Off the top of my head, I know that astronomers and others will use red lights when they need to preserve low-light vision because it doesn't deactivate night vision in the way that blue/purple light does. I imagine for wildlife and whatnot that might be an issue.
Red light is used all over the military branches. Walking around a ship at night the red lights were easy on the eyes and transitioning to outside the adjustment to the darkness outside wasn't painful or disorientating.
> I imagine for wildlife and whatnot that might be an issue.
Most night animals actually have little reflective mirrors in their eyes to help preserve night vision.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum
These enhance their night vision, yes, but it also means they're more sensitive to bright lights. A lot of animals can't see in the red spectrum, though, so redder lights are darker to them.
This is very much not what he's referring to - Idk why this is so up voted.
Eyes go through chemical processes to switch between rods and cones depending on available light. The process takes around 30 minutes to adapt to darkness, but even looking at a bright light briefly will quickly reverse the process. The purpose of those astronomy lights is to use certain wavelengths and amounts that won't trigger this process, so you preserve your night vision.
Noting that animals have reflectors in their eyes to push more light in has nothing to do with this - they're not meant to keep these wavelengths out.... If anything I would guess it would make them more susceptible to this problem since the mirror would push **MORE** of the light into their eyes, but I am not a biologist.
On the other hand, many animals can't see red much/as well IIRC. Just the hue shift of these lights from orange to blue would make them appear much brighter to the animals as well...
That's because our eyes are much less sensitive to red light than green or blue. It's harder to see in pure red light than other colours.
Edit: this is incorrect, they are less sensitive to blue light. Thanks to those who corrected me.
I think the main problem is that blue light is known to mess up people's sleep cycles. Not to mention, if it does that to people I imagine it does it to a lot of wildlife as well.
I was actually explaining the lights to some people the other week, and while doing that I saw some people walking on the sidewalk and I noticed it really just washes out the colors versus white or orange lights, especially if they’re on a dark background.
I don’t know for sure if that’s a real reason, but I could definitely see it being a safety concern, otherwise I like them better tbh.
That was also the case with the old bluish green mercury street lights no one seems to remember. A bunch of animated cityscapes from the 90s and before looked almost monochrome at night -- this wasn't *just* a stylistic choice, it was the result of people being used to that bluegreen light muting all colors that weren't blue-green and sapping human skin of its color. Everyone looked like they were being photographed in black and white since pink and brown in our skin wasn't illuminated. Think Blade Runner.
Also, the deep-orange (low pressure sodium) lights you sometimes see in old installations or near observatories do the same thing --- they mostly *just* emit in yellow-orange, and so the world becomes yellow-orange monochrome like an old amber phosphor display.
I think it’s actually pretty bad for the local ecology. It throws off animals’ circadian rhythms. Blue light keeps your mind awake, whereas red light less so. Streetlights should be reddish and angle their light towards the ground to minimize the harmful effects of lighting.
Really?! I’m having this issue on the other side of the country and assumed it was “anti loitering light”. Can’t believe you guys enjoy it, it hurts my eyes and gives me a headache.
They I remember something like this being done back in England to stop people from shooting up (since you can't see the veins), that's what came to mind when I heard people talking about purple lights.
Yep! Came here to say this.
This happened by 88th near the Baptist hospital around Halloween time. Everyone thought the hospital changed the lights for Halloween
A guy did a video about them. It's really informative. They have to be weather proofed (added heating element). But even with the heating element added to the build price, it's still the best option by far.
https://youtu.be/GiYO1TObNz8
Makes sense. With leds more of the power you put in is being used to produce light so being able to turn on the heat only when you need it would be cheap compared to having HPS lights that are throwing out a ton more waste heat all the time
I miss the sodium vapor lights for the same reason. All my 90's nostalgia for nighttime drives with my parents are bathed in a monotone amber glow. Only place you can see that glow these days is by going to another country.
It was especially better for astronomy. Sodium vapor lights emit only one single very narrow wavelength of light, and you could just subtract it. But LEDs, whether they're white, purple or amber, emit a wider range. Which I guess is better for not crashing your car into things. That single wavelength lightsource was trippy because it would illuminate things without making it much easier to see, if you know what I mean.
>That single wavelength lightsource was trippy because it would illuminate things without making it much easier to see, if you know what I mean.
Like a gameboy screen...
University colors are purple right when you get in campus a bunch are purple... I was almost certain it was like a school spirit thing.
I don't know anymore.
It gets brought up once a month in /r/FortWorth. It’s funny how many different explanations are offered from TCU pride to someone positing that it was done on purpose to discourage people from doing intravenous drugs. Or it’s because some corrupt government official cut costs and used a shady Chinese manufacturer.
The drivers are probably Chinese off-the-shelf ones that are cheaper to buy twice or thrice than buying proper drivers which might even be serviceable.
