Well you seemed to like the jacket, soā¦ Iāll keep it. I have a bit of a fascination with stop lights
(or traffic lights, if you prefer). They boil down to remarkably simple devices,
little more than indicators, but thanks to driverās education and the magic of the
human brain, they are remarkably effective at safely controlling traffic at intersections. Well, most of the time. Now, thereās so much to get into regarding
traffic lights. Traffic engineering is a fascinating subject
which I donāt feel qualified to discuss, but thereās quite the rabbit hole to fall
into. This video is about a simple but groundbreaking
innovation in the traffic light and the lessons it can tell us about innovation in general. This is about the LED traffic light, and the
caution of ābut sometimesā. I live in an area of my town thatās not
terribly well traveled. Though there are many 4 lane roads with speed
limits of 35 to 40 miles an hour, the traffic volume honestly doesnāt often justify having
two lanes in each direction. Many of the stop lights in this area have
been neglected, and are still using good-āol fashioned incandescent bulbs with colored
glass lenses. Actually, some are so old that they still
have the written text āWALKā and āDONāT WALKā in their pedestrian signals, and there
are even a few that use the old 8 inch lenses for the green and yellow lights, with only
the important red light getting a full 12 inch lens. Granted, these stop lights have had their
control systems upgraded over the years. There are vehicle presence detectors embedded
in the road surface to alter their timing and behavior, and they are equipped with photocells
to detect the tuned strobe light on emergency vehicles and stop traffic in opposing directions. And some have even had countdown timers added
to the pedestrian signals. But the fixtures themselves have remained
mostly unchanged. They are still the same incandescent traffic
lights that may very well have been in place for a good number of decades. I should add that vehicle presence detection
has been around long before the LED traffic light, and itās very likely these intersections
have the same control equipment theyāve always had. But in any case, the fact that they are still
using incandescent lamp technology... is a little odd. Setting aside the nostalgic or aesthetic reasons
to prefer an incandescent stop light (Iāll admit the fade-in fade-out as each light changes
states is charming), the LED traffic light is just objectively better in nearly every
respect. For example, Incandescent stoplight fixtures, because they
are designed to be opened to replace the bulb, typically get dirty on the inside over time. And it seems the technicians who replace
the lamps often donāt seem bothered to clean the lenses or reflectors. This leads to many lights with a dull appearance
thatās hard to see in bright sunlight. This obviously isnāt great, and is actually
kinda dangerous, but whatever. The LED light, on the other hand, is completely
sealed. In fact... hereās an LED traffic light module. Yes, they really are this big, they just seem
much smaller when theyāre grandstanding on their pedestals or hanging up high in the
air . These are designed with the ability to replace the lenses in existing incandescent
lights and function as a retrofit device, as well as simply be the default standard
for new traffic light installations. Because the entire module is replaced if needed,
it can be completely sealed. LED lights thus donāt end up looking like... that. These LED modules use about a 10th the energy
of the incandescent lights they replace, which is not only great for energy savings, but
it means battery backups for the lighting control system can keep the intersection controlled
for hours even during a blackout. And of course, they last so much longer than
the light bulbs in an old fashioned fixture do. This 116 watt light from Sylvania only lasts
8,000 hours, which may seem like a lot, but assuming a roughly 50/50 on time for green
and red, that wonāt even cover two years. And since pretty much every intersection has
at least 2 lights visible in each direction, thereās a total of at least 16 of these
bad boys in a very small intersection, not including yellow. This would mean that a light will go out about
every two months, and let me tell you, thatās remarkably in line with how often I see a
light go out at any given intersection. In fact, on the day I left to start taking
photos of the stoplights around me like the big āol dork that I am, this light burnt
out. Granted, there are two other lights providing
redundancy, but they're also really dirty and hard to see anyway. I went out again a few days later to take
some photos I had forgotten to take, and now this light is also out. What fun! At this one intersection, including all arrows,
pedestrian signals, and standard orb indicators, there are 94 lights just waiting to burn out. Conversely, you almost never see an LED stoplight
with a signal thatās out. They last so long that itās a very rare
occurrence. It does happen, itās not like they last
forever. But even when they do fail, some designs donāt
even fail all at once, with this module still mostly functional save for some dead diodes. In the past two years, Iāve only seen one
LED light completely fail anywhere, whereas Iāve seen about a dozen lights go out just
