LED traffic lights - are they a distraction for train drivers?

[londonmidland]

Something I’ve noticed over the last few years of new LED traffic light installations is that they are getting increasingly brighter as technology advances and can be seen from quite a few miles away at night, depending on viewing angles and positioning. With it getting darker earlier now as we head into winter, this is something I’ve been thinking about more and more.

Now, a train driver should obviously ’know’ where their next few signals are located, but I wanted to ask, do they ever cause any confusion from a distance? Especially when the traffic lights and signals can seem to be at the same height and are placed next to one another.

Also, to my untrained eyes, the actual colour temperatures between LED signals and LED traffic lights seems to be almost the same, if not identical? Unlike the older incandescent traffic lights, which are a lot dimmer and less vibrant in colour.

 

[Maxfly]

Something I’ve noticed over the last few years of new LED traffic light installations is that they are getting increasingly brighter as technology advances and can be seen from quite a few miles away at night, depending on viewing angles and positioning. With it getting darker earlier now as we head into winter, this is something I’ve been thinking about more and more.

Now, a train driver should obviously ’know’ where their next few signals are located, but I wanted to ask, do they ever cause any confusion from a distance? Especially when the traffic lights and signals can seem to be at the same height and are placed next to one another.

Also, to my untrained eyes, the actual colour temperatures between LED signals and LED traffic lights seems to be almost the same, if not identical? Unlike the older incandescent traffic lights, which are a lot dimmer and less vibrant in colour.

Certainly the traffic lights in Inverness for rose street roundabout when they were newly installed had to have various changes before the hoods they currently have were fitted due to drivers advising the green from them looked like it came from the next signal they were looking for as they approached rose street curve. The traffic lights were switched off for a while till it was resolved.

 

[alxndr]

One of the things that gets considered when carrying out signal sighting is whether there are any conflicting or ambiguous extraneous lighting, which would include such things as traffic lights (or the old incandescent street lights which tend to have a yellow hue).

That said, i have done the inverse in my car where I've started slowing for some traffic lights in the early hours of the morning before realising that I was reading across to the railway signals.

 

[androdas]

I remember a tale locally a while ago of of a car driver stopping at signal BN12 approaching Bedlington at night for a while and also calling it in to the council as a faulty traffic light stuck on red!

Street view of signal https://www.google.com/maps/@55.143...2e0!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&hl=en&entry=ttu

 

[Skoodle]

The only distraction I've had is entering West Croydon (southbound). There is a bridge just behind the signal protecting the station, and directly in line of sight is a pedestrian crossing. Sometimes I'll see the green man start flashing when I'm concentrating on the red. It was a distraction at first but easily ignored now.

 

[swt_passenger]

Something I’ve noticed over the last few years of new LED traffic light installations is that they are getting increasingly brighter as technology advances and can be seen from quite a few miles away at night, depending on viewing angles and positioning. With it getting darker earlier now as we head into winter, this is something I’ve been thinking about more and more.

Now, a train driver should obviously ’know’ where their next few signals are located, but I wanted to ask, do they ever cause any confusion from a distance? Especially when the traffic lights and signals can seem to be at the same height and are placed next to one another.

Yes they can, and once you start looking, you will find there are locations with fairly significant precautions to prevent accidental sighting of road signals by drivers. A good example near me is the down side of the cutting next to Fratton station, there is a high fence extending above the cutting side on the left to mask out the road junction at the south side of the railway.

Above the 450’s cab in this screen grab from Google Streetview: