Broken traffic signal flips off pedestrians

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A broken traffic signal here Thursday appeared to be giving pedestrians an obscene hand gesture instead of an order to stop.

It is unclear for how long the signal at the corner of South College Avenue and Johnson Drive near Creekside Park, which appeared to show a hand with an extended middle finger, had been malfunctioning, but the city said they had fixed it by Thursday afternoon.

Britney Sorensen, a traffic systems engineer with the city of Fort Collins, said the traffic department performs annual maintenance checks at each light and signal in town, but typically relies on the public to learn when and where a system is not working properly.

She said she suspects the explicit signal on South College uses outdated LED (light-emitting diode) technology, which likely caused the malfunction.

The newer LED signals and lights, which last longer than and use less energy than incandescent lights, have a lifetime of about 10 years. Sorensen said the signals and lights are more susceptible to failure in the cold, but even then the department receives only "a handful" of repair calls every day.