in my neighborhood. Now, I canāt tell you why my local streets
and sanitation department (or whatever agency is tasked with maintaining these specific traffic controls) hasnāt invested in retrofitting these stoplights with LED replacements. Theyāre just an odd holdout, I guess, or
perhaps they think itās cheaper to just do things as they are. News flash-- it isnāt, because if these
lights do use 116 watt bulbs, then with pedestrian signals included, at any given time the intersection
is using around a kilowatt and a half (or more), meaning it costs about $3.60 to operate
daily assuming average rates in Illinois. Add to that the cost of relamping the fixtures
every two years , or far more likely the reactionary maintenance when a lamp fails multiple times
a year, and it seems really foolish to still be using these traffic lights as they are. Especially because these modules typically
end up on eBay or elsewhere for about $10 each. I donāt know how much they cost new from
the manufacturer, but I canāt imagine theyāre terribly expensive. But, when the LED stoplight first made its
way onto the scene, one of its central advantages became a disadvantage. See, because the good āol incandescent bulb
is so terribly inefficient, it spews a lot of heat out all sides and kept the fixtures
toasty warm. This had the lovely side effect of keeping
snow and ice from building up on them in cold climates. Many municipalities started discovering that
their new LED fixtures, which are 10 times more efficient and thus release just 10% the
heat, didnāt do that. In bad snow storms with high winds, it is
very possible for the snow to make its way past the visor and stick to the face of the
stoplight. Not producing enough heat to melt this snow,
the LED stop light might become impossible to see in this scenario. This caused quite a few accidents, some of
which were regrettably fatal. However, if the drivers at fault remembered
their driverās education, a stoplight that isnāt indicating should be treated as a
stop sign, turning the intersection into an all-way stop. But people are stupid, so accidents happen. As you may imagine, the news reports started
flooding in. āEnergy efficient stop lights cause accidents!ā āThese new LED stoplights canāt melt snow!ā āThe green revolution know no bounds--cold
traffic lights leave drivers confused!ā Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The really stupid articles pointed out that,
while a solution might be possible, it would eat into the energy savings presented by the
LEDs. That is a really dumb argument, as weāll
discuss momentarily. I even recall a news report when I was younger
suggesting that a heated surface would use MORE energy than an incandescent traffic light,
so really, whatās the point?! This is the danger of āBut sometimesā. It goes a little something like this: The
LED stoplight is more energy efficient, costs less to operate, requires less maintenance,
can allow for a feasible battery backup solution, lasts longer, are brighter and easier to see
(particularly in direct sunlight) BUT SOMETIMES snow and ice builds up on them, so clearly
they are bad. Ugh, this makes me so disappointed in humanity! When thereās a new innovation which changes
how we do things for the better, its benefits are obvious. The LED stoplight is a perfect example. It allows stoplights to better accomplish
their rather important task of being visible, makes them more reliable than (and with battery
backup makes them functionally superior to) an incandescent light, and saves municipalities
thousands of dollars, with Wisconsin reporting in 2009 that they save $750,000 in energy
costs annually, which isnāt even mentioning maintenance costs. However, when the āBut Sometimesā rears
its ugly head, people tend to freak out. Suddenly, all those benefits go away, because
in this one particular facet of stoplight functionality, the wasteful and maintenance-heavy
incandescent lamp is accidentally superior. Suddenly, when the new solution presents a
new problem, all we think about is the problem. Which leads to the truly stupid part of this
argument. But Sometimes occurs only some of the time! Itās a sometimes! Articles that complain about a potential solution
requiring more energy, and thus reducing the efficiency of the new LED stop light, just kinda gloss over
the fact that on every day itās NOT snowing, the issue is completely irrelevant. Sure, if we add heaters to the LED module
to melt snow it might need more power, but only when itās snowing, dingus! It wouldnāt take too much imagination to
enable wireless control of an intersectionās stoplights to turn on the heaters while it
snows. Even if the lights used a bit more power while
the heaters are on, the other 300 days of the year when itās NOT snowing donāt just
go away. It doesnāt take too much thinking to realize
that it's still saving a lot of energy over the long run. And again, the traffic light is not at fault
when an accident occurs. All drivers know (or at least should know)
that a malfunctioning traffic light means you must stop and proceed with caution. But we trust people so little on remembering
this simple procedure that nearly every intersection has a folded up stop sign ready to be deployed
when the traffic lights fail. Iām not opposed to that, I think itās
