On Monday afternoon, the Gettysburg Daily chose the intersection of Washington Street/Taneytown Road and Steinwehr Avenue to photograph the new traffic signals. The Taneytown Road is on the left (southeast). It turns into Washington Street at this location, and Washington Street is on the right. Steinwehr Avenue runs from the bottom left of the picture to the center of the picture. On the other side of the farthest trees in the distance, it becomes the Emmitsburg Road. This view was taken from the north facing south at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.
Modern America has come to Gettysburg. The old walking signals at the borough’s traffic lights have been replaced. Previous posts have shown the new traffic lights on the Baltimore Pike put in place for the new visitor center, and the location of some new traffic lights that are coming to Gettysburg on the Hanover Road, Carlisle Street, Chambersburg Street, and Middle Street. Since March, however, another traffic signal change has slowly been occurring. Old walk signals at the traffic lights have been replaced by new lights that count how many seconds one has to cross a street before an orange hand comes up to inform them to stop.
Of course, the orange hand informing pedestrians to stop walking have been in Gettysburg for years. This view was taken from the north facing south at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.
The white colored walking man has also been a part of our walking signals for a long time. This view was taken from the north facing south at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.
But here’s the new graphic. Instead of having the orange hand flash to alert you the light will soon be turning red, numbers start counting down to zero. At this intersection, one receives a first warning with 21 seconds remaining. This view was taken from the north facing south at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.
When the light turns yellow (burnt orange?) the orange hand returns to inform visitors they should not be crossing. This view was taken from the north facing south at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.
The button for the walk signal on the left has been removed. It is for the traffic signal which we were viewing in the previous photographs. The button on the right, however, needs to be pushed if one wants to cross Steinwehr Avenue to the National Cemetery Annex. It might be nice to inform visitors that one button has to be pushed, but the other one doesn’t, and/or the sign and button on the left need to be removed. This view was taken from the southwest facing southeast at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.
If one desired to go to cross Steinwehr Avenue at this point, don’t wait through three cycles before realizing you have to push the button as we did. If you push the button here, the walk signal will be activated. Otherwise you’ll have a nice view of the cemetery from this side of the street. This view was taken from the northwest facing southeast at approximately 12:10 PM on Monday, June 9, 2008.