Flashing lines on Traffic signals

Apologies if this is a repeat...I searched for a thread on this and couldn't find one.

In my city, several of the traffic lights have thin white flashing lines across the red lights. Not all of the lights in a certain part of town have them, so it doesn't appear to be just a local standard. The places where they are aren't typically high traffic areas, either.

The first one appeared approximately 15 years ago, but now there are no fewer than 50.

Anyone have a theory as to what these are? They don't appear to be related to any type of recording (filming light runners, etc) since there are cameras in plain view near them, nor are they a flash for the camera since they occur all day. The lights existed in the past without the "line" and it was clear that they were not part of the original construction of the light because you can see the wire on the outside of the bulb.

As a reference, I'm not referring to this: www.youtube.com... which I have seen elsewhere but not in my area.

Anyone else noticing this?

They draw attention to the red light and are typically added to lights that have a history of being missed. The flashing light is simply a strobe.

reply to post by el_topo


It's for specially equipped emergency vehicles, to change the light to green for them.....

Approaching emergency vehicles (primarily Fire Department vehicles and ambulances) can override the normal pattern of traffic signals in some circumstances. Both the emergency vehicle and the traffic signal must be equipped with the appropriate devices, and only some cities and certain intersections have such devices installed. One of the most common is the "Opticom" system, basically recognized as a very fast-flashing white strobe light mounted at or near the top of the emergency vehicle (not the "wig-wag" flashing high-beam headlights). A small receiving unit mounted on the traffic signal pole receives the "strobe code" and turns traffic lights green for the approaching emergency vehicle and red in all other directions.

www.wikihow.com...

(Down nearer bottom of page...beneath the talks about the induction sensors embedded in the streets....)

en.wikipedia.org...

Strobe lighting can trigger seizures in photosensitive epilepsy. An infamous event took place in 1997 in Japan when an episode of the Pokémon anime, Dennō Senshi Porygon, featured a scene that depicted a huge explosion using flashing red and blue lights, causing about 685 of the viewing children to be sent to hospitals.[3] These flashes were extremely bright strobe lights.

Most strobe lights on sale to the public are factory-limited to about 10-12 flashes per second in their internal oscillators, although externally triggered strobe lights will often flash as frequently as possible. At a frequency of 10 Hz, 65% of affected people are still at risk. The British Health and Safety Executive recommend that a net flash rate for a bank of strobe lights does not exceed 5 flashes per second, at which only 5% of photosensitive epileptics are at risk. It also recommends that no strobing effect continue for more than 30 seconds due to the potential for discomfort and disorientation.

Mind control man.


Tall towers are to have flashing red lights, but in recent years many in our area have changed to White.

The towers are for another conspiracy

reply to post by weedwhacker


That is not the strobe the OP is referring to. The ones you cited are mounted on the emergency vehicles and the receivers are mounted on the poles supporting the signals.

The flashing white lines over the red lights are an attempt to draw more attention to a signal that may be historically missed due to background lighting, hills, overpasses or any other obstruction.

reply to post by el_topo

It means the bulb must be replaced soon, flashes automaticaly after a set number of hours in use.