News UFO-style traffic lights to vanish from Sendai

thomas · 29 Jul 2024

Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, will bid farewell to its iconic "UFO-style" traffic lights at the end of July. These unique, suspended signals have been a familiar sight for decades, but age has caught up with the last three remaining sets. Popularly nicknamed for their distinctive shape and hovering appearance, these traffic lights were a product of their time, developed in Aichi Prefecture during the 1970s. Around a dozen UFO-like signals illuminated intersections across Aichi and Miyagi at their peak. While Sendai residents will mourn the loss of this local landmark, the legacy of the UFO traffic light lives on. Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, still boasts at least one operational set, preserving a piece of Japan's traffic signal history.

They looked pretty cool!

UFO-style traffic lights to vanish from Sendai

The unit consists of integrated four-way traffic signals for pedestrians and vehicles and is suspended above the centre of an intersection. The traffic lights can be installed at narrow intersections because they require only one support pole instead of a total of eight required for typical traffic signals, and according to the company history of Nagoya Electric Works Co., headquartered in Ama, Aichi Prefecture, the prefectural police asked the firm to develop a new type of traffic light in the 1970s. At the time, the number of fatalities from traffic accidents nationwide was hovering around 10,000 per year, and the number was particularly high in Aichi Prefecture. [...] The UFO traffic lights were adopted for the first time at an intersection in the Osu district in Nagoya's Naka Ward in September 1975. It is busy, and people visit the Osu Kannon temple and the local shopping district.

Sendai to turn off Japan's last 3 'UFO' traffic lights, but similar set remains in Nagoya - The Mainichi

SENDAI -- Japan's last three sets of

mainichi.jp

The first, and perhaps last, UFO traffic signal in Osu, Nagoya:

HYPERLOCAL NAGOYA project

Explore Nagoya's Osu District - Eclectic Allure & UFO-Like Traffic Signal. Discover Unique Suspended-Type Signal That Draws Tourists Worldwide

hyperlocalnagoya.com

News UFO-style traffic lights to vanish from Sendai

thomas

Unswerving cyclist

Sendai to turn off Japan's last 3 'UFO' traffic lights, but similar set remains in Nagoya - The Mainichi

HYPERLOCAL NAGOYA project

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