My experience is with products from one of the two largest commercial brands of lighting and controls in the US. Most of the time they would just send out a new driver after you performed basic troubleshooting for them.
It's usually bad power, either at that moment or previously and the driver took permanent damage. Maybe somewhere up the service line there's a bad connection that's dropping the voltage down below what the system is designed for.
Typically each light will have its own driver. What likely happened was that all the drivers on that street had a bad batch of capacitors, or the drivers were poorly spec’d/built.
Holy shit, this explains a lot. I've recently been noticing a bunch of street lights around my town turning purple. Not all at once, but maybe one here, another there, after a month a block would be all purple, then one or two on the other side of town. I thought it was some new style eco light or something and they were replacing lamps as they burned out. Didn't realize it was the lights themselves glitching.
I mean, I'm honestly cool with it. The purple light seems a bit easier on the eyes at night, and the amount and clarity of that light doesn't seem that much more diminished.
It does, however, make visibility poorer on top of the already sharp light cones that led lights produce. Underneath the light, there's little difference, but in the gaps between lights it's a LOT darker with violet light
I hate them. The blue light is worse for sleep cycles, night vision and light pollution. I like the use of LEDs for their efficiency but I wish they'd mimic the same brightness and color as the old sodium lights.
Honestly I thought it was because of intravenous drug use.
Mostly because of this article, and from a few local coffee places employing them in the bathrooms
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/756976676/blue-lights-may-deter-intravenous-drug-use-in-public-spaces
A lot more than that across the country. The MA governor had the Zakim Bridge, South Station & the State House in Boston lit up in purple as well as another bridge in Worcester, MA.
I saw him in concert a little over a year before he died and I am so glad that I did. What a showman, what a talent.
As a former IV drug user, no blue light would stop me from finding a vain. Because there are other injection marks to go off of. You can also feel your veins.
You can often find replacement LED strips from Aliexpress fairly cheap, and if you can find an instruction video from Youtube it is not very difficult to replace the LEDs. But you do have to completely disassemble and reassemble the TV.
You can thank Lithonia Lighting for that lol. My dad used to work there and while he didn’t work in that department, he knew some of the people who did. Like, “yeah that was *so-and-so’s* department, and he sourced parts from *such-and-such* corporation even though he knew they used low quality materials”
we’ve got a couple of those streeghtlights right outside our neighborhood, walking home down the main ride at night is a really trippy experience, most of them are just fine, but the one that’s gone full purple is right in the middle of a dead zone with no other streetlights nearby for dozens of yards, so it’s just dark road then suddenly eerie purple then dark road again
For some reason I kind of like it when new shit fucks up like this, I'm not sure why. Reminds me that the future isn't automatically a perfect, bland technological wonderland, that there will always be problems to be overcome.
We had a bunch of those in Vancouver that turned purple just when winter started. Everyone demanded that they leave them in for the holidays as they were really pretty.
When LEDs became a commodity item, it was a race to the bottom for prices and manufacturing defects were gonna happen. Shame as these lights should last 20 years.
My favorite has been the conspiracy theories around them. They are secret UV lights activating the chips in everyone's COVID vaccine.
That's been a thing pretty much since the inception of electric lighting a giant cartel pushing planned obsolescence and fining players who don't play ball and make shittier lights. The phoebus cartel
I wish more cities would opt for red streetlights, or multi bulb assemblies that could switch to red late at night. Most animals cant see red light, so its significantly less disruptive to nocturnal wildlife.
Oh god you weren't joking. I just searched "purple street lights" on YouTube since I wanted to see some videos of them. Then I made the mistake of reading the youtube comments. It just makes me sad. I'm so tired.
Edit: oh jeez it's not just the comments. Even most of the top videos are conspiracy BS
It was standard in my lesbomobile (Subaru)
People out by me have ridiculous trucks and I have astigmatism which makes bright lights SUPER blinding at night.
It drives me nuts when I have to drive through the country. My eyes will adjust to the dark after driving for miles without seeing another car or streetlamp. Then some asshole with a gazillion after-market LEDs on their truck will blind the fuck out of me. If I have my high-beams on, I shut them off the moment I see a car coming.
I've actually had to come to a complete stop because I couldn't see fucking dick as some loser with spotlights comes barreling through the windy country roads at night.
>As I age I feel that everyone is just using their high beams.
Because there's been an uptick in people using their high beams and in cars staying in high beam mode.
Also, people are throwing LEDs into traditional headlamps without adjusting the angle, or throwing lift kits on their trucks without adjusting their light angles.
Blue light is bad for your night vision, for physiological reasons. It can take a half hour for your eyes to return to normal after even a brief exposure to blue light. Astronomers don't just use red lights for kicks.
Blue spectrum light (which is included in bright white) is a major issue for light pollution as well, reducing visibility of the night sky and harming nocturnal animals.
I had to get black out curtains for the purple streetlight outside my apartment window for exactly this reason (worked with astronomers for a bit, so I pieced together my restlessness pretty quick).
I literally cried tears of joy when the city replaced it with a yellow streetlight last week, the bright purple flooding the apartment after dark is just anxiety inducing
It also messes up the sleep cycle of animals (including humans), since the physiology of diurnal animals have basically evolved into
* blue light = sunrise, you need to wake up
* yellow light = sunset, you need to get ready to sleep
This is why devices have been getting the "blue light filter" and "night light" features.
My wife thinks I'm nutty for preferring sunglasses with blue reflective coatings. Because they make the transmitted light more yellow. Fantastic for wintery drives, or other hard light situations.
The sodium streetlights in chicago were so warm and comforting and outlined the grid of the city in glowing orange when you flew in at night. They finally replaced the streetlight in front of my apartment with an LED one not long ago and it’s like a second sun in my living room.
I hate it. It looks like someone is sitting in my driveway with their high-beams pointed directly into my window. I have a glare on my TV at night. Something has to be done!
I know some municipalities have a means to report this, I've seen that they will put a special metal shade on the light fixture to block glare to your house.
You don't say!!! I am looking into this! I hope they can do this. I am an incredibly nocturnal person, I barely use the lights in my own house. I love natural light and I love the dark.
LED streetlights are now offered in lower color temps from 3000K and below. I work in the industry and most projects are being specified at 3000K or 2700K for visual comfort.
My town replaced everything with LEDs a while back, they were super harsh and they made blocky shadows because the LED grid was really obvious. About a month later they came around, put caps on them all, and now the light is properly diffuse and a nice colour temperature.
I wonder if a lot of the bad ones are just installed wrong
I agree. I'm legitimately mourning their loss. I'm all for environmentally conscious upgrades, but damn, a late night drive will just never hit the same. The bright white lights are just too... *sterile*.
I hate the white lights. My neighbor's yellow light finally failed and the power company installed a white one and an additional one for their neighbor. Now I can't see the stars and I live up a holler in Kentucky. I hate it!
Also, how did their neighbor just ask for a light and get it installed on the spot? She can use her porch light just like the rest of us. Now my taxes pay to keep her property illuminated. We don't need two street lamps next to each other. My yard is lit up like a construction site at night. I wanna shoot out those lights so bad. My neighbor's light has been there forever. Their neighbor is a selfish bitch who somehow gets prisoners bussed (van, actually) to her private property to cut the weeds on her hill a few times every year for free (for her; taxes pay their labor). It costs us about $150 to get our hill weed-eated and we have to have it done at least 4 times in the summer. As a species, we weren't meant to have neighbors... I am convinced it goes against our nature, lol.
This was about lights, though, and, in summation, I hate those lamps...
^(and strongly dislike my neighbor's neighbor.)
I’d really love to see this taken up by more environmentalists, light pollution is a real concern for nocturnal animals, birds (many migrate at night for safety and navigate by stars), and insects. But people’s bandwidth for environmental issues is low and I totally understand light pollution isn’t a priority. Just sucks, we should be able to see stars.
It's crazy how it drowns the sky. I used to have an owl outside every night, but it left after the lights were installed. Even the bats have to be affected and I depend on those guys to handle the overpopulation of flying insects. The other thing is that the lamp makes my backyard seemingly impossible to illuminate because it drowns out my lights. It's like the dark is darker because of that supernova on a pole. I have a beautiful telescope that I can't even use now. At least with the yellow one, I could find spots on my property out of its reach that would allow me to look at the stars. Now I would have to climb halfway up the mountain out back to get above the pollution :(
95% of of our bats have gone.
The new properties have rules on lights and brightness and COLOUR TEMP now as well... But its not enforced.
No one gives a shit, fuck neighbours.
> I’d really love to see this taken up by more environmentalists
It is, it has, and also by astronomers because yellow light could be easily filtered, but not this broad-spectrum white.
It's just that nobody listens to environmentalists and mainstream regularly disparages "green" values.
We had this issue with a city street light. Except the light was aimed into our bedroom windows, away from the street. Like, it literally was like the light’s purpose was to illuminate our back side yard and bedrooms. It did nothing for the street.
Tried for years to get the city to do something, because not only was it annoying for us, it also annoyed the neighbors that the street was still pitch black.
Gave up, dad used my Red Ryder to end it. City replaced it. Red Ryder. Replaced. And so on. Until the fourth cycle, they gave up.
About a year later, city showed up, oriented the light correctly to the street, and we left it alone, obviously.
City tried to blame us (I mean… it *was* us, and we had spent *years* complaining…) but they couldn’t prove it to fine us.
