Unintended hazard: Energy-efficient traffic lights can't melt snow

Re:Unintended hazard: Energy-efficient traffic lights can't ... by kw_ on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @02:09AM (#998276)

The problem is pretty well known, with (I believe) several companies selling heaters that activate in cold weather.

I was even able to find articles that mentioned the issue dating back to Q4 2000.

As such, I'm not sure why this is all over the internet today. Somebody ignored a well-known issue and bought the wrong product. It worked as expected.

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Re:Unintended hazard: Energy-efficient traffic lights can't ... by anigbrowl on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @04:13AM (#998401)

Why bother with heaters? A plastic cap in front of the tubular 'hood' should work just as well and is a one-off cost. In the photo you can see the problem is the snow piling up inside the tubular shade. Cap the tube and gravity will do the rest.

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Re:Unintended hazard: Energy-efficient traffic lights can't ... by janzer on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @09:22AM (#998778)

Notice the sign to the right of the signal. Even though it is a straight vertical surface it's covered as well. Blowing wet snow will stick to just about anything.

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Re:Unintended hazard: Energy-efficient traffic lights can't ... by marze on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @05:46AM (#998515)

Snow can be sticky and sticky snow would stick to a plastic window.

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Re:Unintended hazard: Energy-efficient traffic lights can't ... by anigbrowl on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @12:33PM (#999237)

OK, heaters it is I guess. I grew up in a wet climate and when we got snow it was too heavy to stick to anything but the ground. D'oh, for assuming snow was snow.

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