Did street lights really use to be orange/ Amber?

[-]

eat_like_snake@reddit

I still see it here and there.
I miss the warm glow.

[-]

TragicDog@reddit

Me too. I can sleep with the old street lights on and shining in my window. These new ones are way too bright

[-]

I've had to resort more and more to wearing sunglasses at night (and not just to keep track of the visions in my eyes).
Between that, the headlights on cars nowadays being brighter than a nuke, device screens, and the ones in stores, I just get too many headaches anymore.

[-]

ryhoyarbie@reddit

I thought it was just me with people’s lights being brighter. Apparently, I WAS blinded by the light.

[-]

TheLastGenXer@reddit

i dont have migraines, and between needing an app for everything and a new passwork every 6 weeks, im ready to move to portland for the dream of the 90s

[-]

Kellzy1212@reddit

gif

[-]

madsci@reddit

I sell fancy LED hula hoops and know a lot of circus people in Portland and every time I see that video I realize that there's no way I'm more than one degree of separation away from someone in that bit. I think someone on Facebook actually confirmed that once.

[-]

Kellzy1212@reddit

Never knew Portland was a circus town! 😹 I grew up in Sarasota, Florida where Ringling had a summer home.

[-]

guitar_stonks@reddit

Sleep till 11

[-]

RFKJrJr@reddit

You and Corey Hart

[-]

jenesia-CakeEatnNPC-@reddit

sounds like you may have Photophobia.. i do.

[-]

TragicDog@reddit

Yeah I wear glasses full time. Driving at night is sometimes impossible.

[-]

eat_like_snake@reddit

There's definitely a point where these things shouldn't even be street legal, and we've far surpassed it. It's an actual, literal driving hazard.

[-]

Key-Demand-2569@reddit

Made the mistake of flashing my brights at someone as they were heading into town and I was leaving it. Figured they forgot they had their brights on.

They proceeded to flash me with the blinding power of the sun.

Was not great.

[-]

Sub_Zero_Fks_Given@reddit

Would you happen to be kin to Jason Bourne?

[-]

probablyatargaryen@reddit

I wish r/fuckyourleds would catch on

[-]

shayes7826@reddit

I’m okay with LED bulbs in my house if they’re warm white, but yeah LED headlights can go straight down to the boiler room of hell.

[-]

blondeviking64@reddit

Those bright lights mess with the wildlife too. Its not good.

[-]

Grizzl0ck@reddit

💯

[-]

Devium44@reddit

I’m on Jekyll Island and tall the lamps like this because they don’t mess with the sea turtles.

[-]

PositiveMaster8236@reddit

A legacy of the 1970s era energy crisis, sodium bulbs were , pre LED , the best for energy saving and longevity

[-]

Ok_Researcher_9796@reddit

They still are in a lot of places.

[-]

nvmls@reddit

Some still are.

[-]

itslonelyinthevoid@reddit

Amber is the color of your energy

[-]

NathanForJew@reddit

Wo-oah

[-]

M3talhead@reddit

Rainstorm

[-]

Tetris_Pete@reddit

Keep me away from the norm...

[-]

OldCreezy@reddit

I iiii got to tell you something

[-]

jenn363@reddit

And I put it in a song

[-]

funatical@reddit

And it goes like

[-]

Danbarber82@reddit

::BONG RIP::

[-]

Adrasteia-One@reddit

Who-oah

[-]

natxavier@reddit

Black Betty, AMBER LAMPS

[-]

6thBornSOB@reddit

Criminally underrated

[-]

koalasarentferfuckin@reddit

TIL my energy is actually sodium vapor

[-]

MoonGrog@reddit

gif

[-]

MadPopette@reddit

Damn you....

[-]

okieboat@reddit

Wo-oah!

[-]

emotyofform2020@reddit

Every streetlight reveals
A picture in reverse
Still it’s so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at the
Water edge
The moon is low tonight

[-]

dinosandbees@reddit

And they all used to point down! We have a bunch of these artsy-fartsy type lights where the bulb points UP at a disc that reflects the light back down (theoretically), as if urban areas don't have enough incidental light pollution...

/rant

[-]

neuro_space_explorer@reddit (OP)

Films will never look the same.

[-]

sexual__velociraptor@reddit

Sodium lights could also be that terrifying green....

[-]

winnower8@reddit

I used to work for the City Parks. There was one park in a very nice neighborhood that still had yellow lights, specifically because the residents nearby asked for it and they had pull with the councilman. There was one incident of violence in the park and it was order to brighten it up and change it to LED white.

