What is Digg?134 Comments
- ATHEISTinHELL, on 10/11/2007, -0/+69They better be careful when they do this in Boston.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+49awesome. led lights are way brighter than old ones and as a bonus they use less energy
- ZombyWoof78, on 10/11/2007, -0/+33LED traffic lights are way easier to see during the day when the sun is shinning on them.
- Grivako, on 10/11/2007, -2/+35Lets hope this trend continues around the world, such small steps can lead to great changes in the large scope.
- nitroburn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22I love the LED traffic lights. They replaced the ones here in Surrey, BC Canada back a few years ago and the difference is night and day.
- jimmiss, on 10/11/2007, -0/+19I haven't seen an old style traffic light in about 2 years here in Canada. I live in the boondocks (Atlantic Canada) so I doubt that it is a local thing.
- DeskFlyer, on 10/11/2007, -3/+21LEDs for the win.
- Technopope, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15Taiwan is not setting a trend, they are about 5 years behind the rest of the world in using LED traffic lights.
- ichibanjay, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13I was there last summer, many intersection lights were already using LED lights. But what made them cool in comparison to the ones in the US was that the yellow light's LEDs doubled as a digital display and would count down the time left on the green light or the time for the other intersection to turn red. Very handy as you knew exactly when the lights were going to change.
Also, the pedestrian walk light also had a timer and a green guy that was animated too!
http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/static/images/intern/ampelmaennchenTaiwan.jpg - wayne247, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13And the colors are so much better. Red lights are RED, really red, not orangish-reddish.
I've found out that even from far away, their accurate color stand out in their envrionment. Even on a very bright sunny day, an LED yellow light is much more visible than incandescent yellow lights.
For traffic signalling, LED is the way to go. How many times have I seen burnt lights and the green light becomes a "nothing"?
I really wonder what they'll do for their planned street lights. I mean, the actual product used, high pressure sodium lamps, is already very efficient. It's already much more efficient than other mercury vapor lamps. What would they replace it with? White leds? I'm not sure it can stack up against multivapor or high pressure sodiums bulbs... Even if you stack 100 luxeon star 5 watts, for a total of 500 watts, that would still be a far cry from a 500 watts multivapor lamp. - aussieNickuss, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12We've had LED traffic lights in Australia for at least 4 or 5 years now. It began with all new sets installed required to be LED, and existing sets have gradually been phased across. I don't think I ever see an incandescent traffic light these days.
- coasterswim, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12If they did the change, that would certainly rule out the excuse, "No, officer, the light was not red... it was an orangish-reddish."
- Shorties, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11We have alot of LED traffic lights in america too.
- indyGuy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8I've seen plenty of LED traffic lights in Indianapolis...
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8where can i get some for my house? I've looked, can't find any...
- euro22, on 12/17/2008, -3/+10It would be cool to see this take place in the US as well.
- lilricky, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Hopefully they constructed them with more foresight than the ones here in Orlando. Orlando went led on all traffic lights about 5 years ago, however, now alot of the individual leds are failing and they have to replace the whole lamp assembly to fix it. If they made it so you could simply replace the individual leds it would have cost the taxpayers alot less money. But I digress, its good to see more cities going led.
- Technopope, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6They aren't really ready for full lighting in a home yet. In the above link, the $35 spotlight bulb (by far the brightest) only put out 120 lumens. Compare that to 1700 lumens for a 26 watt CFL costing about $3.
A LONG way to go... - wayne247, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Replacing cheap bulbs with cheap LED doesn't help reliability. In my town, we've switched to all-LED a few years ago and I have never seen a single problem, either a burnt/defective light, or a single led in the array gone bad... And we have crazy weather with hot summers and cold winters. So I think maybe it's a case of supplier quality?
- BlakeEM, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/7aa8/
or try ebay... they are easy to find. - seanc6610, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5NYC (including the outer boroughs) uses all LED lights for traffic signals, and the walk/don't walk signals and stuff. It's a much cleaner look than the old school lighting, plus it uses less energy and is easier to see.
- GeneralAntilles, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5They've been doing this over the past few years in St. Petersburg, FL (replaced a bunch after hurricanes Jeanne and Frances). They're a lot more visible (especially during the day) and the improved color saturation looks wonderful.
- Awspire, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5All we need now is an advancement in solar power technology to serve as a traffic controller power source. Not that I'm overly concerned about power consumption, though just think how nice it would be to still have powered singals when the grid goes down.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I serviced traffic lights for 15 years. I am not aware of LEDs being used in Australia. The lamps used to last from 3 to 6 months. They changed over to low voltage which gives about a years life to the lamps. The actual cost is in the labour cost of re-lamping. If the LED lamps are designed properly, it would make sense to change the complete unit on site and outsource the repairs. If the LED lamps were purchased in a 1000 lot, it would be cheaper to bin the old units. If they get 5 years out of the LED lamps, forget the electricity savings, they would have recouped the costs in lamp changing alone. Say 3 re-lamps per year for 5 years, versus 1 re-lamp in 5 years. At $100 per hour re-lamp costs you can see the costs savings.
- digidelia, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4have they made leds that are capable of the lumens for a streetlight, though?
- Archer1980, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Yeah, i live in Ontario Canada and they've replaced most of the traffic lights here a few years ago as well, i believe most of canda is going this way, don't see how you can have an 85% energy savings, but hey, what ever helps.
@wildfire2 - you think asians and women are bad drivers, try an Asian Women, i know a few here and man, they rack up at least 3 accidents a year, not to mention all the speeding tickets and towed cars - Archer1980, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Never had problems with our LED traffic lights in canada, yours traffic system must be run by the same system keeping track of Apple Stock
- NSMike, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4First? Here in Pennsylvania, they've been using LED traffic lights for at least four years now.
- digidelia, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4all the new traffic lights that go up here in las vegas are LED, they just haven't started replacing the existing ones
- shank2001, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Most of California has already switched, too
- zhulien, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4they don't use leds already? I don't remember the last time I saw a non-led traffic light in Melbourne.
- clark1001, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Somewhere, a retarded 5 year old is laughing his ass off.
- spookyttws, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I don't know, my city (Huntington Beach, CA) switched over a few years back. The lights are indeed brighter and more true color, but many of the LEDs have either burnt out or broke, so the lights resemble dead pixels on a monitor. Nothing really bad or wrong with it, just something that doesn't happen with conventional lights.
- pimpsallad, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3no
- ISurfTooMuch, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Yeah, but this is a story about an entire country doing it.
- jvnane, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4"led lights"
Light emitting diode lights? - livibetter, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Taipei, Taiwan started testing LED traffic signs in 1998. In 2000, we started to replaced old traffic lights in big cities in Taiwan. It is hard to see old traffic lights in Taiwan nowadays. Not many left to be replaced. I believe Taiwan government just want to hold the chance to create a NEWS over the world.
- Rabbethan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3They are doing them down here in Miami. The look much better than the old ones.
- PhantomZmoove, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Very similar to the VIN number on your car. lol
- TheOther1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Me either. Of course I've never been to Melbourne...
- lipa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3they have been doing this is Melbourne, Australia for the last few years... soon all traffic lights (including train level crossings) will be LED's. The LED lights are much easier to see at all times of the day/night. It also means that less money will be spent in the long run on replacing lights.
- jimmiss, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Yeah, you'd be pretty suprised. One "Light" is replaced by about 500 LEDs. That's an estimate, but it's gotta be close. Maybe double that.
- mygrayarea, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3New Orleans has had all LED traffic lights for some time now. Much better than the old crap.
- Awspire, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3In the U.S., Power Companies largely fund Municipalities to switch over to LED's via rebate incentives. Though, that must be a disappointing fact to conspiracists.
- PRlME, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3whats the big deal its already done in NYC(about 99.9%).... Its kinda late for that.
- NSMike, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This is already being implemented in the US. I know in my area, slightly north of Pittsburgh, all new traffic lights are LED, and burnouts are replaced with LED. Hell, they've even just replaced traditional ones that are old just because of their age.
- Zero82z, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2They use many LEDs for each light, the array is pretty much the same size as a regular bulb fixture. Here in Montreal every time they add or replace a traffic light they use LEDs, and they're much more visible than the older bulb-based lights.
- vornan19, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Woooooo! Go Taiwan!
- Murdats, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I agree with wayne, in australia we are switching over.
however if that is happening which is better
having parts of the light go out, that can be replaced
have the single bulb burn out (which is much more common) and have no light - rickst13, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I am going to have to agree with icotan here. People will remember things that fit with their stereotypes. The brain does a lot to justify its views.
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