Why Are America’s Streetlights Turning Purple?

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BuriedMystic@reddit

TLDR the early wave of LEDs that replaced sodium vapor lights in the mid 2000s are now failing due to a chemical breakdown in the substrate that normally combines blue and yellow light to produce white light.

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eepromnk@reddit

These combine blue and yellow light?

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LesseFrost@reddit

Yep, sodium lamps emitted a spectrum of light with those plus a lot more red. It's the reason why LED Street lamps are more harsh than older sodium lamps.

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eepromnk@reddit

Wait..I thought you said the LED combines blue and yellow light?

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DoublePostedBroski@reddit

No no. My family says it’s a conspiracy theory and they’re emitting chemicals.

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GaylrdFocker@reddit

"It's turning people gay"

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makingthisfor1reason@reddit

I mean the comment u replied to literally has chemicals in the sentence?

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AleEightOne@reddit

It clearly had a distinct lack of conspiracy

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ConversationEasy7134@reddit

I have a Phillips led light bulb that is doing also that.

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sh1boleth@reddit

Nah man the actual reason is they’re purple because it’s harder to see your veins in purple so you can’t inject urself with drugs that easily 1111!!11

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HAL_9OOO_@reddit

That's the Government's cover story. The truth is that Prince's ghost is possessing street lights.

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SpaceghostLos@reddit

Purple rain, PURPLE RAIN!!!1111

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MastaSchmitty@reddit

Some stay dry while others — oh. Never mind.

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Ziplock189@reddit

I break down the substrate so I can breathe in purple rain

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Automatic-End-8256@reddit

Im from the baltimore suburbs and though that they where just doing it for the ravens for awhile

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the_house_from_up@reddit

It's lighting the path to Lake Minnetonka.

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kinkycarbon@reddit

I’ve seen it. It’s ethereal looking at purple street lights.

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Hostificus@reddit

It’s actually corruption. There were multiple companies with superior products and the company that “won” the bid was a cheaper product that had their Phosphorus coating break down. The company with the cheaper product gave kickbacks to certain city officials that went with their products.

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trashking11@reddit

Source?

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Hostificus@reddit

I made it up

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DudeWhereIsMyDuduk@reddit

Most of them were already replaced around here, it's rare to see a purple one.

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DorkHelmet72@reddit

Hate to admit that I prefer the purple on the highway at night

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R_V_Z@reddit

Perfect for sticking on some vaporwave and cruising around.

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ferdiazgonzalez@reddit

I was hooked on that shit back in 2015. Miss Saint Pepsi's mixtapes.

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DorkHelmet72@reddit

A little Nightcall works too

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AFrozen_1@reddit

Really anything by Kavinsky or Jeremiah Kane works perfectly.

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kcgdot@reddit

Big Black Delta is pretty killer too

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gimpwiz@reddit

Gonna try out some of these recommendations.

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jeremiahxkane@reddit

Thanks!

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meh_whatev@reddit

Someone called?

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GOATSQUIRTS@reddit

Why do you hate to admit that

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DorkHelmet72@reddit

More cause I pretend I’m in some sci-fi movie while I’m blasting down the highway in a purple world

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MyLifeIsAWasteland@reddit

Joker & Ginz - "Purple City"

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smatchimo@reddit

someone get this man a tint job!

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I_AM_AN_ASSHOLE_AMA@reddit

There’s a stretch of road near me where all the lights went purple for a bit. It was honestly nice. Enough light to see, not so bright it ruined your vision and made light pollution in the area less. I was kind of annoyed when they changed the bulbs.

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Responsible-Meringue@reddit

Orange or deep yellow is the way to go. Smithsonian has a great exhibit on public light temperatures and contributions to pollution. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/lights-out

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BosPaladinSix@reddit

I've been saying for a long time that LEDs should all be yellow. All natural light is yellow; the sun, fire. And then most of the light bulbs we've had throughout history have been yellow. It's the light level we're most used to. Blue feels alien and it's painful on the eyes.

