Square traffic lights
It's about time someone responded to the inefficient spitefulness of round traffic lights.
The shape of traffic lights has barely changed since they were invented—there have always been three round lights: red, yellow and green. Initially, the sections were round simply because this allowed the spherical bulp inside light the glass evenly.Today traffic lights use superbright light diodes that can be arranged in any way. And the sections are plastic, which also means any shape can be created.
Our idea is to produce square traffic lights. This can make the signals more easily noticeable and recognizable, with larger lit area for the same overall dimensions.
They're pitching the idea as a way for a city to distinguish itself without substantial extra cost.
Luxofor traffic lights design concept [Art Lebedev via DVICE]
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Well if you can make any shape wouldn't something like a star be a lot cooler than a boring square?
This will make current owners of the Scion xB, and upcoming Nissan Cube smile as they see their siblings on a post.
Why not follow Quebec's lead, and make the shape an extension of the meaning??
Red - the stop sign octagon
Yellow - warning sign lozenge/diamond
Green - circle
At night, you don't always get the positional context (the top/middle/bottom aspect) of the light, and so you are dependent entirely on the colour.
If we can make the things any shape we want, why not make useful shapes? I think colorblind drivers would welcome the additional information.
I call bullshit on ease of recognition and better visibility. Hopefully their customers are smart enough to demand hard data to back up those claims.
Position, being able to easily tell "the position" is extremely important. Many people like myself can not tell red from green.
Traffic lights also have round covers with open bottoms so birds cannot nest on them. The square covers sure look like a good nesting spot on the new ones...
I had always thought that one of the reasons that traffic light covers were round was to reduce the effects of drifting snow. Seems that these lights would just be obscured in a snowy city.
sexy lights!
I never understand how some people are employed to design useless things while the world has more urgent problems to solve. This should enrage those that are let go from more productive jobs.
I hope someone doesn't try to combine all the lights into one; not just for the colorblind, but that little bit of motion helps capture your attention.
Visually very nice design, but the snow/bird issue of the cover is pretty significant.
Having the lights differently shaped is probably a really good idea, could improve safety and visibility.
@anon
Design is never useless. It brings to light the problems with older designs and possibly the strengths as well. Of course, as I am studying usability I would say something like that. But a similar comment might have been said when some silly american decided to standardize the placement and function of pedals and levers on a motor car in the 1930s (if I recall correctly, rather than the 20s). Up until that point all kinds of interesting layouts had been used and had to be learned for each car type. Silly designers, trying to improve old things...
@11
sorry don't mean to sound like all design is useless. My point is the trend to design/re-design with diminishing returns is nonsensical when there exist plenty of problems with sub-optimal solutions that require attention.
I've seen similar post on BB of designs of new office cubicles, a new lamp , a new chair. If we could use the same man-hours on improving a battery's capacity , weight or space requirement, I think the world would be better served.
It reminds me of a "thisAmericanLife" episode where the interviewer talks to the manufacturer of mouse traps. The manufacturer says he gets tons of suggestions on how to design a better mousetrap, but in the end, the traditional ones works just as well and cost less to make and sells more.
Really, really stupid. As others have mentioned, the round design helps keep off show, and discourages nest building. The snow issue is exacerbated by the use of LED lights. Unlike the old filament lights, the LEDs don't generate enough heat to melt off the collected snow. Northern cities which recently switch to LEDs are now trying to come up with a solution for this. A flat shelf for snow to collect will only make the problem worse.
Just because you *can* change something doesn't mean you *should*.
What if they tilted the lights, rather than having covers? Of course, I'm assuming that the covers are to prevent glare and maybe they also protect the lights in some way that I'm not aware of.
as a colorblind driver, I agree with Chris S! Different shapes corresponding to different lights would be much more useful.
As a pidgeon, I have to say that this is the most wonderful invention I've ever seen. You don't know how many of my nests have been thwarted by the obscene roundness of traffic lights. A free dove bar to the good human who designed this!
I'd like to know exactly how round lights are less "noticeable" and/or "recognizable" than square lights.
Jeezarz. Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the traditional traffic light appreciation society. While we're at it get those damn kids of my lawn.
A really sweet design with a minimal profile that would significantly enhance modern architecture in countless urban environments.
@#13
While the massive amounts of energy wasted producing heat for traffic lights may serendipitously serve a purpose where it snows, in temperate climates the energy is just wasted. Wasted energy = bad.
The cost of replacing the entire traffic light unit is not insignificant. However, it is fairly easy to replace the incandescent lights with LED lamps in the same housing; I've seen it happen around me.
I'm also from the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" school of thought. If there is anything that's broken about current traffic light design, it's the issues encountered by colorblind drivers. This design doesn't direct address that, and introduces more problems (Snow, birds). Therefore, it is a poor design.
If you want a minimalist design, fine, I don't particularly care, but don't sacrifice functionality for aesthetics in safety equipment please.
Is this new? I remember seeing square traffic lights in Tucson back in the 1970s and 80s. They aren't still around, though.
Since LEDs can now be multicolor, we probably don't even need three separate lenses for red/yellow/green.
Maybe traffic lights of the future could be a single large circle (to keep away pigeons/snow) with red/yellow/green leds all in one, using easy to recognize international shape icons to help color blind folks, like red X's or bars for stop, and a green circle for go, and I dunno, alternating green circle/yellow X to warn of an impending red light?
Of course if more than a few LEDs blow out, the shapes might become unrecognizable. But with only one lens, LED density could be higher while still at a reduced cost.
And actually, if there was just one lens, then it would be OK for a square shape, cause snow/birds nests on top wouldn't block anything; there'd be no lenses above to block.. just like square walk/don't walk pedestrian signs which have been around for decades. For whatever reason, I can't ever recall seeing a bird's nest on one of those.
This concept faces a huge uphill battle in the US. There's a little thing called the MUTCD, Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. It's a federal document, but most states adopt it with few changes. Any agency that starts hanging unapproved devices is going to get to know the legal community very well...
That said, I LOVE Chris' suggestion #3. I think it has real merit, speaking as both a traffic engineer and a color challenged person.
They really need to be breast-shaped. People would pay closer attention to them, and by "people" I mean "dudes".
I second #4.
Why not take the square design but instead of putting a cover over all the lights, simply replace it with one larger cover?
That way you still get the extra visual space in the smaller housing, snow can build up, but only above the traffic lights and not in front of them and birds can nest, but again only on top so who cares?
Anyone point out any design faults in my 2 minutes of thinking?
They should have half of the display numerals, counting down the second left in the cycle.
Displaying the time left on cycles is a terrible idea.
If people know exactly when traffic lights are going to change it would cause all sorts of issues (running for yellow lights, stupid drivers revving their engines and gunning it the second the lights turn green, etc).
There's no real benefit and a crap load of bad consequences caused by shit head drivers.
Shit head drivers are still gonna drive like idiots. My town started installing red light cameras, and I would like to be able to know whether I can make a light, or I'm gonna have to slam on my brakes and possibly cause an accident.
cameras? no:
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/uploads/1/Phalanx-Close-In-Weapon.jpg
My mother would have to help my color blind father when they traveled cross country in the fifties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Colourblind_traffic_signal.JPG
The rules with orange lights are quite simple. If it's safe to stop you have to, if not you should continue on and you should never speed up to catch an orange. If you're having to slam on the breaks then either you weren't paying attention to the lights as you approached (because otherwise you would have a fair idea of when the green changed to the yellow) or you are travelling too fast.