Q&A: Why do only some traffic signals have the new yellow border?

Sentinel staff report–
New, high-visibility yellow borders around traffic signals at various locations across Citrus Heights have drawn plenty of attention from drivers, along with questions — and followup questions — from residents.

In a prior Q&A article published earlier this month about the new changes to signals, The Sentinel included comments from City Engineer Leslie Blomquist who said the the yellow bordering was part of a largely grant-funded $950,000 contract which included 2,500-linear feet of fencing currently being installed in the median areas near the intersection of Greenback Lane and Auburn Boulevard.

Q&A: What’s with the new yellow border on signals in Citrus Heights?

She said the reflective borders were included with the replacement of various “vehicle signal indications” at 30 intersections across the city. The traffic signals installed are also larger in size, and Blomquist said both the increased size and yellow border was designed to “increase visibility of the signal heads with the goal to reduce rear-end and broadside collisions.”

So why do the yellow borders only show up at seemingly random signals at various intersections, while others at the same intersection didn’t get the feature?

That’s the followup question Sentinel readers asked, and in a followup emailed answer Blomquist said Tuesday that only signals with smaller “substandard signal indications” were targeted with the replacement effort. She said “newer and major intersections that had existing large signal indication sizes did not receive the yellow border.”

“One of our main goals with the recent signalized safety improvements was to increase the size of all substandard signal indications to increase visibility and reduce crash potential,” she wrote. “Any existing signal indications that were substandard were replaced with a larger size and received the yellow reflective border treatment, as an added safety benefit.”

She also said residents will still likely see more intersections in the future with the yellow border around signals: “Going forward, any signal indication that requires replacement will also be evaluated for a yellow reflective border, so we do anticipate the prevalence of the borders to continue to grow.”

Got a question about Citrus Heights you’ve always wanted an answer for? Click here to submit a question for consideration in a future Q&A article. See other Q&A articles below:

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