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Capri280@reddit

Now that LEDs provide super impressive lighting, I wonder if headlights should change so that they are legally tinted urine yellow like how it was required in France till the 90s

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Eyehopeuchoke@reddit

There is an interchange kind of by me that the interchange has the blue lights and it’s really nice when it’s dark because it makes it easier to see the cars when you’re merging onto that other freeway. It’s like it’s easier on your eyes. The street lights aren’t super bright blinding you.

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bikedork5000@reddit

While it looks cool and is kinda fun an all that, counting on a wavelength at the very end our visual range for safety is not a good idea.

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DorkHelmet72@reddit

Strangely it seems to create higher contrast with road lines and other vehicles lights. Does hide the deer though

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KazarSoze@reddit

Had a ton of these in our town. Purple LEDs in random streetlights. Thankfully they have replaced them all. The neighboring town had the same problem in several places, but their school colors are purple and white so they just rolled with it until they quit working.

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hundredjono@reddit

Bring back halogen streetlights because they last longer and looked better

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CrypticQuery@reddit

Or at least go with warmer LEDs in the 2700k-3000k color temperature range.

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CommanderArcher@reddit

I miss the vibe of driving over the San Mateo bridge at night under the light of those sodium vapor lamps.

Very inefficient but truly a whol ass mood.

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Filthy_Capitalist@reddit

LPS lamps are actually quite efficient. More efficient than most standard screw-based LEDs we use at home:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficacy#Examples_2

Their biggest downside is their CRI is garbage since they nearly monochromatic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index#Typical_values

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Zaziel@reddit

But I don’t think they messed with my night vision anywhere near as much as LEDs.

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TheCountChonkula@reddit

I agree. I’m okay with LED since they’re more energy efficient, but it is known too that white and blue light does disrupt circadian rhythm so I’m all for a warmer colored light.

When I used to travel for work, I absolutely hated when a hotel had blackout curtains that didn’t work well and the stark white light from the parking lot lights outside would shine through no matter what I did.

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UslashMKIV@reddit

They absolutely did not last longer, and they use roughly 12x as much power. They did look nice though

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kilroy-was-here-2543@reddit

Just buy LEDs that have the same color temperature as the halogens and you solve the problem

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tobyhatesmemes2@reddit

Blue-tinted light is better for illuminating things at night, requiring fewer lumens and thus less energy.

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Me_Air@reddit

do you own stock in some kind of optometry company?

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tobyhatesmemes2@reddit

No, I’m an engineer who specifies lighting systems.

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airfryerfuntime@reddit

No you're not.

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kilroy-was-here-2543@reddit

Blue light is terrible for your health at night. It fucks up your circadian rhythm super hard.

I doubt the energy draw difference makes any real difference in cost given just how energy efficient LEDs are compared to halogens

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tobyhatesmemes2@reddit

Yeah, that’s the point. Do you think drivers should be falling asleep if they’re out on a highway after 10pm?

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kilroy-was-here-2543@reddit

They can use white light for that. It keeps you awake, but it also gives you good visibility and contrast so you can actually see what’s in front of you. Blue light doesn’t help with visibility, especially for older people

The reason the circadian rhythm thing matters is because it affects anyone who happens to live near the highway or roadway through light pollution. White light still causes light pollution but it doesn’t have the same detrimental effects on your sleep that blue light does

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

And use orders of magnitude more electricity.

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hundredjono@reddit

The town I live in took out all the halogen street lights and got replaced by solar powered LEDs for a stretch of highway. None of those lights have all worked at the same time and are always dark. When there were halogen lights there before the new ones, they would always turn on when it got dark.

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

That’s not a problem with all LEDs though. Sounds like your town just bought shitty ones

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hundredjono@reddit

It's not just here though I see that in LEDs everywhere. Halogens are better and they got replaced by shitty LEDs to pat themselves on the back to meet energy standards.

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

There’s so many scenarios where the correct light is truly better. There’s way too many examples of spaces (roadways included) which have improved the lighting and also the definition of the lit areas by being able to tailor the spectrum to the use case. Cutoffs and light pollution are greatly reduced as well. So for all these benefits we have not seen an increase in traffic related fatalities at night time. Plus the mean time between failure is 10x longer than HIDs so less maintenance and higher safety for road crews because they’re spending less time maintianing lights in dangerous areas.

