The Unmaking: Traffic Light Dissection

In today’s world, data is used everywhere in our decision-making processes, especially in design. Why a button looks one way or why the electric bus sign shows this information are data-driven decisions using both user and object data. This project's main goal was to find and dissect an urban object users come into contact with every day. Then by using the information collected, figure out its place within the overall urban system structure and how it interacts with other objects.

Inspiration

What fascinates me about the urban landscape is how chaotic it is. Various convoluted networks and systems layered on top of each other just to make a city function. However, his complexity is often hidden from its citizens, and for good reason. A complex city interface would be too stressful for the average user. So when choosing an object, I was reminded of this quote:

This quote highlights the fact that chaos and order are not mutually exclusive, but rather, work together to make a lively yet usable space. So when choosing an object, I wanted to focus on something that tries to organize society while still giving freedom. That is how I landed on traffic lights.

Traffic lights dictate our decisions, control our time, and reorganize our priorities as we navigate around the city. The power this object has is all self-imposed, in other words, we choose to listen to the lights.

One could ignore and break the rules resulting in societal punishments, but even when we have that choice, we still mostly choose to follow it. Using the time to send a text, pick up something that fell, or take a bite of a breakfast burrito before turning to work. This object has so many nuances that I wanted to explore.

That is enough of my rant - on to the project!

Gathering Evidence

Now that I had an object, I went and gathered observational evidence to begin my unmaking. I collected pictures of traffic lights scattered around Ann Arbor during a walk, noting their differences in designs, placements, and environments. I catalog all of these finds within an excel spreadsheet, which would later become the basis of my data architecture of the project

To improve the depth of my data, I did external research on a variety of different factors that dealt with the creation of the traffic light. I looked at materials, historical contexts, new advancements, and community involvement to gain a border scope of what a traffic light is.

I took these findings, made more excel sheets, and created a comprehensive database.

Being Data Driven

Now that I had all my data organized, I could then start looking for trends. I noticed that it could be split up into 3 different categories:

1. COLLECT - What was collected? What characteristics did I see?

2. CONSTRUCT - How are traffic lights constructed? How do they fit the need of an intersection?

3. ACTION - How do users and the environment interact with the object? What is the future of the urban object?

COLLECT was the visualization of my data. I used the database I created and graph data distribution on characteristics and time intervals. This gave me a sense of how similar or unique each traffic light was and where. I also created a timeline of my walk to show the variety of designs and combinations.

CONSTRUCT was the visualization of my traffic light. After observing the traffic lights, it was now time to deconstruct the traffic lights' purpose within the urban landscape. To start off simple, I looked at how a traffic light is constructed in the first place, diving deep into what materials were used to build one.

I then looked at the modularity of the traffic lights. During my collection journey, it was rare to see two intersections with the same traffic light configuration. Each traffic light was uniquely built to serve the intersection it was at, almost like building a LEGO set. This modularity is how traffic lights are able to organize a section of the urban landscape as it can fit the needs for whatever is required.

ACTION was the visualization of my traffic light interacted with the other systems in the urban environment. Since traffic lights are modular, this means that how users interact with the light changes. Traffic lights can actively change our decisions while roaming an urban landscape. If a rider knows there are multiple intersections up ahead, then they might avoid the route so they are less likely to be stopped by a red light - even if the new route is longer length wise.

Traffic lights also interact with the environment itself. Weather conditions can affect the visibility of the lights which can alter our decision response time to them.

This leads to how traffic lights will look in the future? To answer this, I first looked into the past to see how traffic lights have changed throughout the years - going from oil lamps, to reactive sensors. Understanding history's path can give some insight to the next generation of traffic lights and how they will order the roadway, but that solely depends on our trajectory as society.

Reflection

This project was a fun one for me to complete as it incorporated my main academic interests of data and complex systems. Taking a deep dive into the inner workings of an urban object allowed me to gain a solid foundation of what builds up and sustains a city, from tiny towns to large networked metropolises.

For future inquiry, I would love to take a more in depth look at the more uncommon interactions of the traffic light. For example, doing a deep dive of what happens to society if traffic lights are not obeyed. My project was built on the foundation that everyone follows it, but that is not the case. Looking into this more would be my next step to fully understanding the city system in its entirety.