What is this gray, X-shaped, box thingy hanging from streetlamps?
There are several in the area, like every other streetlamp.
Here are some google streetviews of them.
Looks like a heat-sink?
I’m thinking wireless street light controllers. Examples here and here, although they don’t look like yours exactly.
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That is an interesting theory. Would it make sense to not have it on all of them?
I’m thinking a transformer. Most (all that I’ve ever encountered) streetlights are controlled by a photocell. It looks more like a transformer that is used to retrofit streetlights with a different type bulb. They are only installed as the current type of bulbs burn out and are then replaced and retrofitted for a newer, more energy efficient type.
I doubt it’s any of the above.
It’s more likely to be wireless infrastructure for Public WiFi, or perhaps a macrocell.
Can you use a pair of binoculars and see if there is any identification on it?
Well, if it’s a public wifi, it’s a secret one. I’ve never heard of it and nothing notable shows up on my laptop where I live (nearby).
Sadly, I do not own a pair.
I agree with ZenBeam, either a traffic flow sensor or a streetlamp sensor. There’s another one shown on this site (scroll down).
WAG:
Acoustic gunshot triangulation locators?
What city are you in, Hermitian? Might be able to Google what it is.
Photocell relays are vastly smaller than that unit and are typically integrated into the light head surrounding the bulb. Re a transformer a retrofitted lamp like LEDs would be using a completely differently shaped lamp headlike this. It’s likely some sort of communication device. The wire leading from it is tapping into the lamp’s power.
Do your local cops have a digital commo system?
Relay unit?
Sort of looks like a node for a wireless mesh network.
Maybe you could try calling your local public works dept. Here in Houston, there is a kind of catch-all number. (311) You call that # and they can either transfer the call or provide the correct # for which ever dept. you’re trying to reach.
The wi-fi thing didn’t occur to me. (Good guess, beowulff.)
Maybe that’s exactly what it is, and the reason you can’t pick it up is because the powers-that-be just haven’t turned the system on yet.
Um, DC metro area, that is about as specific as I can get.
I have tried some googling, but couldn’t get anything.
I have no idea.
I did have one idea. The streets that I observed these on are roads used by the Metro Bus system. I wonder if it is some kind of bus tracker system so they can see where they all are and coordinate their positions.
However, I have looked at some other bus routs I can’t seem to find them.
As far as I can tell, NextBus just uses GPS units on the buses.