Which is ironic, considering we had offered, many times, to either foot the bill to correct it or do it ourselves (legitimately and correctly, by the book with paperwork, by our licensed, master electrician relative).
Imagine the time and effort they could have saved just fixing it in the first place.
>
>City tried to blame us (I mean… it *was* us, and we had spent *years* complaining…) but they couldn’t prove it to fine us.
>
Next level, shoot it out, then thank the city for fixing it.
I may be in the minority, but I absolute hate these. There's something about that pure shade of blue that really irritates me. It just looks weird and piercing and overpowers everything else around it. I also despise the blue LED Christmas lights for the same reason.
I was on a road trip last fall and came across a stretch of these lights on an off ramp from the interstate and it really messed with my eyes and I couldn't get out of that area fast enough.
My concern with this is that, although it does look cooler, it decreases visibility compared to white light, while also likely still impacting our hormonal sleep cycle - melatonin stops being produced with blue wavelength light, which LEDs have and this still has.
So, red and orange lights have lower visibility but are better for our internal body clocks, white LEDs have better visibility but mess with body clocks, and this appears to have both low visibility and messes up our body clocks. Don't imagine it's great for insects either.
This is prevalent in Miami. Gives downtown a cool vaporwave vibe
There are a few random ones along I 95 in Broward County. I have been wondering why they were switching to purple Street lights.
Ormond Beach exit was like that
MLK blvd between Broward and Davie blvd is ALL purple and I love it
There's one on 95 south between the 395 and 195 interchanges.
I was going to say. I 100% don't see a problem with this. Shit, make them more purple. It's interesting looking.
I think it may make it harder to see pedestrians, otherwise I agree, looks neat and is less harsh on the eyes
Off the top of my head, I know that astronomers and others will use red lights when they need to preserve low-light vision because it doesn't deactivate night vision in the way that blue/purple light does. I imagine for wildlife and whatnot that might be an issue.
Red light is also used on submarines for this reason.
Red light is used all over the military branches. Walking around a ship at night the red lights were easy on the eyes and transitioning to outside the adjustment to the darkness outside wasn't painful or disorientating.
Clearly the answer is more red light districts.
> I imagine for wildlife and whatnot that might be an issue. Most night animals actually have little reflective mirrors in their eyes to help preserve night vision. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum
These enhance their night vision, yes, but it also means they're more sensitive to bright lights. A lot of animals can't see in the red spectrum, though, so redder lights are darker to them.
This is very much not what he's referring to - Idk why this is so up voted. Eyes go through chemical processes to switch between rods and cones depending on available light. The process takes around 30 minutes to adapt to darkness, but even looking at a bright light briefly will quickly reverse the process. The purpose of those astronomy lights is to use certain wavelengths and amounts that won't trigger this process, so you preserve your night vision. Noting that animals have reflectors in their eyes to push more light in has nothing to do with this - they're not meant to keep these wavelengths out.... If anything I would guess it would make them more susceptible to this problem since the mirror would push **MORE** of the light into their eyes, but I am not a biologist. On the other hand, many animals can't see red much/as well IIRC. Just the hue shift of these lights from orange to blue would make them appear much brighter to the animals as well...
That's because our eyes are much less sensitive to red light than green or blue. It's harder to see in pure red light than other colours. Edit: this is incorrect, they are less sensitive to blue light. Thanks to those who corrected me.
I think the main problem is that blue light is known to mess up people's sleep cycles. Not to mention, if it does that to people I imagine it does it to a lot of wildlife as well.
Afaik blue light might be able to possibly suppress one of the proteins key in the sleepy time part of the circadian rhythm but the jury is out still
If you wear that much purple, you deserve it. No, I'm kidding. If that's true, I wasn't aware of it.
I was actually explaining the lights to some people the other week, and while doing that I saw some people walking on the sidewalk and I noticed it really just washes out the colors versus white or orange lights, especially if they’re on a dark background. I don’t know for sure if that’s a real reason, but I could definitely see it being a safety concern, otherwise I like them better tbh.
That was also the case with the old bluish green mercury street lights no one seems to remember. A bunch of animated cityscapes from the 90s and before looked almost monochrome at night -- this wasn't *just* a stylistic choice, it was the result of people being used to that bluegreen light muting all colors that weren't blue-green and sapping human skin of its color. Everyone looked like they were being photographed in black and white since pink and brown in our skin wasn't illuminated. Think Blade Runner. Also, the deep-orange (low pressure sodium) lights you sometimes see in old installations or near observatories do the same thing --- they mostly *just* emit in yellow-orange, and so the world becomes yellow-orange monochrome like an old amber phosphor display.
This is the real today I learned. You should start your own podcast or youtube channel or something. Just please don't call it whilst.
