A volume detector of a traffic light system at a neighborhood junction in Haifa
This is the infrared volume detector that control the smart traffic lights systems (Green light on demand) in Israel. In this case it is mounted on its own post. Several pedestrian crossings in this juction have a crossing button that you must hit it in order for the pedestrian light to be green or it will never become green.
I have found (Based on the entry "Traffic light" in the hebrew wikipedia website) that this is actually a hidden camera as in Israel we haven't volume detectors in smart traffic lights unlike in USA. Our systems of the smart traffic lights is very much more complicated then the ones in USA as the "Volume detection" mechanisms is actually undergrounded.
We do have pressure sensor under the road in mostly older systems and we may still be installing some in other areas too...We also have IR detectors mostly used today....
In the 1950s Baltimore city (I donno about the other areas of Maryland in my area) but Baltimore City used Sonic sensor which goes over the road (like a streetlight but mounted lower) and when a car passes, it detects something related to sounds (like a bat would send sound and it bounces back if you know what I mean) and it would tell the light to turn green.
Our underground pressure sensors in smart traffic lights are still used today and aren't able to detect a dual wheel vehicle such as motorbikes and motorscooters.
By the way i think that our LED traffic lights are actually build similar to the ones outside Israel, Ie.. with direct LED arrays and lens and without any reflectors, but the lens and the LEDs arrays is build in such a way that you can't see the LEDs and the entrie traffic light looks outside exactly like the incandescent ones but with brighter and saturated color and also they have a much narrower bands in their spectra.
Here the inductive loop reigns, the older method was a pneumatic tube with a pressure sensor, that went out like the Dodo in the 1970's. This can detect a bicycle, and is very robust as all is buried in either concrete or tar. The loops installed on a concrete road do require the roadway have a section of reinforcing specially made where the sensor goes, to prevent forming a loop.
The inductive loop regins is the mothed that used in Israel for smart traffic lights (According to the entry "Traffic light" in the hebrew wikipedia) and the israelis ones mayn't be operated by dual wheels vehicles like bikes, motorbikes and motorscooter. If one of these vehicles will be the first in the traffic line the traffic light wouldn't become green.
Almost all here have a loop sensor, there are very few that are timed only, although this is the default behaviour when the loop fails or no vehicles travel the road for a few hours.
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In the 1950s Baltimore city (I donno about the other areas of Maryland in my area) but Baltimore City used Sonic sensor which goes over the road (like a streetlight but mounted lower) and when a car passes, it detects something related to sounds (like a bat would send sound and it bounces back if you know what I mean) and it would tell the light to turn green.
By the way i think that our LED traffic lights are actually build similar to the ones outside Israel, Ie.. with direct LED arrays and lens and without any reflectors, but the lens and the LEDs arrays is build in such a way that you can't see the LEDs and the entrie traffic light looks outside exactly like the incandescent ones but with brighter and saturated color and also they have a much narrower bands in their spectra.