It’s ok if you just don’t like it.

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END0WEDx@reddit

Homeless can’t find veins under purple lights

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whatsapprocky@reddit

Now the roads across the country are going to be bathed in bisexual lighting

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opeth10657@reddit

They're turning the roads gay!

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POSVETT@reddit

sigh *

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Supersize_You@reddit

They’re just following the trend with all the purple/lavender ambient lights in cars

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willey2cool@reddit

I've seen a couple parking lots like this and thought it was to deter people from shooting up or something.

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SLamsonW@reddit

I also thought this was the case. Purple lights make it near impossible to find a vein. Maybe coincidence and a win win so they don’t fix it

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apx7000xe@reddit

I absolutely despise the new 5600°k LED streetlights, but I love coming across the failed purple ones. There was a whole parking lot at a local community college that turned purple. Went there on a foggy night a few years back.

I’m all about this group trying to get amber streetlamps back.

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CarpetLeast7988@reddit

Didnt even notice

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TrafficImmediate594@reddit

They should be a neon tangerine

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Snazzy21@reddit

Only the US government would write a millions dollar contract without any provision for defects in workmanship and repercussions.

I live in a town with them, it's quite annoying to think a slimy company ripped them off and got away with it

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1995LexusLS400@reddit

Cheap LEDs failing. Don’t need an entire article for his.

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broionevenknowhow@reddit

And we've known this for years. Weird that it's making a resurgence in the news

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No-Discount4597@reddit

That means the media is trying to distract us from something big by feeding the masses fodder.

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Nautilus717@reddit

Not every news article is a grand conspiracy.

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No-Discount4597@reddit

Your obviously not a Redditor

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

You're*

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No-Discount4597@reddit

I'm Great?! Thank you...your swell as well!

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

I don't think you understand.

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No-Discount4597@reddit

Oh but I do, I truly do. And I do appreciate your kindness!!!

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

What kindness? I'm not capable

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No-Discount4597@reddit

Oh, but you under estimate yourself.

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

No. I hate you. And everything

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No-Discount4597@reddit

But hate is such a strong word. I know I may vex you or even exasperate you, but hate...I highly doubt that. How can you hate what you don't know?

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

I don't care what you doubt

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No-Discount4597@reddit

Deep down I know you really do...just allow yourself. You will feel much better when you do.

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

Who cares

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No-Discount4597@reddit

You do, it's as obvious as the tip of your nose.

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Extreme-Rub-1379@reddit

🐝

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No-Discount4597@reddit

Yes, bees are important. This world would be worse off without them....I'm sure you wouldn't want that.

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Hostificus@reddit

It’s actually corruption. There were multiple companies with superior products and the company that “won” the bid was a cheaper product that had their Phosphorus coating break down. The company with the cheaper product gave kickbacks to certain city officials that went with their products.

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sc0lm00@reddit

That's how govt contracts work. Underbid, deliver the bare bones result, pocket the difference. Use the difference to bribe for the next contract

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Commercial-Ask-3188@reddit

After Hurricane ian here in swfl, they replaced a whole bunch of broken street lights with clearly cheap LED's, the whole bridge by my house was lit up purple at night. Deffinitly was cool driving over that bridge for a few months before they replaced them.

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Commercial-Ask-3188@reddit

After Hurricane ian here in swfl, they replaced a whole bunch of broken street lights with clearly cheap LED's, the whole bridge by my house was lit up purple at night. Deffinitly was cool driving over that bridge for a few months before they replaced them.

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WigginIII@reddit

Bisexual lighting! Joe Brandon did this!

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Geruvah@reddit

Did something new happened with streetlights or are people doing articles on things that we knew pre-Covid?

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ShimReturns@reddit

Now I know why my Samsung TV LED backlight slowly turned purple over the years. Garbage.

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HtownClassic@reddit

1999

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DoubleYangs@reddit

Keep them purple pls, I like pretending im an MC from BladeRunner

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Hostificus@reddit

It’s actually corruption. There were multiple companies with superior products and the company that “won” the bid was a cheaper product that had their Phosphorus coating break down. The company with the cheaper product gave kickbacks to certain city officials that went with their products.

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