They don’t burn out as fast though, which means you don’t have traffic lights that don’t work every 12-18 months. Except in localities where there is a lot of big snowdrifts on traffic lights (e.g. heavy snowstorms), they make a lot of sense, and there are probably nearly as many accidents from traffic lights that are out than from traffic lights that are obscured.
They make sense in any case. I’m just pointing out that new technology isn’t always a drop-in replacement for old.
The most common early traffic signals were hand-cranked, and uses signs instead of electric lights. I’m sure snow was a problem then too, but since someone had to be there to crank it anyway, there was always someone to notice the problem and correct it manually. But it has been a self-correcting problem ever since the modern electric-light version became common, so people forgot about it. Now, since it’s no longer self-correcting, they’re rediscovering it.
They don’t burn out as fast though, which means you don’t have traffic lights that don’t work every 12-18 months. Except in localities where there is a lot of big snowdrifts on traffic lights (e.g. heavy snowstorms), they make a lot of sense, and there are probably nearly as many accidents from traffic lights that are out than from traffic lights that are obscured.
They make sense in any case. I’m just pointing out that new technology isn’t always a drop-in replacement for old.
The most common early traffic signals were hand-cranked, and uses signs instead of electric lights. I’m sure snow was a problem then too, but since someone had to be there to crank it anyway, there was always someone to notice the problem and correct it manually. But it has been a self-correcting problem ever since the modern electric-light version became common, so people forgot about it. Now, since it’s no longer self-correcting, they’re rediscovering it.