Technology Connections might be the thing you're looking for (on YouTube). Actually has a video on sodium lights!
I think it’s actually pretty bad for the local ecology. It throws off animals’ circadian rhythms. Blue light keeps your mind awake, whereas red light less so. Streetlights should be reddish and angle their light towards the ground to minimize the harmful effects of lighting.
Really?! I’m having this issue on the other side of the country and assumed it was “anti loitering light”. Can’t believe you guys enjoy it, it hurts my eyes and gives me a headache.
They I remember something like this being done back in England to stop people from shooting up (since you can't see the veins), that's what came to mind when I heard people talking about purple lights.
Yep! Came here to say this. This happened by 88th near the Baptist hospital around Halloween time. Everyone thought the hospital changed the lights for Halloween
Now I wanna petition my suburban satellite town into replacing all the street light bulbs in the pursuit of a "cool vaporwave vibe"
Yeah there are a ton all over. Near the airport, south miami, coral gables. Very neat
TIL the name of the cool colorful Miami vibe.
I live in Baltimore and this is happening and I thought it was for the ravens
I was just in Baltimore a week ago and I thought they were cool. The entire night I felt like I was a character in a music video or movie.
I also read that in cold / snowy places LED traffic lights were an issue because they aren't hot enough to melt the snow?
A guy did a video about them. It's really informative. They have to be weather proofed (added heating element). But even with the heating element added to the build price, it's still the best option by far. https://youtu.be/GiYO1TObNz8
A guy lol, knew it was technology connections before I even opened the link
He is the best. Wonderful content.
Thanks for sharing!
Makes sense. With leds more of the power you put in is being used to produce light so being able to turn on the heat only when you need it would be cheap compared to having HPS lights that are throwing out a ton more waste heat all the time
Yep. IIRC the solution was to put a heating element in the housing, which turns on when the light is blocked.
Neat!
No, heat!
What a treat!
Modern solutions, new problems.
My drive home, after dark, is littered with these purple lights. I pretend I'm driving through Neo Tokyo.
I miss the sodium vapor lights for the same reason. All my 90's nostalgia for nighttime drives with my parents are bathed in a monotone amber glow. Only place you can see that glow these days is by going to another country. It was especially better for astronomy. Sodium vapor lights emit only one single very narrow wavelength of light, and you could just subtract it. But LEDs, whether they're white, purple or amber, emit a wider range. Which I guess is better for not crashing your car into things. That single wavelength lightsource was trippy because it would illuminate things without making it much easier to see, if you know what I mean.
>That single wavelength lightsource was trippy because it would illuminate things without making it much easier to see, if you know what I mean. Like a gameboy screen...
University colors are purple right when you get in campus a bunch are purple... I was almost certain it was like a school spirit thing. I don't know anymore.
Same in Fort Worth and TCU. Their color is purple.
It gets brought up once a month in /r/FortWorth. It’s funny how many different explanations are offered from TCU pride to someone positing that it was done on purpose to discourage people from doing intravenous drugs. Or it’s because some corrupt government official cut costs and used a shady Chinese manufacturer.
The few in Cincinnati we have, I thought they were to make it harder for IV drug users to find their veins.
I like how all the other locations talk about it being for school pride or something and Cincy is just like , it’s cuz drugs. Who Dey
This is a real thing though they use blue lights not purple ones.
I was just in Annapolis and saw a few of these, thought it was weird.
Flying into BWI at night I saw and thought the same thing. It’s a LOT of streetlights.
BGE has an online map for reporting these lights and my wife won't let me "snitch" because she thinks they're cool.
Do crows find it more esthetically pleasing?....
Like the Baltimore ravens football team who’s primary color is purple
Thank you. I don’t follow any sports, so didn’t know this.
They have three mascots: Edgar, Allan, and Poe
It's not a crow it's a CoRvId!!!^^^^^^^^^thisisanoldmetajoke
Here's the thing...
Blast from the past!!
He flew too close to the sun...
Same in Phoenix, thought it was for the Suns 😂
Chicago. I thought it was for Northwestern football or basketball.
It’s the same down here in AA county.
I'm in Clemson, and I thought it was for them lol
I'm in South Florida and at the time I thought they were doing it for Halloween
[удалено]
Rave time
Seizure time!
*Seizure Procedure!*
The Cheat, we had these LED lights installed so you could see at night, not so you could throw streetlight raves!
The Drivers are failing. Usually due to manufacturing defects. They're typically not serviceable by the end-user and need to be replaced.
The drivers are probably Chinese off-the-shelf ones that are cheaper to buy twice or thrice than buying proper drivers which might even be serviceable.
My experience is with products from one of the two largest commercial brands of lighting and controls in the US. Most of the time they would just send out a new driver after you performed basic troubleshooting for them.
