D Peter Maus wrote:

Actually, they are, in a way, getting in on the LED wagon. Here in
The Windy, as well as in a good number of venues I've visited in
Wisconsin, the traffic lights have been changed from incandescent, to
LED arrays. They're very harsh to look at without the original color
filters used with the incandescents because the colors are pure, and the
viewing angle is narrow...putting the output of nearly 100 high output
LED's into a narrow beam. Small matter. Slap the filter over the LED's
and you've got a mellower color output with no diminution in brightness. ]

They'll last. Lower maintenance costs. Total energy for the traffic
system is reduced, but not by as much as you might think. But they
depending on installation and operating parameters, produce a hellaceous
amount of RF noise. The LED arrays in my area cast RFI shadows as far
inland as my house.


They are already having to replace LED traffic lights that are barely
a year old. One of the Red LED lights near my house started failing at
six months, and continued till only about 10$ of it still worked. Some
whole strings were out, while others had LEDs that were so dim you could
barely see them. One hot summer was all it took to start the failures.
I see quite a few green LED lights with several dead LEDs, as well.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida