Hey everyone I am quite curious as to what those little white boxes are on the sides of the highways and interstates that all seem to have a solar panel on the top of them. They kind of look like pike pass boxes you see on the turnpikes, but I know I have personally never paid a toll to use the regular highway. Anyone able to shed light on what these are?

Call boxes?

I know here in California they have solar-powered cellular emergency phones on some highways.

If you're talking about the ones that are high on the poles, I believe those are cameras for the highway patrol? I'm not 100% sure on this, but I thought I read and/or heard that awhile back.

Some of the ones on the interstates that look like PikePass readers keep track of the big rigs on the road as far as weight/distance or something to that effect.

Are they the cameras setup by ODOT to monitor traffic flow.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation unveils traffic monitoring Web | Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City) | Find Articles at BNET (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20080603/ai_n25483050)
http://www.oktraffic.org/index.php

Intrepid, Kerry, I don't think the cameras are what she is referring to, I believe she is referring to the smaller poles that look like call boxes but probably aren't call boxes, at least they have no signage indicating they are.

No they arent call boxes. They are tall poles with a little white rectangular box at the top of them usually next to the solar panels. The end of the rectangular box is always pointed right at the lane.

Where exactly have you seen them?

Could be for traffic counts as well.

The units on the shorter poles (although I have seen them on the tall poles too) are much like what has been around for YEARS in the bigger cities and they are used to count traffic. The unit may also contain a 'radar detector' of sorts that tells the average speed of traffic. The tall poles usually contain the DOT cameras.

Those little boxes are part of the new ODOT camera system. Ever wonder how they get traffic info for say like the weather channel? Those boxes are used for just that. Someone else said "traffic counts" they are correct too.

Supposedly the new cameras and "boxes" are used to help change traffic light timing, etc... to help manage and improve traffic efficiency.

Hope this helps.