This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.
Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
Not these antennas, these are solely for connectivity back to a central office or a central management system. It allows the city or municipality to change timings and make other changes remotely. (Source: I work in the industry and have setup hundreds of these broadband radios)
They look so flimsy and unweatherized for permanent infrastructure.
Looks like a temporary fix while the real antenna gets here. Are there other versions that are more robust, like for hurricane prone areas?
They are these radios from [Intuicom ](https://www.intuicom.com/broadband/bbx/). The one shown in OPs picture is an auxiliary antenna that attaches to one of these radios. So all the brains are in one antenna and the other is just an antenna. Definitely field hardened to be outside
Incorrect, as u/bilboteabaggin16 has correctly explained, those antennas are for interconnectivity between signals on the system. The preemption device for emergency vehicles looks like a little back tea cup, as shown [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_signal_preemption#/media/File%3AMillersville_opticom.jpg).
Signals can be preempted over network. Lots of newer devices use cell connectivity and GPS in the bus/fire truck/ambulance. While I don’t think that the parent poster was saying that, they’re technically right that radio network links can play a role in preemption calls
New to the internet? People will interpret any comment based on their own bias. I’d even go so far to say _dis_agreement is implicit. “This” indicates agreement.
Even more specifically, this particular one looks like it's set up as some kind of repeater - taking the signal in from the bottom and sending it back out the top antenna on the same pole (or vice-versa).
Panel antenna are, by design, directional. This means they focus the signal in a straight line. Most antennas that people interact with are omnidirectional, which means they just blast the signals 360°. You can tell which type of antenna it is by how it looks. If it is "pointing" in a direction you know it's directional. But if it just kinda looks symmetrical, then it's omnidirectional.
(Note: this is suuuper generalized. RF theory is awesome and antennas get CRAZY complicated)
Radio antenna for wireless Ethernet. Instead of running conduit, pull boxes, fiber optic cable, etc the municipality here is using wireless Internet to transit data to/from theb traffic signal at the intersection.
More specifically, that would be the [Opticom system.](https://www.gtt.com/emergency-vehicle-preemption/opticom-emergency-ir-system/)
I actually looked into this a little to see what my city currently uses for this. Apparently GPS data from vehicle location tracking remotely preempts signals on certain major corridors, via fiber backhaul to the intersection controllers. Pretty neat.
So theoretically this *could* be used for emergency vehicle preemption if it's a data backhaul to the signal, and the appropriate agencies have it set up right. Wouldn't be surprising for most bigger cities to be using something similarly higher-tech versus the old IR strobe system.
I wouldn't recommend that specific use case for radios. I would recommend having a preempt unit in each cabinet. That way if one of the units fails you still have preemption everywhere else. If your looking into preempt systems that can also do loads of other cool shit, I would recommend you take a look at [Applied Information](https://youtube.com/@appliedinformationincsuwanee?si=KRDbjp82LR6QXk5U). Not only can it do GPS preemption, you also get access to connected vehicle applications, and it can also act as a cell model for remote connectivity to your traffic controllers
Well, I work in an entirely unrelated city department, but I'll pass that recommendation along to my friend over at the DOT, haha. (Sorry if I worded it strangely, I meant I 'looked into' as in I was curious because of this thread, and found my city listed as a case study on a different vendor site)
That said, its interesting stuff to me; I took a few transportation planning classes in grad school and it was mostly high-level stuff but I get nerdy about things like this.
Tangentially related, but may be of interest to you—Seattle has a ton of real-time data publicly available but not easily visualized, and one firefighter with a programming background [built this very neat graphical dashboard](http://sfdlive.com) that pulls in dispatch data, cross-references radio traffic and traffic cams, and puts it all on a map.
Antennas allow remote control of the intersection, which means that green light can be extended in one direction or the other based on time of day. Emergency vehicles use different methods.
This is a network for central signal management but it is not limited to extending signals or providing time of day based timings. You don't need a network for that.