a good idea, but in reality it shouldnāt be necessary. Also, in personal experience, a snow storm
severe enough to cause buildup on the traffic light lenses is pretty out of the ordinary. Iāve never personally encountered a traffic
light thatās completely obscured with snow. Iāve seen some partially, but never enough
to make the signal impossible to distinguish. After all, there are pretty big visors over
the lenses, so itās got to be a real blizzard to cause a problem. And really, in those conditions, you should
just avoid driving altogether. This isnāt to say that the problem doesnāt
happen. Surely it does. But come on, itās not frequent at all. Now, the correct response to the ābut sometimesā
is to account for that sometimes and solve the problem. One potential way that doesnāt use any energy
is through an altered visor with a scoop on top designed to redirect wind to flow across
the lens and blow snow off of it. But for those wanting a more high-tech solution,
well take a look at this. General Electric now sells what they call āGTX Flex LED
Heated Shellā. These traffic light modules have defroster
wires across their face, just like the rear window of your car. Whatās more, they have sensors
onboard measuring temperature and humidity to determine when icing conditions are likely
and automatically switch on the heaters. The spec sheet says these heaters use only
30 watts, which means even when they are all on, a three-light traffic light is using less
power than a single incandescent bulb. Not much less, but I must remind you that
the need for the heater is rare, and only a sometimes. It looks like this is a relatively new product,
with the site touting it as NEW and the copyright date on the spec sheet being 2016. So it seems we got along well enough without
this innovation for, uh, for a while. Probably because people realized how infrequent
the problem actually is, but anyway--the problem has been solved. The ābut sometimesā is now a never. The moral of this story is that when faced
with a unique, unforeseen, or difficult problem that comes about as a result of doing things
in a different way, donāt just give up! Itās beyond foolish to fly in the face of
progress, especially when the result of the progress is so obviously better, just because
thereās a tiny little sometimes maybe issue that we havenāt had before. Iāll bet you no municipality that has switched
to LED traffic signals wants to go back to the old way of doing things. But thatās what news articles and media
coverage like this seem to advocate for. Now, obviously I donāt want us to not acknowledge
problems. That would be silly. But when discussing these problems, we need
to look at them from all sides. Just how bad is the problem, really? How often does it occur? What would we be giving up if we abandoned
our efforts, and should we abandon them? What can we do to combat the problem? Does the problem need a technical fix, or
do we need to re-educate people and adjust their behavior? Perhaps the problem isnāt so much a problem,
rather itās a need for change elsewhere. But for goodness sake, we need to work to
solve the problem. Every innovation has changed how we do things
in some way. Thatās the very idea of progress. Sometimes this change brings new issues to
light, and may bring inconveniences from time to time. But I donāt think this should be seen as
a reason to stop progress. I hope that as new technologies and innovations
become available that provide us advantages just as the LED traffic light has that we
donāt simply focus on the new problems they might create. Together, we should be asking how to solve
those new problems. When we ask that question and work towards
the answers, we can truly make progress. Ok, so thereās some other stuff I want to
bring up real quick. First, Iām officially launching my second
channel. Head on over to Tecnhnology Connections 2
if youād like to see whatās on the inside of one of these LED modules. Iāve always been a little curious. Donāt, uh, donāt go over just yet, hang
on a sec. Ok, well hereās a card, but the endscreen
will have it, too. And thereās a link down below. One thing that Iāve noticed change about
traffic light behavior is the timing of the right turn arrow. I realize this whole video has been from the
perspective of the US, where we drive on the right and our traffic signals look like, well like that and all the things youāve been seeing in the video, so maybe this isnāt a thing in other
countries, and honestly this could be a regional thing within the US. But at intersections where there are both
left turn only and right turn only lanes, the right turn lane will typically get a green
arrow while the opposing traffic gets a protected left, because no one will be coming from the
left hand side going straight across. It used to be very common for the green arrow
to light up as soon as the the yellow light appeared, which was great because it meant
if you were turning right, you knew that you could just proceed even though forward traffic
was about to stop. Most intersections these days seem to wait
until the opposing traffic gets their protected left before illuminating the right turn arrow,
which means you need to stop before you actually get that arrow. I suppose this might be a safety thing, but really
