by Michael Harley (RSS feed) on Dec 16th 2009 at 5:31PM Traffic lights using state-of-the-art LED illumination use 90 percent less electricity, offer a much longer service life and are more durable than their incandescent counterparts. Taking advantage of the countless benefits, cities around the country have been replacing traditional filament-based traffic signal bulbs with LEDs for years. Unfortunately, the low-watt LED units burn much cooler than its white-hot counterpart making it unable to melt snow off weather exposed traffic fixtures.
“I’ve never had to put up with this in the past,” said Duane Kassens, a driver from Indiana who was involved in an accident attributed to a snow-clogged traffic light. “The police officer told me the new lights weren’t melting the snow. How is that safe?” It obviously isn’t.
Municipalities around the country are taking different steps to keep their signals shining brightly in the face of Mother Nature. Crews in St. Paul, Minnesota, use compressed air to keep their lights clean. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, city workers brush the snow off by hand in a labor-intensive process. Until a fix arrives, it is best to take the advice of Dave Hansen, a traffic engineer with the Green Bay Department of Public Works. Treat a blocked signal as if the power is out. “If there’s any question, you err on the side of caution,” says Hansen.
You’d imagine this is the red light producer’s problem. Install heating elements that automatically get triggered on under 40 degrees? What a difficult problem to solve!
When I saw this last week I laughed.
I knew this years ago when I bought my first led flood light.
Public paid engineers obviously don’t work for private companies for a reason. lol
it’s probably a turning signal. as well.
one for a green arrow, and one for a yellow arrow.
but if it’s LED, i would imagine it would all be done with three.
or even one o.O
public engineers wouldn’t design that, private companies design/construct shit like that. And fwiw I work in a public office and I guarantee our engineers are as good if not better than the private sector… There is a tremendous amount of talent in my office.
The problem being that I think a lot of the led bulbs were simply retrofitted into existing housings. Even if they were new housing you now have to take them all apart and add a complicated system of heaters.
Like Viper said… It would have been cheaper to just stick with the old bulbs.
No offense but, you guys have no clue abouts costs.
Very simple heaters running only when cold out would be waaaay cheaper than what it takes to get a crew(How many state workers does it take to change a light bulb?) out in traffic to change bulbs.(LEDs last super long.)
2 to operate ladder.
1 to change bulb.
2 to hold stop/slow signs.
1 supervisor to sit in his truck and watch.
1 to operate the electricity to the pole.
2 to start cooking dinner in the “shop”