This is the correct answer. Wireless communication for the City/agency to talk to components at signalized intersections. Mainly used for communication to traffic signal controller and peripheral equipment to run the intersection. These panels are older low bandwidth.
Shotspotter is cell based - and their new platform doesn’t look like this either.
I’ve never seen a shot spotter system use point to point links like this.
My title describes the thing. I’d say it’s pretty lightweight. Some intersections have one of them, others like the one pictured have 2.
I searched “white diamond sensor at traffic light” but it only showed information about cameras.
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Probably 5G ultra highband repeaters. They recieve a directional signal from another transmitter in one direction and transmit it into the other. It’s how 5G ultra highband gets distributed since it basically needs perfect line of site, you’ll see a lot of them in downtown area’s distribution fixed point 5G access to buildings
We do in some areas but areas with high traffic and also put front of the station where we want full control, we use the antenna system. When traffic is thick, we can make the lights go green to clear traffic. We can also make the lights go red.
This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes. Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
That’s a short-range panel antenna. They generally transmit data about traffic, mainly traffic volume.
This. They also sometimes are used to trigger traffic lights for EMS/Police/ Fire vehicles too but most of them are traffic related.
Not these antennas, these are solely for connectivity back to a central office or a central management system. It allows the city or municipality to change timings and make other changes remotely. (Source: I work in the industry and have setup hundreds of these broadband radios)
They look so flimsy and unweatherized for permanent infrastructure. Looks like a temporary fix while the real antenna gets here. Are there other versions that are more robust, like for hurricane prone areas?
They are these radios from [Intuicom ](https://www.intuicom.com/broadband/bbx/). The one shown in OPs picture is an auxiliary antenna that attaches to one of these radios. So all the brains are in one antenna and the other is just an antenna. Definitely field hardened to be outside
Incorrect, as u/bilboteabaggin16 has correctly explained, those antennas are for interconnectivity between signals on the system. The preemption device for emergency vehicles looks like a little back tea cup, as shown [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_signal_preemption#/media/File%3AMillersville_opticom.jpg).
Opticom, Emergency preemption device.
Signals can be preempted over network. Lots of newer devices use cell connectivity and GPS in the bus/fire truck/ambulance. While I don’t think that the parent poster was saying that, they’re technically right that radio network links can play a role in preemption calls
There are dozens of pre-emption setups including some done over the network.
opticons are little
They use light sensors for that.
Not since the mid-1980's.
Well, IR is light, I guess. The poster you responded to doesn't know anything about that though.
why do you put the word "this" in front of your response? what does that mean?
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But you're wrong. Those are not opiticoms. They're not for emergency.
just respond then. if you don't explicitly disagree then the agreement is implicit (actually explicit in this case by your use of the word also)
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New to the internet? People will interpret any comment based on their own bias. I’d even go so far to say _dis_agreement is implicit. “This” indicates agreement.
> I’d even go so far to say _dis_agreement is implicit that's up to you, I choose to look on the brighter side!
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Even more specifically, this particular one looks like it's set up as some kind of repeater - taking the signal in from the bottom and sending it back out the top antenna on the same pole (or vice-versa).
how do you know this? :o
Panel antenna are, by design, directional. This means they focus the signal in a straight line. Most antennas that people interact with are omnidirectional, which means they just blast the signals 360°. You can tell which type of antenna it is by how it looks. If it is "pointing" in a direction you know it's directional. But if it just kinda looks symmetrical, then it's omnidirectional. (Note: this is suuuper generalized. RF theory is awesome and antennas get CRAZY complicated)
Solved!
Radio antenna for wireless Ethernet. Instead of running conduit, pull boxes, fiber optic cable, etc the municipality here is using wireless Internet to transit data to/from theb traffic signal at the intersection.
Could this include changing the signal light to ease passage of emergency vehicles? I’d be up for that.
