What Do Your Stoplights Look Like?

Updated on October 05, 2011
S.T. asks from Denver, CO
24 answers

Weird question. I live in CO and our stoplights are all hung vertically. So green on the bottom, yellow in the middle and red on top. I was watching a show on the History Channel about how the states get their shapes. Very interesting. Anyway, they showed some video from a street in Texas and their stoplights were hung horizontally on the pole. Whoa! What are they like where you live? I thought this was so crazy! Perhaps people do things differently outside of my happy little Colorado box?? :)

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A.L.

answers from Austin on

We have them both ways here, too.

All over the world, though, one thing will be standard:
Red will always be either on top, or to the left. (This is something I had never noticed before, until my brother started driving. He's colorblind.)

2 moms found this helpful

J.W.

answers from St. Louis on

Most are vertical, sometimes they have to put them horizontal like for clearance or visibility issues and the like. I see horizontal a lot more in cities rather than counties.

2 moms found this helpful

H.S.

answers from Cincinnati on

Both. Some intersections have them vertical, and others horizontal. I've never really thought much about it.

2 moms found this helpful

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B..

answers from Dallas on

I saw that show!! It was quite interesting! I live in Texas, they are hung both ways here.

3 moms found this helpful
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B.C.

answers from Los Angeles on

Those of you with good color vision aren't affected by how they hang the stop lights, but to some color blind people it makes a big difference.

Sometimes I'll be driving down a city street at night and all of a sudden a street light will turn yellow and then I notice its at signal, not a street lamp.

In some places in the country they will have a blinking red or yellow light depending on who is clear to drive through and who has to stop. If I can't see a stop sign or see the lights placement in the three light set up, I almost always stop.

Good luck to you and yours.

3 moms found this helpful
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D.B.

answers from Charlotte on

.

2 moms found this helpful

L.U.

answers from Seattle on

They are hung both ways here too. More often they are vertically though. What really throws me though is when you drive through some cities and the lights are all the way on the right corner or the left corner. You are coming up to an intersection and it looks like there's no lights! I hate that.
L.

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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

Ours are mostly vertical but I've seen the horizontal ones in other places. Also, most of ours hang over the street. In my small hometown, they are only on the corners. One of my friends used to blow through red lights because he wouldn't see them. Other places, like DC, also have them on the sides.

2 moms found this helpful

R.B.

answers from La Crosse on

We have them vertically on poles on the side of the road. on the busier streets they are on the side of the road and on a pole with a long arm stretching across the road hung horizontally.

2 moms found this helpful

R.D.

answers from Richmond on

Depends on where you are... here, they're almost always hung vertically. I've been in places where they hang them horizontally for different reasons; they're on drawbridges or heavy traffic areas, or only use the lights Monday through Friday, stuff like that ;)

2 moms found this helpful
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M.G.

answers from Atlanta on

Wow - you are really observant - we lived in Colorado for 5 years and I never noticed that the stoplights were different.

1 mom found this helpful
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B.M.

answers from Dallas on

We LOVE that show....so interesting! They are hung both ways here, it depends on the intersection.

1 mom found this helpful
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C.S.

answers from Miami on

I am in South Florida and ours are all changing to be pole mounted across the street horizontal. It is because the wires break during hurricanes and the poles are supposed to stand up to hurricane force winds. They are horizontally attached to the pole with red on the left. I really hate them because they usually have them on both sides of the intersection. I find it confusing about where to stop as I am approaching but I know I have poor depth perception.

1 mom found this helpful
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☆.A.

answers from Pittsburgh on

99% here are vertical--like in your CO box. :)
Depending on the intersection *some* are sideways.

1 mom found this helpful

C.O.

answers from Washington DC on

Ours are the traditional stop lights hung vertically via pole in the middle of the intersection (20 feet up in the air)... Red at the top, yellow in the middle and green at the bottom.

I've been to places where they are hung horizontally and attached to poles on the side of the street...

1 mom found this helpful
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H.D.

answers from Dallas on

Yes, I live in TX and all the lights are horizontal. It took me a couple weeks to get used to it when we moved here but now I don't see it any different than when I was living in other states that had vertical lights.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.M.

answers from Denver on

I was vacationing in Washington state and found out they have their stop lights vertically and horizontally. We were so lucky that we didn't go through a red light with the horizontal lights - we caught it just in the knick of time. We got a good laugh out of it and became a little more cautious.

1 mom found this helpful
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K.L.

answers from Savannah on

I have lived in California and Georgia and they are all vertical, but my husband and I drove cross-country and we noticed the weird sideways lights when driving through Texas! In California, ALL of the lights are on poles, and as we drove to the east, more and more lights were hanging on wires instead . . . it freaked me out!

1 mom found this helpful

K.J.

answers from Chicago on

Almost all are verticle here in IL and in MN where I am from. I have seen a few horizontally hung ones in rural Wisconsin.

1 mom found this helpful

A.S.

answers from Iowa City on

We have all kinds. Mostly they are vertical and suspended over the street. Some are horizontal. Some are on poles on the side of the street. We also have some LED ones but those are being phased out because when the snow blows they become covered and do not get warm enough to melt the snow off. We have one t hat is a permanent green arrow which I think is strange.

1 mom found this helpful

L.A.

answers from Austin on

Bug is right.. we have them both ways depending on the traffic pattern.

1 mom found this helpful
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K.D.

answers from Denver on

We've traveled a lot, and it seems to be places prone to hurricanes hang them horizontally. Not sure why we don't for tornados here in CO, but maybe because we don't get the high force winds. Always fun to see the little things that can be so different!

1 mom found this helpful

T.K.

answers from Dallas on

either way is fine for me. what i do not like are the ones hung on a wire strung across the road. they sway in the breeze and i just know in this crazy Texas wind one of those cables is gonna snap and I'll have a red light on the hood of my car.

1 mom found this helpful
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E.C.

answers from Syracuse on

some parts of DC are the same way. it was always interested traveling from MD to DC. I really had to "look" to see the traffic lights otherwise I'd blow right through them!!

1 mom found this helpful
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