I've noticed older traffic lights had horizontal installed traffic light setup while newer are vertical in your area eh?

I only know ONE vertical mounted traffic light setup I can remember off hand in MD!

in my area only some Newer traffic light setup's are verticle,for example...in my area pretty much all new signal poles going up are brown steel poles with straight signal masts with horizontal signal heads with 8 foot high rise truss arms for the streetlight fixtures which are most often GE M400R2 FCO.

the ones being put up in our downtown area is one special exception...the signal poles are brown like most of the new ones but the poles are more ornate...ribbed much like the really old cast iron decorative poles...and the masts for the signals is not compleatly straight...they curve slightly upward then straighten out...and unlike the other new signl poles in other areas of tyler,these have verticle heads as apposed to horizontal heads.
the Truss Arms in my area you can see the trusses have two holes on the individual poles that make up the truss arm.....one on the top pole one on the bottom (if you know what i mean) naturally those pieces would be used for a verticle head one piece in the threaded insert going to the top and the bottom of the signal head,in some cases the usused ones are plugged with A threaded metal cap,but in other ones the holes on the top and bottom are simply open and those ones are often rusty as it allows moisture into the pole.

Our oldest traffic signal setup utilize double guy wire arms with bottom braced upsweep arms with a open pole top that used to contain a remote ballast,the signal heads on those were always verticle in Tyler even with some of them having modern signal heads fitted to them,however in the dallas-Ft Worth area they do have some guy wire signal poles with horizontal heads.

I haven't seen any horizontal traffic lights here in Ontario, all of ours are vertical.

I've seen a lot of horizontal mounted traffic lights in Quebec, New Brunswick and PEI though.

Horizontal Signals seem to be mainly installed in the southern united states,i think the reason being the Horizontal signals have less wind loading which would be important to areas prone to hurricanes or such,but im not sure.

Hmm I wonder if the backboard also affects wind loading, since the ones in your pic don't have them?

I have never seen ANY horizontal traffic signals here in Colorado, NONE. But when you enter New Mexico, to Texas, they then are horizontal.

@joe few signals in my area have Backplates,most of the ones with Backplates are new,im sure they do pick up the wind abit but they do make them with Louvers in them.

@Ian i guess they don't think they need them,personally i think Verticle Signals look better.

Hey in your area what shape is the traffic light if it has 5 lights?

Are you asking about mine or Devonte's, if mine we use a stack of them mounted to a pole.

Shape?....rectangle jace.

i haven't seen any five sections yet in my area,unless its a protected turn that just happens to also have Dual Red's.

Most of my protected turns in my area tend to have 4 lights (2 reds) but all of the ones in MD I have seen with 5 sections are in a dog house shape. But when you enter Washington DC from MD it quickly becomes a stacked style mounted on poles......

In Illinois, 5 sections stacked up are EXCESSIVELY used on left side of the road on pole, right side of road on pole, and front right side of road on pole and finally one on the mast....that's actually a typical setup in Illinois in most part of Cook County in Illinois and most of the state!!!!

The only 5 stacked style in MD I have seen are in a 8 x 8 x 8 x 12 x 12 format on top of pole....

We also have this following style

This style often is found on the front mast (the mast that mounts closer to your car) while the farther mast in same road has dog house style.

Most of the protected lefts in Ontario have four lights (red, yellow, green ball and yellow/green bimodal arrow) but there are some older ones with 5 sections like the one below, mounted on a pole on either the median or the sides of the road.


Streetview of a real one

The completely protected left turns just use a separate head with arrows and a LEFT TURN SIGNAL sign next to it.

In MD we have a few like what Joe showed...except the top red is 8 inch instead of 12..........

But if all is 12 inch...its a dog house style....I actually know of ONE that a dog house right on top of a POLE in MD just near border of DC...ill see if I can find a street view....

most of our protected turns are Inline-4's with a few Inline-5's....we don't have doghouses here,but there's tons in alabama and i've seen them in some places in Texas.