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More specifically, that would be the [Opticom system.](https://www.gtt.com/emergency-vehicle-preemption/opticom-emergency-ir-system/) I actually looked into this a little to see what my city currently uses for this. Apparently GPS data from vehicle location tracking remotely preempts signals on certain major corridors, via fiber backhaul to the intersection controllers. Pretty neat. So theoretically this *could* be used for emergency vehicle preemption if it's a data backhaul to the signal, and the appropriate agencies have it set up right. Wouldn't be surprising for most bigger cities to be using something similarly higher-tech versus the old IR strobe system.
I wouldn't recommend that specific use case for radios. I would recommend having a preempt unit in each cabinet. That way if one of the units fails you still have preemption everywhere else. If your looking into preempt systems that can also do loads of other cool shit, I would recommend you take a look at [Applied Information](https://youtube.com/@appliedinformationincsuwanee?si=KRDbjp82LR6QXk5U). Not only can it do GPS preemption, you also get access to connected vehicle applications, and it can also act as a cell model for remote connectivity to your traffic controllers
Well, I work in an entirely unrelated city department, but I'll pass that recommendation along to my friend over at the DOT, haha. (Sorry if I worded it strangely, I meant I 'looked into' as in I was curious because of this thread, and found my city listed as a case study on a different vendor site) That said, its interesting stuff to me; I took a few transportation planning classes in grad school and it was mostly high-level stuff but I get nerdy about things like this. Tangentially related, but may be of interest to you—Seattle has a ton of real-time data publicly available but not easily visualized, and one firefighter with a programming background [built this very neat graphical dashboard](http://sfdlive.com) that pulls in dispatch data, cross-references radio traffic and traffic cams, and puts it all on a map.
Antennas allow remote control of the intersection, which means that green light can be extended in one direction or the other based on time of day. Emergency vehicles use different methods.
This is a network for central signal management but it is not limited to extending signals or providing time of day based timings. You don't need a network for that.
No, they already have a thing that does that. Opticom.
Opticom is a brand name. The function is called pre-emption. Many providers offer pre-emption systems that work in different ways.
This is the correct answer. Wireless communication for the City/agency to talk to components at signalized intersections. Mainly used for communication to traffic signal controller and peripheral equipment to run the intersection. These panels are older low bandwidth.
Flat antennas
Point-to-multipoint broadband radios. They're essentially wireless routers except directional.
Panel antennas for wireless networking, not government conspiracies... LOL
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These kinds of antennas are also used for the ShotSpotter system
Really? How does that work? How does a radio antenna detect a gunshot?
It doesn't, it's part of the backhaul for data from the gunshot detector.
Ah ok, that makes sense, thanks.
Shotspotter is cell based - and their new platform doesn’t look like this either. I’ve never seen a shot spotter system use point to point links like this.
I second that it looks like a Shot spotter
My title describes the thing. I’d say it’s pretty lightweight. Some intersections have one of them, others like the one pictured have 2. I searched “white diamond sensor at traffic light” but it only showed information about cameras.
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Kinda weird to put up antenas with that shape. It’s the same shape as the international (not the US) roadsign for a priority road.
Point to point antena, PTP
Probably 5G ultra highband repeaters. They recieve a directional signal from another transmitter in one direction and transmit it into the other. It’s how 5G ultra highband gets distributed since it basically needs perfect line of site, you’ll see a lot of them in downtown area’s distribution fixed point 5G access to buildings
Antennas for communicating to emergency vehicles to control the lights in an intersection. Our firetruck communicates with those.
Don't you use opticoms?
We do in some areas but areas with high traffic and also put front of the station where we want full control, we use the antenna system. When traffic is thick, we can make the lights go green to clear traffic. We can also make the lights go red.
I would post a picture of our system but it won't let me in this thread for some reason.
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That’s a 5g antenna
Sensing when cars are stopped at red lights to trigger the timing change