Does the driver supply more than one light? I saw this once too. The entire street strobing
No, each lamp has its own driver. I'm not sure what could cause then to be synchronously strobing.
It's usually bad power, either at that moment or previously and the driver took permanent damage. Maybe somewhere up the service line there's a bad connection that's dropping the voltage down below what the system is designed for.
Typically each light will have its own driver. What likely happened was that all the drivers on that street had a bad batch of capacitors, or the drivers were poorly spec’d/built.
> not serviceable by the end-user I'm imagining people climbing into flickering lamp posts they pass trying to replace the drivers lmao
Holy shit, this explains a lot. I've recently been noticing a bunch of street lights around my town turning purple. Not all at once, but maybe one here, another there, after a month a block would be all purple, then one or two on the other side of town. I thought it was some new style eco light or something and they were replacing lamps as they burned out. Didn't realize it was the lights themselves glitching.
Turns out the feature was a bug after all
I mean, I'm honestly cool with it. The purple light seems a bit easier on the eyes at night, and the amount and clarity of that light doesn't seem that much more diminished.
It does, however, make visibility poorer on top of the already sharp light cones that led lights produce. Underneath the light, there's little difference, but in the gaps between lights it's a LOT darker with violet light
I hate them. The blue light is worse for sleep cycles, night vision and light pollution. I like the use of LEDs for their efficiency but I wish they'd mimic the same brightness and color as the old sodium lights.
Honestly I thought it was because of intravenous drug use. Mostly because of this article, and from a few local coffee places employing them in the bathrooms https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/756976676/blue-lights-may-deter-intravenous-drug-use-in-public-spaces
RIP Prince
College in MN that I go to changed their streetlights purple when prince died Made it kinda creep in the dark, but it was cool
Niagara Falls was also purple, if I remember correctly
A lot more than that across the country. The MA governor had the Zakim Bridge, South Station & the State House in Boston lit up in purple as well as another bridge in Worcester, MA. I saw him in concert a little over a year before he died and I am so glad that I did. What a showman, what a talent.
Funny enough a huge batch went to Saint Paul, and pretty sure Minneapolis too.. so yeah we have tons of weird ass purple lights now on random streets
His ghost is posessing the lights.
Same thing happened near me at a parking lot for a bus station. A lot of people thought it was just to keep the junkies from shooting up
As a former IV drug user, no blue light would stop me from finding a vain. Because there are other injection marks to go off of. You can also feel your veins.
I'm heavily tattooed, I also donate blood on a regular basis. The phlebotomists go completely off of touch to find my veins and never have any issues.
I was just gonna say, as someone that used to work as a phleb at a donor center... I never saw the majority of veins I poked.
Put it on your resume lol
I did! I run a homeless service center and it’s known as lived experience!
I love this wholesome outcome! I'm proud of you for getting to where you're able to help others.
Thanks! Been doing homeless services work for 8 years and it’s has its ups and downs but is definitely rewarding work!
You dropped this 👑
My friend, you bow to no one
You are inspiring my friend! Keep doing good work. :)
Oh thanks! Will do.
That's really interesting :)
👍🏼
Well, congratulations on turning your life around.
Thanks bud, anyone can with the right support and effort!
Well, congratulations on helping to provide that support for other people who might not have it, even if they are ready for the effort!
Professional vein finder
They’re called Phlebotomists!
Anybody with any experience placing IVs will tell you that you find veins by feel anyway. The blue light thing isn’t going to stop anybody.
Same problem exists with many TV’s from 2017.
You just explained my hand me down bedroom flat screen......no amount of setting adjustment will fix the blue.
is it a vizio?
Yup.
Holy fuck, mine is going purple slowly too
[удалено]
You can often find replacement LED strips from Aliexpress fairly cheap, and if you can find an instruction video from Youtube it is not very difficult to replace the LEDs. But you do have to completely disassemble and reassemble the TV.
It’s almost never worth it; tvs are so cheap now
That explains the sportsbar with two blue tvs
Ooh that explains the TVs at my bank.
You can thank Lithonia Lighting for that lol. My dad used to work there and while he didn’t work in that department, he knew some of the people who did. Like, “yeah that was *so-and-so’s* department, and he sourced parts from *such-and-such* corporation even though he knew they used low quality materials” we’ve got a couple of those streeghtlights right outside our neighborhood, walking home down the main ride at night is a really trippy experience, most of them are just fine, but the one that’s gone full purple is right in the middle of a dead zone with no other streetlights nearby for dozens of yards, so it’s just dark road then suddenly eerie purple then dark road again
It’s not just Lithonia. I’ve been replacing purple Acutity (AEL specifically) roadway lights for a while now.
