhead signals (except left turn signals) horizontal. In the US it tends to vary by state but some states like Florida vary by county but also can be almost random seeing them alternate on the street or using a mix of both at the same intersection.
I really enjoyed this video Rob. As many Hurricanes as we get in North Carolina, I'm really surprised we don't do this here (specifically in Wilmington and the surrounding coastal counties). The only place in North Carolina that I've seen a lot of the sideways traffic signals is in Morehead City, NC. Those are on the big mast arms like the ones in your video. 😎👍
0:02 LUBBOCK, TX!!
Gotta love Lubbock even tho it’s wild here lol
HELLL YEAHHH
Here in Quebec we also have sideways traffic lights with up to 9 lights in one cluster (two reds, amber, solid green, green left right and straight arrow that can also turn amber, bus lane light. A sight to behold.
You must have to stop at every intersection to figure out what to do.
@@mrcryptozoic817 Why would you have to stop if the light is green ?
@@timothyjohnston4083 You have to stop to figure out if you're disobeying one of the other instructions.
In Montreal there are flashing greens (!) which serve as a protected left turn.
East Asian horizontal writing is a mixed case. Up until Japan lost WW2 and had General McArthur run things and impose the modern way, a horizontal text is treated as a one-row vertical text, which is still written today, top to bottom, right to left. In that regard traffic lights there follow the old writing rule, vertical or horizontal.
So interesting, like always. When I moved to WI I remember thinking their horizontal stop lights looked weird. Now that I have been in this state for 30+ years, I have come to realize I haven't even noticed for the last 29 years which direction the stop lights were. I guess that is the idea. Great video!
In Canada, Alberta has horizontal lights and Saskatchewan does too, but interestingly in Saskatchewan, it depends where you are where you will see vertical or horizontal lights, in Saskatoon the lights are vertical, but in Regina they are horizontal. Quebec has some really weird looking lights that are horizontal, except in Montreal city limits you’ll see those. New Brunswick has those kind of lights too but it also depends where you are, and also, Prince Edward Island has those weird horizontal lights too. just wanted to give a Canadian perspective on this.
I appreciate this segment... I always wondered why some stop lights in other states are mounted horizontally... I live in Maryland, and ours are mounted vertical. I'm glad you gave me the information that was always intriguing to me.
They're also sideways in New Mexico, Wisconsin, parts of Louisiana, Nebraska and Peru, and in Japan and some other parts of Asia (but they go the other way, because most Asian counties drive on the left).
Maybe in terms of population (e.g., India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), but not in number of countries.
@@SYH653 So off the top of my head, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Macau, Hong Kong and East Temor drive on the left, while China, Vietnam, the Koreas and the Philippines drive on the right. I've never been to Borneo so I'm not sure which side they drive on there. But what other countries in Asia am I missing?
Light order definitely critical for us colorblind guys. There is a vertical stoplight in Tipperary Hill (Syracuse, NY) immortalizing the Irish heritage of the neighbourhood by putting Irish green on top of British red... A unique change spurred on by a bunch of constant vandalism a century back when traffic lights were first being rolled out. It's their claim to fame now!
I'm not sure why in the modern era the lenses aren't different shapes just to hammer it home for people with dyslexia.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Make the green light an upward arrow, maybe?
@@SmallSpoonBrigadeI don't think dyslexia would affect anything to do with this, but the Tipp Hill light has signs facing all approaches blatantly saying green's on top
@@scottwalker8021 Or copying the tram system: Horizontal bar (red), circle (yellow), triangle (yield to crossing traffic), vertical bar (green for straight), diagonal bar (green for turns).
@@HenryLoenwind
You can’t have vehicular traffic lights copy tram lights because sometimes those lights are along the same roads and at the same intersections. They need to be different to communicate actions to different groups. Like some intersections have regular traffic lights, then different lights for buses, and different lights for cyclists.
What's up with Rob always posting his new videos at 3:30am? 😂
Thanks for the vid, will check it out in the morning!
12:30 AM if you're on PST (West Coast)
@@MarloSoBalJr I am literally PST and was awake in bed at 3:30 am when he posted this
Went from Texas to Japan to Florida, back to Japan and then back to Texas. Had no clue other states had them arranged differently because literally everywhere I went was arranged like this.
thank you, rob and youtube algorithm. best video i’ve watched in a good while
As a "nerd," I don't really mind horizontal traffic signals. What annoy me is when some of the signal heads are horizontal and some of them are vertical (e.g. doghouse). GRRRR!
