not to be mistaken for christmas lights
 

i was just curious why the greater seattle area has so many traffic intersections that have traffic lights that are suspended from cable wires? there seems to be a lot of them versus traditional traffic lights mounted on metal poles.

Never noticed it particularly, but two good reasons are greater visibility and money savings - it's cheaper to have one light standard in the middle of hte intersection than one on each corner.

The above post makes a lot of sense, and that may be why.
Another reason could be because of all the rain. Here in Florida, we have pole lights, but you will always see peeling paint on a lot of the light poles--it's very unsightly. This is caused by the humidity. Too much rain may do the same thing.

A million years ago my sister got in a wreck when she went down to California, a fairly new driver, and ran a red light. She didn't see it -- it was on a pole on the corner, not overhead.

Seattle has a ton of intersections where different lanes do different things and thus get the light at different times. That's the only thing I can think of.

I very much doubt the rain has anything to do with it. Florida gets more rain than Seattle does. MOST places in the US get more rain than Seattle does.

And of course we think of lights on wires as "traditional", not those crazy new-fangled pole lights you weirdos have !

I know what you are talking about sonoran - I have seen this in other parts of the country as well. In California most of our lights are on poles - not on the corner, but with an overhang so that they go over the intersection.

I think it is just less expensive to put the lights on cables rather than the metal poles cantilevered over the intersections.

I haven't seen a corner traffic light in years! Thought they didn't exist anymore...

Because that's where they are supposed to be... hanging in the middle of the intersection.

San Diego has poles.