A cold front blew through two nights ago, knocking out power with freakishly-strong wind gusts. Police all over the city were directing traffic through dark intersections. As I drove through my third dark intersection, I questioned why we were tying up police officers in a dangerous job like directing traffic when efforts could be better spent getting the traffic lights up quickly.
Police could arrive with a small generator which could be plugged into the box to provide temporary power to the intersection’s traffic lights. Perhaps chaining the generator to the nearest telephone pole.
An officer could remain at the intersection to monitor the generator but could do so from the safety of the patrol car, where the officer could catch up on paperwork if need be. Or, the officer may be free to respond to other calls provided the generator is secured and properly fueled.
This plan would not only help move traffic along, it would make the officer safer by taking them out of the intersection. Most importantly it would free officers to respond to other calls, as any weather strong enough to knock out power is likely strong enough to cause accidents, fires, and the like.
I wonder what it would take to make this work.
but…but….when would they get to use those really cool vests and wow us with those crazy hand signals?!?!?!?11!!!!!
How about just a UPS and then just automatically switch them to blinking red all ways?
Because you likely need 1600 watts per intersection (four lanes each street = 16 bulbs @ 100 watts). A UPS wouldn’t last long enough on its own.
Dude, most street lights are LEDs now. They wouldn’t need nearly that much power.
Mark,
Great idea, but what about generator theft. I guess you could secure it to the light pole. It would not take but 2-3 power outages for the generators to pay for themselves. Most of the time the power would be back on line before the fuel ran out of the gen.