Cold Weather Slows Down Many Things...Including Traffic Lights
By Robin Culverwell
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Count traffic signals among the items affected by the bitterly cold weather. There are about 3,000 traffic signals in Philadelphia, and some are more susceptible to cold than others.
Capital improvements to the city's traffic signals has 1,000 or so running by computer. Those are unaffected by the cold. But Streets Department Engineer Richard Montanez says the other 2,000 are electromechanical:
"Which tend to work a little slower in the winter time. They actually don't like temperatures in the teens or single digits. We do install heater bulbs inside of them."
But, of course, the heater bulbs don't always work either. That's when we see a light get stuck - often red one way and green the other:
"We do have crews that are going to be working around the clock, keeping an eye on this," Montanez says. "And if anybody comes across one of these problems, they should quickly call 3-1-1 and we will be dispatching crews immediately."
If Wednesday is any indication of what today could bring, things could be tough. Repair crews received about six times the usual number of calls for traffic signals "on the blink."
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