[-]

GravyPainter@reddit

It was comfortable

[-]

Humbled_Humanz@reddit

Before they were amber they were white. Full circle I guess.

[-]

sdcasurf01@reddit

Where I grew up in North County San Diego we were always told our lighting was more orange than usual due to the proximity of the Palomar Observatory.

[-]

red286@reddit

The changeover wasn't even all that long ago. White LEDs weren't commercially viable until 1996, and you can be certain most cities didn't switch over immediately. Hell, I'd wager there are probably a lot of smaller cities out there that still haven't switched.

My city, which isn't some podunk rural town, didn't switch until 2015.

And by 2019 the phosphor lining had flaked off so the formerly-white street lights became fucking purple.

[-]

drfinale@reddit

Technology Connections did a video about this!

https://youtu.be/U1dMlVwUsrA?si=yY44BfTu6OqVYoYm

[-]

Dr-Richado@reddit

I remember a time before a time.

They were Mercury vapor lamps before sodium. For most of my early childhood (1980s), they were bluish white. At first I didn't like the change but it grew on me in the 1990s. I really dislike the new ones. Too bright.

[-]

CemeteryWind213@reddit

Yes, the orange color is from sodium's strong D lines near 589 nm. Side note: Refractive indices are usually specified at this wavelength, hence the n_D notation.

[-]

Aol_awaymessage@reddit

They went from blue to orange to bright white (with defective LEDs being purple) in my neck of the woods

[-]

Eshin242@reddit

Cool story there are actually not any white LEDs what makes them white is a coating on the LED. When it fails or is defective you get the purple color which is near the highest energy spectrum they you can see.

The I/V in ROYGBIV

It's why we got red laser DVDs first then Blu-ray which uses a blue lazer to read and because it's a shorter wavelength you can read more data in a smaller space.

[-]

Malicious_Tacos@reddit

Dang. I moved from the suburbs to a more rural area that has NO lights.

It’s seriously dark and people always have their high beams on to compensate (which makes it worse). So you go from being blinded by headlights to \^\^blackness\^\^.

[-]

Hallgaar@reddit

Led high beams in the country side, because if you aren't melting the eyes of everything that looks at you, you aren't seeing.

[-]

knowone1313@reddit

they were like that only 5 or 6 years ago... this is why people keep electing criminals...

[-]

jenesia-CakeEatnNPC-@reddit

UGH. my name is amber and i hate all the colored stuff from the 80s & early 90s. 🙄 my gma was obsessed with it!

[-]

Tyenkrovy@reddit

If you go to the right places, you can still find them, IIRC.

[-]

Professional_Heat973@reddit

Amber is the color of our energy. 😎

[-]

stryst@reddit

Yeah, and it made nights after it had snowed fucking *weird*. Like, the whole world had this amber/orange glow.

[-]

Battle2Intense@reddit

Op should watch Collateral for an idea of what LA looked before LEDs.

[-]

Temporary-Library597@reddit

Ah yes, the old color of your electrical meter spinning at mach 4.

[-]

Stralau@reddit

There was an interesting phase in Berlin‘s history when the lights in the old east were still amber and the lights in the west weren’t.

[-]

Darwyn_Strangehand@reddit

Yeah, man. That's the color of walking home from the bar/parties late at night. Always will be!

[-]

rangeroverdose@reddit

[-]

Themoosemingled@reddit

You can still see east and west Germany from space because they used different lights behind the iron curtain.

[-]

rangeroverdose@reddit

You are right. Here in Chicago the stumble home was much nicer back then

[-]

QuietNene@reddit

Weird I don’t remember this at all

[-]

GarminTamzarian@reddit

Headlights used to be this color as well, back before they fucking blinded you.

[-]

mattskibasneck@reddit

RIGHT?! I want to say I can't believe they haven't regulated the lumens and CRI of these new LED headlights but then I remembered that this is America and we do nothing about real problems.

[-]

Fun-Preparation-4253@reddit

I don't specifically remember the world being orange, but all evidence definitely points to it. For the most part, all street lights were Halide. HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and MH (Metal Halide). They were SUPER efficient and lasted forever, but produced really low quality light. Municipalities didn't care if you could read with these lights. You just needed to be able to see. I learned about all this in Design school. CRI or Color Rendering Index was a way of measuring clarity in visible spaces (kinda). Incandescents were the standard in homes, but when all you care about is foot candles, go cheap.