I live in Nebraska, and I wouldn't say that horizontal ones are _super common_ but I hadn't realized they're unheard of in other states. Another nice video!
We meet again...
Horizontal signals are basically unknown here in Minnesota. I can think of only one offhand that was done to make it visible with an unusually-tall grade crossing cantilever. I think there are some others out there done for clearance reasons, but they're exceedingly rare. We're getting some doghouses now, though...not sure what I think of them yet.
Meanwhile across the river in -Cheeseland- Wisconsin, 'trombone' signals with horizontal heads are reasonably common, though I think they're slowly being phased out in favor of vertical signals
@@ebnertra0004 Hi T!
The signal orientation here in Nebraska is pretty much up to the whim of the engineer/constructor. The horizontal ones tend to be more common in small towns.
I only get to Wisconsin once in a while, but their phasing out of the "trombone" signals is news to me. The prevalence of near-side signals was more shocking to me when I first went there, though.
I was told that traffic light order on horizontal heads depends on which side of the road the country drives on, so that the red light is always closest to the centre of the road as it's the most important signal. That may be why Japan has red on the right and green on the left.
In the UK (and probably much of Europe?) horizontal heads basically don't exist, and even overhead lights are quite rare, only really seen on large roads or where there's a steep downhill where you can't see the side-mounted lights from the further up the hill.
Just wanted to jump in and say, most of Europe drives on the right.
New Zealand, Australia and the UK all drive on the left, but where they use a horizontal signal, the order is still left-to-right.
Having grown up in NJ, there were a few horizontal signals where I lived where the signals were out in the open. So I can only assume that for cost considerations, the signals were mounted horizontally. When I moved to Florida, I rarely saw horizontal signals, but tons of vertical signals mounted on wires. After Hurricane Andrew, with many wired signals blown away, FLDOT began to require that all new or replacement traffic signals be mounted on poles.
What I would like to see you cover when driving in a car is traffic signals hidden by tall vehicles that you are following. When I lived in NJ, I always knew the status of a traffic signal in front of me because NJ installs additional signals on the opposing side of the street facing traffic coming the the opposing direction. So even if I was following a tractor trailer, I still could see the status of a signal by looking to my left. When I moved to Florida, I noticed that I started going thorough red lights when I had a tractor trailer or a bus in front of me. Florida still does not install additional signals on the opposing side of the street so drivers know the status of a signal in front of them when following a large vehicle. And now that I live in Tennessee, they are no better than Florida for knowing the status of traffic signals ahead when following a large vehicle. Although Tennessee will sometimes install a signal on the opposing side when a traffic signal is on a curve in the road.
ive only ever lived in Florida and Texas so the fact that this is weird was new to me
A sideways stoplight at my NY place would hold more snow during winter months. That's extra stress on the arm/wires especially when there is heavy "wet" snowfall, so they mount stop lights vertically which minimizes horizontal surface area that can accumulate snow.
A vertical stoplight at my TX place would, as mentioned in the video, be a problem with high winds when tornadoes come through, so they mount stoplights horizontally.
High winds are not an issue in NY. Heavy snow is not an issue in TX.
In Quebec which is just north of NY, we have heavy snow and we mount the signals sideways.
Interesting. Are they hanging lights or fixed to a rigid structure (e.g. pole/metal arm)? Our lights in CNY are hanging (on wires).
@@samshare2146 We always use two rigid structures on both sides. Swinging is not tolerated here.
Torrington, Wyoming has pretty much all horizontal traffic lights, so Wyoming should likely be included as mixed... or maybe not seeing Cali wasn't marked. Great video as always and definitely helps answer a question I've had since I first saw a horizontal traffic light a good decade ago.
That's cool, I didn't know that. I had family friends who lived at 25th and C like twenty years ago.
@@RoadGuyRob Oh wowow!! Yep. Not all of them are horizontal, but along main street they are. If I recall correctly, I made it a point to photo some of them when I visited the area a while back!