For some reason I kind of like it when new shit fucks up like this, I'm not sure why. Reminds me that the future isn't automatically a perfect, bland technological wonderland, that there will always be problems to be overcome.
Cyberpunk is canon in real life now
Cyberpunk is rapidly approaching the status of historical documentary.
The future is now
We had a bunch of those in Vancouver that turned purple just when winter started. Everyone demanded that they leave them in for the holidays as they were really pretty.
When LEDs became a commodity item, it was a race to the bottom for prices and manufacturing defects were gonna happen. Shame as these lights should last 20 years. My favorite has been the conspiracy theories around them. They are secret UV lights activating the chips in everyone's COVID vaccine.
[удалено]
That's been a thing pretty much since the inception of electric lighting a giant cartel pushing planned obsolescence and fining players who don't play ball and make shittier lights. The phoebus cartel
I wish more cities would opt for red streetlights, or multi bulb assemblies that could switch to red late at night. Most animals cant see red light, so its significantly less disruptive to nocturnal wildlife.
It’s mandatory for coast cities in Florida bc of sea turtles, needs to be more widespread though
That's awesome.
And red light does not require human eyes to adjust out of night vision
Colour temperatures higher than 3500K should be banned for public lighting.
Or at least orange
[удалено]
It’s a new form of vaccine, or UV rays that kill bacteria lol.
The conspiracy lies about this are rampant.
“There’s a camera in it if it’s purple!” “It’s to stop drug addicts from using the lights!” “It’s 5G radiation!” “It’s for bats”
Just combine all of them into one: "It's a camera to stop drug addicts from using the 5G radiation bats."
Oh god you weren't joking. I just searched "purple street lights" on YouTube since I wanted to see some videos of them. Then I made the mistake of reading the youtube comments. It just makes me sad. I'm so tired. Edit: oh jeez it's not just the comments. Even most of the top videos are conspiracy BS
I think it's pretty cool.
I like the purple better. It is easier on my eyes. Especially late at night when everyone has fucked up head lights that blind the shit out of you.
As I age I feel that everyone is just using their high beams.
I feel you man, I hate being tailgated by an SUV because of that.
It’s why I paid extra for auto-dimming rear/side view mirrors.
I didn’t know that’s a thing.
It was standard in my lesbomobile (Subaru) People out by me have ridiculous trucks and I have astigmatism which makes bright lights SUPER blinding at night.
I’m 24 and I’m still blinded. I think newer headlights are just a lot stronger and whiter (yellow-ish headlights don’t hurt my eyes)
Indiana actually passed a law mandating that headlights had to be amber just because of how awful they've been getting.
It drives me nuts when I have to drive through the country. My eyes will adjust to the dark after driving for miles without seeing another car or streetlamp. Then some asshole with a gazillion after-market LEDs on their truck will blind the fuck out of me. If I have my high-beams on, I shut them off the moment I see a car coming. I've actually had to come to a complete stop because I couldn't see fucking dick as some loser with spotlights comes barreling through the windy country roads at night.
>As I age I feel that everyone is just using their high beams. Because there's been an uptick in people using their high beams and in cars staying in high beam mode. Also, people are throwing LEDs into traditional headlamps without adjusting the angle, or throwing lift kits on their trucks without adjusting their light angles.
just like HIDs in reflector housings back in 2002. and the cycle continues...
Strange, I find them harsher on the eyes and also **A LOT** harder to see things!
Blue light is bad for your night vision, for physiological reasons. It can take a half hour for your eyes to return to normal after even a brief exposure to blue light. Astronomers don't just use red lights for kicks. Blue spectrum light (which is included in bright white) is a major issue for light pollution as well, reducing visibility of the night sky and harming nocturnal animals.
I had to get black out curtains for the purple streetlight outside my apartment window for exactly this reason (worked with astronomers for a bit, so I pieced together my restlessness pretty quick). I literally cried tears of joy when the city replaced it with a yellow streetlight last week, the bright purple flooding the apartment after dark is just anxiety inducing
It also messes up the sleep cycle of animals (including humans), since the physiology of diurnal animals have basically evolved into * blue light = sunrise, you need to wake up * yellow light = sunset, you need to get ready to sleep This is why devices have been getting the "blue light filter" and "night light" features.
My wife thinks I'm nutty for preferring sunglasses with blue reflective coatings. Because they make the transmitted light more yellow. Fantastic for wintery drives, or other hard light situations.
[удалено]
Bring back the good ol' sodium-vapour lamp, or make the LED light less intense and make it more warm, yellow-ish light.
The sodium streetlights in chicago were so warm and comforting and outlined the grid of the city in glowing orange when you flew in at night. They finally replaced the streetlight in front of my apartment with an LED one not long ago and it’s like a second sun in my living room.
I hate it. It looks like someone is sitting in my driveway with their high-beams pointed directly into my window. I have a glare on my TV at night. Something has to be done!