[-]

mattskibasneck@reddit

idk about lasted forever - we used to replace those lamps & ballasts about every 2-3 years. it was kind of the lifeblood of our company.

I remember when lighting reps first started coming into our office to tout LED lighting. my bosses reaction was "why would I want to install something that doesn't need servicing?" 15 years later and now we're replacing LED drivers or boards every 3-5 years.

[-]

schenkzoola@reddit

As a point of clarification: They are inefficient compared to the LED’s that replaced them, but very efficient compared to incandescent.

[-]

Fun-Preparation-4253@reddit

Yup. Fair clarification here in 2026.

[-]

absentlyric@reddit

I don't miss them, here in the rust belt, they just made everything look "rustier".

I like the new LED lights, even in my industrial part of town, things look more lit up and vibrant.

[-]

djevilatw@reddit

Very much so. In the winter, you could tell it was snowing because everything as an orange glow from all the reflected street lights off the clouds and snow.

[-]

Dark_Tint@reddit

Yes they were

[-]

R0botDreamz@reddit

I wish we could go back to soft office lighting from the 80s.

[-]

Jestris@reddit

Yep!!

[-]

ONROSREPUS@reddit

Only until a couple years ago did the one in front of my mom's house get changed from an orangish one to a new white led style.

[-]

mikemclovin@reddit

High Pressure Sodium.
Yes they all looked like that and I miss it.

[-]

mattskibasneck@reddit

I was more of a metal halide girl myself. Cooler than the HPS ones but nothing like the blue/white of the LEDs.

[-]

virtualglassblowing@reddit

Also great grow lights!

[-]

Mission-Ocelot-4511@reddit

Dulles airport parking lots had all these orange lights, and after a long trip coming back at night, back in the day most cars looked a lot alike in body, and boy was it hard to see any color under those lights. Sometimes took a while to find your car…a long while.

[-]

KawaiiMaxine@reddit

They still are in alot of places

[-]

CubesFan@reddit

There are some kids who will remember the purple glow of youth due to a bunch of bad lights in the teens and early 20s lol.

[-]

Evilswine@reddit

Yes! For the absolute best example google "East vs West Germany Lights" East Germany still (or used to) uses the orange lights and West Germany used newer white lights and it is visible from space. Obviously one country now but the divide still remains from space.

[-]

username__0000@reddit

We still have some that are not switched over here. I think they wait until they die to replace them.

It’s weird walking under two next to each other that are different.

The yellow ones are so much nicer. They make the snow look extra glittery and pretty and the light is just nicer on the eyes.

I hate the new ones.

We also have some street lights that are LED and it’s so dumb for a place that gets as much snow as we do.

The other kind of lights melted the snow. A few times this winter I couldn’t see if I had the green arrow because the entire light was snowed over and it was a storm so visibility was already rough.

[-]

Hallgaar@reddit

My only time i got a traffic ticket was when I was driving in the snow to watch the ball drop at a downtown party. I couldn't see the traffic light and drove right through it, the cop right behind me however could.

[-]

General_Departure583@reddit

These looks so much better than dehumanizing white LED look

[-]

DarkenL1ght@reddit

I can hear the mild buzz sound coming from these street lights.

[-]

Hallgaar@reddit

Or when they went out as you walked past them, turning off as you can and on as you left.

[-]

Trashbagok@reddit

I didn't think I'd miss sodium vapor lights as much as I do.

[-]

GenderOobleck@reddit

MST3K understands the importance of sodium: https://youtu.be/FTECX5QB6jw

[-]

ManateeNipples@reddit

Probably not as much as the moths lol poor bastards

[-]

ryguymcsly@reddit

Yeah the blue/white lights just don’t give you the same “night time” vibe.

[-]

PIG20@reddit

Altough, when they're defective, I think they give off a really cool, purple "Vaporwave" vibe.

[-]

Matty_D47@reddit

Wait, they're not still? I haven't been out after dark for a while because the other cars headlights are blinding. Oh shit, did I just become old?

[-]

knowlessman@reddit

If you wanted the best experience you went to San Diego, California, where they had an agreement to only use low pressure sodium lights (even more orange) because the light from low pressure sodium is easier to filter out by the Palomar Observatory. Most places used high pressure sodium that is more yellow.