Wisconsin also does quite a few mounted horizontally, but I think they might be slowly phasing that design out
Yes they started phasing them out about 15 years ago. There are a lot left in some parts of the state.
that is only being done at interceptions that are controlled by WisDOT or certain counties. The City of Appleton still uses the standard horizontal signals at city street intersections. They are a sort of comfort thing, too. They tell me that I'm 'home'
@@mgk920 Ok I see here in SE Wisconsin they all use the vertical ones. The city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, The city of Waukesha Waukesha County ect. The only new horizontal setup that has been put up here in the last 10 years I am aware of is the one on Sunnyslope and Grange a rare instance in which it is sole jurisdiction of the city of New Berlin. I should mention that I noticed that the SE district is the only one that still does vertical lights on a singular assembly while the rest of the state keeps the old setup if it only has one light.
These videos are greatly underrated for all the effort that goes into them. Great work!
Here in Canada, there's more variation. In Quebec, PEI, and New Brunswick, the lights are horizontal with 2 square red lights on each end, then a yellow diamond second and a green round light third. Here in Alberta, as well as Yellowknife and Whitehorse standard round lights are mounted horizontally., although left turn signals are usually vertical. The rest of the country pretty much uses standard vertical lights.
I lived in Milwaukee most of my life, the lights are mounted horizontally. When I moved to Texas, I find it familiar, I appreciate it.
I really do feel the whole "it can be confusing" thing to be kind of absurd sometimes.. people need to learn traffic laws before they start driving
And the position of the 🔴Red signal is consistent. It isn't a guessing game anywhere.
Sometimes in nm the way they are done makes it impossible to know when you can turn left or not
Sometimes in nm the way they are done makes it impossible to know when you can turn left or not
You left out NYC. With many highways and elevated rail lines they had to put the lights horizontally while lights and the side of the streets are vertical. Some of this has disappeared over the years as some vertical lights have been mounted higher up on bridges so that their bottoms are as high or higher than the lower parts of the bridges.
Japan does write from right to left in the case of vertical text (which is quite common there), but I'm more curious about whether the order of the lights depends on the writing system or the driving direction.
It would be a problem for the rest of the Anglosphere that drives on the left, and for the Arabic-speaking world that drives on the right. These places would have conflicting factors that would govern which way to mount a horizontal traffic signal. If you were in the UK, would it make more sense to have red on the right as the danger side for oncoming traffic, or would it make more sense to have red on the left, since you read left to right?
Wisconsin has some horizontal traffic lights too
Hey Rob, Quebec also has horizontal traffic lights. In fact in some cases they have a square red stop light !! check it out.
The Japan thing isn't backwards, the red is still oriented towards the centerline of the road because they drive on the left.
Before watching, I assumed it was a wind thing when I visited Florida. Threw off the colorblind person I travelled with for a while, though. On the other hand, I was generally dismayed at how little the architecture I saw (Miami to Gainesville and back a different route) seemed at all prepared for high winds.
I'm in Louisiana where we get a ton of hurricanes. Our lights are vertical and buildings can't withstand storms anymore.
Considering the number of hurricanes that Florida gets, if the architecture is still intact / standing, then it was "prepared for high winds"...
Can you do a video on why traffic lights are different colors in different states? Like here in Pennsylvania they are yellow with a black border. In NJ and NY they are yellow without a border. In many places they are all black which I think can be very hard to see.
@jacobbaer785, yes, my county is starting to have those as well, especially in my town. I don't know what county you're in, but, Lancaster now has those colors on the signals.
I always thought it was to resist hurricane winds
In Miami all lights are horizontal
Not so common in the rest of Florida
Great points, Rob. Thanks for the vid.
In the UK, we generally have traffic lights off to the side or on the other side of a junction on a single post, so it's pretty much unheard of to see a sideways traffic light setup, especially with our love of pedestrian islands.
I'm familiar with both styles. I spent the first 16 years of my life in Chicago where all the traffic lights are vertical, then I moved to Texas where the lights are horizontal.
It was here in Texas that I learned how to drive, so horizontal traffic lights are normal to me. I had no idea anyone considered them "weird" or that they were mainly a Texas thing.
It is because all Floridians and Texans are lizards and don't see like us; we chickens can see in 2D, horizontally, and vertically!
You make good points. My view, horizontal mounting on metal arms is aesthetically more pleasing to my eye.
I live in Minnesota and just across state lines in Wisconsin all their stoplights are horizontal… I think Wisconsin may also be a mostly horizontal state.