I went to Europe for three weeks this summer, and when I came back these little white diamonds (some with large antennae) were installed on many of the intersection lights in my city. What are these things?
Oh, and these aren't painted. They're actually installed onto the traffic light poles.
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If it’s a diamond painted in the roadway, then it usually implies some sort of car-pool lane or bus-only lane.
If the diamonds are painted within the actual intersection, it usually means “don’t block the box”, which warns people not to get caught in the intersection when the light turns red. Otherwise it can cause gridlock.
As far as a diamond on the actual traffic light, I have no idea. It might be some sort of remote traffic monitoring system with cameras installed, or a camera that catches red-light runners.
I think that they may be signal receivers for emergency vehicles. If an emergency vehicle approaches the intersection and has a transmitter on it, the receiver on the light pole can force the traffic light to go to green so the vehicle doesn’t have to wait at a light.
they’re sensors for emergency vehicles and some cities have sensors set to a certain speed to change the lights for oncoming drivers.
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