[-]

tiddayes@reddit

Yes those were high pressure sodium lights

[-]

always_thirsty@reddit

You mean they are not anymore? Man, I should go outside.

[-]

donutseason@reddit

My first thought was “are they not now?” so I’m going with YES

[-]

8last@reddit

I remember the buzz of the street lights.

[-]

emjay144@reddit

I saw the photo and immediately heard this in my head.

[-]

Riker_Omega_Three@reddit

Where I live they at least are using...I would say 3500K LED streetlights

But nothing beats High Pressure Sodium

They still have it in my parents neighborhood and it's so comforting to just go out to the street after dark and sit there like I did when I was a kid...and enjoy the orange amber light

[-]

fromthedarqwaves@reddit

Yes. My home town still has them. There was a push to install LED lights but people were stealing the copper wires.

[-]

al_rey503@reddit

Yes before LED

[-]

Sharp-Echo1797@reddit

Sodium Vapor lights.

[-]

rundabrun@reddit

warm tungsten light is much better at night than that cool led blue lighting. It is more psychologically relaxing and promotes better sleep.

[-]

DiamondDavey83@reddit

Still are in my dreams

[-]

Floundering_Dad_43@reddit

I remember when, driving in to Las Vegas at night, there was a tapestry of orange, green and yellow, based on the age of neighborhood and whether they had mercury or sodium gas inside

[-]

tuezdaie@reddit

I remember being an elementary school kid and occasionally being out past dark. Our street lights were further apart…so when I’d solo ride home, I’d ride soooo hard in the dark patches to get back into that sweet safe amber lighting…

[-]

hudsoncress@reddit

They're sodium lights and being phased out. There's some cool before/after switch to LED that are pretty neat.

[-]

Hehateme123@reddit

They still are in many countries. France is famous for its beautiful sodium vapor lamps which give a warm yellow glow.

[-]

Ingonyama70@reddit

Still are, in a lot of places

[-]

Unhappy_Performer538@reddit

It was beautiful. I hate the new lights

[-]

WaveTableSaw@reddit

Miss those old sodium vapor vibes.

[-]

ProverbialBass@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-vapor_lamp

[-]

GeneralEi@reddit

I miss my Mexico filter streetlights. Down with the cold and unfeeling whitelights

[-]

Kurfaloid@reddit

I really hope my retirement home has a fake alley lit with sodium vapor lights.

[-]

ConnectKale@reddit

Yes. In 2016-2017 I worked on a campaign on light pollution. The primary focus was how almost all cities had orange light domes.
With LED ‘s light domes have reduced in intensity and the light is more white/blue

[-]

SweetCosmicPope@reddit

Interestingly, Hawaii's big island uses low pressure sodium lights (orange) because they reduce light pollution for the nearby observatories. When I went there a couple years ago, I thought it was really cool that the streets were lit up bright orange but the sky was still perfectly black.

[-]

dirtyasseating@reddit

That's neat.

I had to Google it, because I would have assumed red would have been better, since red doesn't mess with night vision but Amber (orange/yellow) is better for reducing light pollution both because it doesn't produce blue light and scatters less in the atmosphere.

Very cool.

[-]

ConnectKale@reddit

Yeah. We have an observatory in my city. Before the LED swap they talked about the types of stars they would realistically see, since the telescope was essentially in the middle of the light domes. They also do an entire night sky presentation in the planetarium using different levels if light pollution based on studies done at the observatory. Incidentally I was able to see Saturn in the telescope and that was very cool.

[-]

Antithesis-X@reddit

They usually limit color temperatures of lighting to 3000-3500 near observatories.

[-]

necbone@reddit

And it sucks for a human on ground level..

[-]

AaronfromKY@reddit

Which always tripped me out because I thought they were anti-injection lights, but then I started seeing them on the highway and that really seemed weird.

[-]

Independent_Shoe3523@reddit

Could be a conscious choice for visibility or possibly the type of lighting source.

[-]

Jadekintsugi@reddit

I miss these, both for the fact that they were much more efficient than an LED, but also that they didn't destroy your night vision, didn't have as bad light pollution, and real a lot easier on the eyes.

All of these LED street lights make it feel like I'm on a movie set, and it can really mess with me.

[-]

RealCauliflower773@reddit

I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. HPS is ~130 Lumens/Watt at the higher end of the wattage packages, with efficiency reducing as you go down the wattage range. LEDs typically start at 130L/W and increase up to around 170.

I do miss the HPS, though.

[-]