US Streetlights Are Turning Purple • Hacker News Board

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#71

Post by worik » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:12 AM UTC

davidmurdoch wrote: post #37

Read somewhere a few years ago this was a manufacturer defect and they were in the hook for replacing them all. I've (not seriously) considered buying a pellet gun to shoot out the 4 massive neon purple lights at the entrance to my quaint 1970s era neighborhood. They didn't remove the old light poles after installing the new ones about 3 years ago, so it's double lit with sodium vapor and purple now. Curious is there…

> Curious is there is a single person on the planet that prefers the white (er, purple) street lights?

Yes

One at least, me

(I've never seen this failure mode, so I mean the LEDs)

I especially like the reduction in light pollution

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#72

Post by StrangeDoctor » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:13 AM UTC

Zak wrote: post #68

neilv wrote: post #61

As someone who walks a lot (including, for many years, back late at night from work or school), I really wish they'd made the LED streetlights approximate the original warm color temperature from the start. Instead of going bright white, high-color-rendition, wake-up-and-kiss-your-sleep-schedule-goodbye, which is what they went with instead. When the LED streetlights were first installed, they were horrible, and we w…

There are 1800K white LEDs as well as phosphor-converted amber made to approximate the look of the classic amber low-pressure sodium. 1800K white can render colors surprisingly well depending on the phosphor mix. I recently put one with claimed (and measured) CRI over 90 into a flashlight and was surprised to see that it actually can render blues reasonably well. I'm inclined to think those are better choices for str…

Each CRI is referenced to an ideal black body radiator at the same temp below 5000k. And there are 7 (or 14) sample points.

I’m not disagreeing with you, I agree that a high cri 1800k would be a nice night light. I just recently deep dived into this last week when my kitchen lights all died last week

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#73

Post by worik » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:16 AM UTC

Wow!

The comments here!

Are we really such neo-phobe curmudgeons? Sodium hallide street lights preferred over LEDs?

Golly Hacker News, get a grip and join the modern world!

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#74

Post by pxc » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:16 AM UTC

PedroBatista wrote: post #34

modeless wrote: post #11

> people driving at night may notice a moving object in their peripheral vision more quickly under bluish-white light than under yellowish-white light, [...] Gaining improved peripheral vision under blue-tinged light comes with a trade-off, however: once the moving object comes into focus, it becomes harder to see. If we were switching away from LED to sodium vapor lamps instead of the other way around, they would ha…

No, sodium vapor lights offer great performance in terms of contrast and visibility. Especially in bad weather conditions.

Higher contrast isn't strictly better. Street lights where I live are deliberately sparse to limit light pollution, but this means that some of them are sometimes too bright— since the whole road isn't suffused evenly with light, very bright lights are somewhat blinding, especially to light sensitive people.

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#75

Post by rco8786 » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:23 AM UTC

An apartment building a few blocks over from me has these. It makes the whole area look like a night club. Very weird.

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#76

Post by davidmurdoch » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:23 AM UTC

worik wrote: post #71

davidmurdoch wrote: post #37

Read somewhere a few years ago this was a manufacturer defect and they were in the hook for replacing them all. I've (not seriously) considered buying a pellet gun to shoot out the 4 massive neon purple lights at the entrance to my quaint 1970s era neighborhood. They didn't remove the old light poles after installing the new ones about 3 years ago, so it's double lit with sodium vapor and purple now. Curious is there…

> Curious is there is a single person on the planet that prefers the white (er, purple) street lights? Yes One at least, me (I've never seen this failure mode, so I mean the LEDs) I especially like the reduction in light pollution

I don't understand, you prefer the new LED lights but also like reduction in light pollution? The LEDs way brighter, so I'd think you'd prefer older lights.

I'd guess about 20% of the lights in and around Orlando are purple now. Maybe the heat and UV makes it worse here?

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#77

Post by keepamovin » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:33 AM UTC

Trade-off-aware software engineers discussing streetlight variant choices is the infinite loop of endless discussion.

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#78

Post by rtkwe » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:34 AM UTC

We had some of these on my street. Honestly liked them better than the full power ones they got replaced with.

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#79

Post by hackernoops » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:41 AM UTC

Glad I converted nearly all of the lights in my house to halogen, and stocked up on decades of bulbs, before the ban. Nice warm adjustable light. No strobing LED trash fucking up my eyesight.

Re: US Streetlights Are Turning Purple

#80

Post by dtgriscom » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:51 AM UTC

hackernoops wrote: post #79

Glad I converted nearly all of the lights in my house to halogen, and stocked up on decades of bulbs, before the ban. Nice warm adjustable light. No strobing LED trash fucking up my eyesight.

I'm the opposite; glad to have all LEDs. Cool, dimmable, and energy efficient.