The new white LED streetlights

[Drummer]

Yeah there are about 5 flashing steetlights around Glenmore & Heritage. Actually this could be an accident waiting to happen if someone has epilepsy and is driving around there, and all the strobing triggers a seizure.
The website is a great way to report problems but it seems very few actually get fixed. Maybe they are just slammed with work orders and the repair crew is too small.

[V]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Have other cities done this kind of large scale transition, or are we guinea pigs?

Calgary is quite a bit behind the curve. Far from guinea pigs.

[getbak]

Los Angeles finished its switchover (of over 140,000 streetlights) more than 3 years ago.

[V]

I'm curious what product the City ended up going with. I haven't heard any of these issues up in Edmonton, although we're also waaaaaay better at responding to streetlight issues here. Enmax is supposed to get to your lights within a month of hearing about the issues, and even that target is met very sporadically.

[Wormius]

They recently changed them out in our neighborhood in the NW. I don't mind them, but they cast a very defined light, almost spotlight in nature, so I think the might need to do a bit of work to ensure there are not so many void between lights. I noticed the bus driver almost miss people early in the morning because the lights weren't really illuminating the bus stops very well.

[photon]

Does anyone know what temperature the new LED street lights are? Or better yet the actual spectrum of them?

Blue light has much greater melatonin suppression than lower frequencies of light, which can interrupt your circadian rhythm and negatively impact sleep (which has a whole set of health risks).

Blue light also kills night vision, and the LED lights are more directed, so those two things probably contribute to the perception that you can't see as well between the lights when the actual light level might even be identical to what it was with the more amber coloured light.

[GGG]

It's neat flying into the city at night because you can tell which neighbourhoods have them in. The amount of light pollution removed this past year is quite staggering

[Kerplunk]

The new light are definitely brighter, but a lot more directed. In the places with spaced out poles there are gaps of darkness in the light which the old ones didn't have. The contrast between the brighter lights and the darker area is a bit of a pain when driving, and doesn't light up sidewalks as well when walking.

The new McKnight section has almost twice as many lights as other roads with them, and the road is consistently illuminated...it's nice.

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by photon

Does anyone know what temperature the new LED street lights are?... .

Right now, they are -8.

[CaptainCrunch]

I was watching the news this morning and they were talking about Montreal going LED, they mentioned that the biggest concern is the large amount of Blue light that if it gets into your sleeping space will disrupt people's sleep patterns.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Right now, they are -8.

*reaches for ban button*

[V]

Somehow we all survived with mercury vapour long before you ever had your high pressure sodium lights, and people didn't have issues generating melatonin back then.

I've been in lectures from doctors that have looked into this, and it appears as though this is one of those things that the media grabs onto, but there's really nothing to be concerned with.

I don't know what lights were specified for Calgary, but my guess is they are either 4100K or 5000K. We started at 5000K and then decreased the temperature in future bids because the 5000K was seen to be a little too institutional. Apparently that's a bad thing for streetlights?? The higher the temperature the greater the efficacy of the bulb, but there are other points to take into consideration, as well.

Regarding the lack of uniformity in your new lighting system, that probably has more to do with design than with the LED themselves. You can choose different light patterns and different wattages to achieve similar uniformity as the older lights. Chances are the wattages selected might be too low if they aren't getting the spread necessary.

[Barnes]

I for one am very concerned about this melatonin suppression stuff. I will not be sleeping outside until silly hall addresses this.

[The Familia]

Love the new lights! So much brighter and asthetically pleasing. Are they eventually going to switch Stoney Trail and Deerfoot? Right now I hate the transition between the old orange ones and the LED ones when you get to the off ramps of these roads.

[Mazrim]

Anyone who spends time looking at some kind of screen (phone, TV, whatever) before bed should probably worry more about those disrupting your sleeping patterns than the LEDs on the streets.

[Inferno099]

Will be interesting to see how integrated the city will be & what options will be activated if Calgary is using the newer GE solutions for municipalities:

http://www.currentbyge.com/cities

"...install low-impact LED streetlights throughout the municipal grid to help cities improve energy efficiency—and can also equip them with sensors that see, hear and feel the environment around them..."

[calgarygeologist]

A new LED street light is getting installed in front of my house right now. I'm excited to see what it look like tonight. Hopefully it isn't a flasher.

[Regular_John]

I absolutely love the new street lights, as some one with less then stellar eye sight I find myself much more comfortable behind the wheel under these new lights.

I particularly noticed it on NYE when driving on Stony Trail between Cranston & Macleod Trail, it was dumping snow yet I never felt I was losing any sight of the roads. The light definitely seems brighter to my eyes, and the clarity between snow/road/ice is much clearer as well.

Can't wait till they are all switched over.

[zzibradleyizz]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

I absolutely love the new street lights, as some one with less then stellar eye sight I find myself much more comfortable behind the wheel under these new lights.

I particularly noticed it on NYE when driving on Stony Trail between Cranston & Macleod Trail, it was dumping snow yet I never felt I was losing any sight of the roads. The light definitely seems brighter to my eyes, and the clarity between snow/road/ice is much clearer as well.

Can't wait till they are all switched over.

The streetlights on Stoney Trail between Cranston and MacLeod are still the old yellow ones though...unless I am just blind and haven't noticed they changed them over Christmas. MacLeod at Stoney does indeed have the new LED lights though.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by zzibradleyizz

The streetlights on Stoney Trail between Cranston and MacLeod are still the old yellow ones though...unless I am just blind and haven't noticed they changed them over Christmas. MacLeod at Stoney does indeed have the new LED lights though.

In hindsight that was the corner (MacLeod at Stoney) I was thinking of, the drive along Stony was an amber mess up until I turned off Stoney and it was like night & day difference.