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Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

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Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#21

Post by reemrevnivek »

Cushman wrote: post #8
umtrey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, from a design standpoint, the idea of using LEDs is being challenged - while the designer mentions a lack of snow build-up, the traditional lights do a good job of emitting enough heat to melt snow drift: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436730/ns/us_news-life/t/energ... It's not an entirely obvious problem, but one that is being dealt with often in colder climates. Unintended consequences of design.

There must be cheaper ways to get rid of snow than incandescent lightbulbs .

This doesn't seem immediately obvious to me. Care to explain? Incandescent lightbulbs are a time-proven technology with economies of scale behind them. They generate heat and light, which is what's required here. Seems ideal for the application.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#22

Post by SoftwareMaven »

umtrey wrote: post #6
forbes wrote: post #4

Quite a beautiful design but I would question the durability of the wood-veneer model. That finish is generally more suited to interior use and would start to look pretty tatty in a couple of years I expect. That said, I want them for my city immediately.

Also, from a design standpoint, the idea of using LEDs is being challenged - while the designer mentions a lack of snow build-up, the traditional lights do a good job of emitting enough heat to melt snow drift: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436730/ns/us_news-life/t/energ... It's not an entirely obvious problem, but one that is being dealt with often in colder climates. Unintended consequences of design.

Utah has that problem with its LED stoplights. The DoT said, "Tough. Treat it like you would a power outage".

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705366962/Blowing-wet-sno...

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#23

Post by Cushman »

reemrevnivek wrote: post #21
Cushman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be cheaper ways to get rid of snow than incandescent lightbulbs .

This doesn't seem immediately obvious to me. Care to explain? Incandescent lightbulbs are a time-proven technology with economies of scale behind them. They generate heat and light, which is what's required here. Seems ideal for the application.

Really? Even assuming that we absolutely need to heat up the lights to solve this problem, we only need to do it when there is enough snow on the light to be a problem, which means at most only during snowfall, realistically much less frequently than that. Even in New England during winter, you've gotta be talking under 10% of the time that this has to happen.

You seriously can't come up with a better way to solve this problem than replacing a very efficient, very robust light source with a very inefficient, very delicate one, secure in the knowledge that as it runs all year round, some tiny fraction of the huge amount of waste heat it generates will go towards melting snow?

Although I'll note in your defense that "incandescent lightbulbs" are more accurately described as "heat lamps", and one potential solution might well involve a specialized heat lamp which only activates when the light itself is obstructed.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#25

Post by pak »

reemrevnivek wrote: post #21
Cushman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be cheaper ways to get rid of snow than incandescent lightbulbs .

This doesn't seem immediately obvious to me. Care to explain? Incandescent lightbulbs are a time-proven technology with economies of scale behind them. They generate heat and light, which is what's required here. Seems ideal for the application.

How do cars defrost the rear windshield? Embedded heating elements in the glass. That's pretty proven, and easy to manufacture. The exact same thing could be used here.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#26

Post by Cushman »

pak wrote: post #25
reemrevnivek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't seem immediately obvious to me. Care to explain? Incandescent lightbulbs are a time-proven technology with economies of scale behind them. They generate heat and light, which is what's required here. Seems ideal for the application.

How do cars defrost the rear windshield? Embedded heating elements in the glass. That's pretty proven, and easy to manufacture. The exact same thing could be used here.

That works for frost, but I still need to clear the windshield after it snows. I dunno how hot those defrosters will go if you really crank 'em, though...

Apropos of nothing, but this just made me look up "defroster" on Wikipedia... "For primary defogging, heat is generally provided by the vehicle's engine coolant via the heater core; fresh air is blown through the heater core and then ducted to and distributed over the interior surface of the windshield by a blower. This air is in many cases first dehumidified by passing it through the vehicle's operating air conditioning evaporator." Wikipedia makes everything so cool.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#27

Post by dmazin »

jrockway wrote: post #13

It's too bad that traffic signals don't make their state available via some sort of radio link. Then we could have cars that provide the driver with an optimal target speed to get through a series of intersections without stopping.

Some cities in America have traffic-synchronized streets where a driver going a certain (indicated all along the street) speed should hit the greens every time. The problem one one street I've seen it used for is, the sign is very vague about when this system is active "during peak traffic hours" so I do not know when to go the suggested speed or not.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#29

Post by jetz »

docmarionum1 wrote: post #11

I was in Istanbul a few months ago and the traffic was the craziest I've ever seen. It didn't really seem like anyone paid attention to the traffic signals anyway. I don't see how a new design would help fix that.

Interestingly Istanbul-drivers are not liked at all in other parts of Turkey as well. When asked they say they have to otherwise they will not make it.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#30

Post by afsina »

I think in short time this light colors would go black with exhaust smoke. And as someone who drives in Istanbul some time to time, I think what Istanbul needs is strict control and huge fines. Traffic is full of aggressive *astarts who does not respect any pedestrian or other drivers.
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