I canāt see how much safer it is because pedestrians would not be entering the intersection
at all while thereās a protected left because vehicles will be crossing their path no matter
which direction they are going. And itās really annoying in this age of
distracted driving, because some drivers see the light turning red, come to a stop, and
then look at their phones without realizing there's a turn arrow now illuminated. If the arrow were already lit, they could
have just kept going and annoyed someone elsewhere Going back to my particular townās situation,
thereās one intersection near me thatās an absolute hodge podge of stuff. Almost nothing matches anymore in this intersection. There are individual LED retrofits among incandescent
lights, such as this pair of signals where there is only one LED signal among the 10
total lights. But most amusingly, the pedestrian signals
are almost all completely different. There are still some old written Walk/Donāt
Walk signs combines into a single fixture, then thereās the newer pictographic signals with the talk to the hand and the walking
white guy, then thereās an LED version of the same thing with two distinct shapes, and
thereās an LED signal where the shapes are combined, and finally thereās ONE that has
a countdown timer. That strikes me as particularly odd because
it means the controller for this intersection is capable of driving a countdown timer, so
clearly it has been updated within the last decade or two, but there are some comparatively
ancient fixtures here. I realize this style of light where there
are multiple diodes right at the face that fail over time is kind of an old style at
this point. Most newer traffic lights are like these,
where they are designed to mimic how incandescent fixtures look. In fact, GE calls these āincandescent lookā. Thatās part of why I want to check out the
innards of one of these. I doubt thereās a single 10W LED chip in
here, so I would imagine they also donāt necessarily fail all together, but it would
be a lot harder to tell if itās failing at a glance. I glossed over the vehicle presence detection
a little bit and just showed what it looks like, and sometimes this isnāt even visible. Generally, there will be a loop of wire embedded
below the road surface that's designed... (camera beeped) Really? I glossed over the vehicle presence detection
a little bit and just showed what it looks like, and sometimes this isnāt even visible. Generally, there will be loops of wire embedded
below the road surface that are designed to detect a change in their magnetic field brought
about by a large metal object above them (such as a vehicle) You can often see these, particularly if they
were added to an already existing road surface. Sometimes youāll notice them way far back
from the intersection, and by adding them here the traffic control system can count
how many vehicles are approaching and thus how much time is needed for them to cross
the intersection. Thereās some pretty clever thought going
into all these systems. Oh, and sometimes youāll see cameras up
where the traffic signals are, and some of these are used for presence detection using
computer vision. Also, the emergency vehicle detectors are
a pretty neat thing that perhaps you know how they work, but Iāll tell ya anyway. I said ātuned strobe lightā earlier. What I mean by that is that emergency vehicles
have a single white strobe light, often in the center of their light bars, which flashes
at a very specific frequency. Itās often hard to see on video because...
strobe lights and video just donāt really get along, but itās this one here
on this ambulance. The traffic light controller is looking for
a signal at that specific frequency coming from the photocells up top, and when it sees
it it will begin stopping traffic. These white indicators are used to confirm
to the driver of the emergency vehicle that the signal was received and that opposing
traffic is being stopped. In Illinois, where I live, the lights will
flash in the direction the emergency vehicle is coming from, and they will illuminate steadily
for opposing traffic to warn them an emergency vehicle is coming. Interestingly, this isnāt really taught
in driverās ed, and the lights donāt have any sort of sign to explain their purpose,
but hopefully enough people have figured this out to make them useful. Lastly, for those towns who like the charm
of these old 8 inch stop light fixtures, youāll be happy to know that GE (and probably others,
too) make LED retrofits for these. So come on, guys. Letās get with the program. Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the
video! If this is your first time coming across the
channel, please consider subscribing. As always, a HUGE thank you to supporters
on Patreon! Your support is what keeps these videos coming. If youāre interested in supporting the channel
too, please check out my Patreon page! Thanks for your consideration. Alright, so if you would, head on over to
Technology Connections 2, and itād be super great if youād subscribe there! Iāll be putting more extra content up there
as time goes on. Iāll see you next time!
Awesome video. I love these in-depth videos about stuff I never even think about. And it also touches on a bigger issue in today's society.
I really learned a lot in this video. Great share. Thank you.