SignalTraffic Forums

by **blecha67** on Thu May 28, 2009 8:43 am

3liteguy wrote:What's next? Why don't we have a signal that has a man sneezing with a hand over his mouth?

Thats probably coming soon, for hospital areas..

by **Nevada Willis** on Thu May 28, 2009 10:23 am

Next all new vehicles will have to have pedestrian catchers installed in their grille work. Hello! Look out for cars! Anyone heard of Charles Darwin? :doh:

by **Macsignals** on Thu May 28, 2009 10:43 am

Nevada Willis wrote:Next all new vehicles will have to have pedestrian catchers installed in their grille work. Hello! Look out for cars! Anyone heard of Charles Darwin?

There's not enough chlorine in the gene pool!

Ian A.

by **Buttoncopy** on Thu May 28, 2009 6:21 pm

Nevada Willis wrote:Next all new vehicles will have to have pedestrian catchers installed in their grille work. Hello! Look out for cars! Anyone heard of Charles Darwin?

Honda is all proud of themselves because the were one of the first automakers to make the hoods of their cars catch or cushion the pedestrian.

I don't want to sound like a D)#K but F' EM. I don't want my car extra bent up because some idiot crosses Roosevelt BLVD AKA US1 at any palce but the corners.

I Own a Honda Accord Coupe BTW.

And as an asside so many people have been killed on Rt1 in Philly (Mainly because they are freakin Idiots it is 12 lanes wide) because they don't respect existing crossings and cross wherever they want to.

Sorry for the Rant!

YouTube · by **signalkid1** on Thu May 28, 2009 9:23 pm

Now signals really ARE watching you :shock:

by **Macsignals** on Thu May 28, 2009 10:47 pm

Tony you could not be more right. The same happens a lot with NJ Route 37 in Toms River, the DOT even put a chain link fence down the median. No matter, the idiots cross where they want and walk to a break in the fence that some idiot in a car created!

Ian A.

by **RYGDWW** on Sat May 30, 2009 9:21 am

We have several in downtown St. Petersburg. Ron Van Houten led some pedestrian safety research for the city about a decade ago and came up with the concept...as a reminder to look both ways before crossing. The prototypes here were blue LEDs (white LEDs hadn't quite made the marketplace) and were pretty hard to see.

Pete / RYGDWW

Van Houten, Ron et al., Use of Animation in LED Pedestrian Signals to Improve Pedestrian Safety, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Arlington, VA, 1998.

by **wilek209** on Sun Sep 25, 2011 5:43 pm

I apologize for reviving a two-year-old thread, but I happen to know about some of these signals, even though I have never seen one in person. They were first originally made by the Relume Corporation. I don't think they make any kind of traffic signal anymore. This was how the standard model looked:

They made them with special hi-intensity blue LEDs for the walk symbol and the eyes; some came with white LEDs instead. There was also a version for dual 12-inch square configurations. IDK how it was set up; I'm guessing maybe the hand and man were both on the top, and the eyes on the bottom (I believe they also made a separate eyes module to add to existing pedestrian signals.)
Here's a later variation that also included a countdown timer, near the end of this signal's life:

(No, it is NOT a photo manip, I saw a couple other pics and showed this was real.)

I can see why these signals did not last very long. They did seem rather distracting, and I guess they never caught on the way countdown signals did.

But as for warning about the possibility of turning vehicles, don't some places like Washington D.C. have the walk indication flash instead of being on steady, as a warning for pedestrians to watch for turning vehicles? That actually seems rather effective.