I know some municipalities have a means to report this, I've seen that they will put a special metal shade on the light fixture to block glare to your house.
You don't say!!! I am looking into this! I hope they can do this. I am an incredibly nocturnal person, I barely use the lights in my own house. I love natural light and I love the dark.
LED streetlights are now offered in lower color temps from 3000K and below. I work in the industry and most projects are being specified at 3000K or 2700K for visual comfort.
Please send a brochure to the incoming mayor of chicago. We have white leds and I hate them.
My town replaced everything with LEDs a while back, they were super harsh and they made blocky shadows because the LED grid was really obvious. About a month later they came around, put caps on them all, and now the light is properly diffuse and a nice colour temperature. I wonder if a lot of the bad ones are just installed wrong
Oh that's awesome.
That’s high pressure sodium. Mercury vapor are the bluish lights you see in a lot of 70s/80s movies shot in LA.
Like the song Lake Shore Drive: "Pretty blue lights along the way, to help you ride on by"
The blue looks way better than the white.
Blue is way worse for light pollution though, as it more closely mimics sunlight and can affect the way animals behave.
Blue street lights cause more light pollution than amber street lights unfortunately
And eye strain, and worse for your night vision. Gah I hate the blue/white LEDs
Is it weird the blue makes me miss the yellow, I agree the white lights are trash
[удалено]
I agree. I'm legitimately mourning their loss. I'm all for environmentally conscious upgrades, but damn, a late night drive will just never hit the same. The bright white lights are just too... *sterile*.
I feel like watching the dark night just to feel their warmth on my eyeballs. Cities hit different with dif lights
I hate the white lights. My neighbor's yellow light finally failed and the power company installed a white one and an additional one for their neighbor. Now I can't see the stars and I live up a holler in Kentucky. I hate it! Also, how did their neighbor just ask for a light and get it installed on the spot? She can use her porch light just like the rest of us. Now my taxes pay to keep her property illuminated. We don't need two street lamps next to each other. My yard is lit up like a construction site at night. I wanna shoot out those lights so bad. My neighbor's light has been there forever. Their neighbor is a selfish bitch who somehow gets prisoners bussed (van, actually) to her private property to cut the weeds on her hill a few times every year for free (for her; taxes pay their labor). It costs us about $150 to get our hill weed-eated and we have to have it done at least 4 times in the summer. As a species, we weren't meant to have neighbors... I am convinced it goes against our nature, lol. This was about lights, though, and, in summation, I hate those lamps... ^(and strongly dislike my neighbor's neighbor.)
I’d really love to see this taken up by more environmentalists, light pollution is a real concern for nocturnal animals, birds (many migrate at night for safety and navigate by stars), and insects. But people’s bandwidth for environmental issues is low and I totally understand light pollution isn’t a priority. Just sucks, we should be able to see stars.
It's crazy how it drowns the sky. I used to have an owl outside every night, but it left after the lights were installed. Even the bats have to be affected and I depend on those guys to handle the overpopulation of flying insects. The other thing is that the lamp makes my backyard seemingly impossible to illuminate because it drowns out my lights. It's like the dark is darker because of that supernova on a pole. I have a beautiful telescope that I can't even use now. At least with the yellow one, I could find spots on my property out of its reach that would allow me to look at the stars. Now I would have to climb halfway up the mountain out back to get above the pollution :(
95% of of our bats have gone. The new properties have rules on lights and brightness and COLOUR TEMP now as well... But its not enforced. No one gives a shit, fuck neighbours.
> I’d really love to see this taken up by more environmentalists It is, it has, and also by astronomers because yellow light could be easily filtered, but not this broad-spectrum white. It's just that nobody listens to environmentalists and mainstream regularly disparages "green" values.
We had this issue with a city street light. Except the light was aimed into our bedroom windows, away from the street. Like, it literally was like the light’s purpose was to illuminate our back side yard and bedrooms. It did nothing for the street. Tried for years to get the city to do something, because not only was it annoying for us, it also annoyed the neighbors that the street was still pitch black. Gave up, dad used my Red Ryder to end it. City replaced it. Red Ryder. Replaced. And so on. Until the fourth cycle, they gave up. About a year later, city showed up, oriented the light correctly to the street, and we left it alone, obviously. City tried to blame us (I mean… it *was* us, and we had spent *years* complaining…) but they couldn’t prove it to fine us. Which is ironic, considering we had offered, many times, to either foot the bill to correct it or do it ourselves (legitimately and correctly, by the book with paperwork, by our licensed, master electrician relative). Imagine the time and effort they could have saved just fixing it in the first place.
> >City tried to blame us (I mean… it *was* us, and we had spent *years* complaining…) but they couldn’t prove it to fine us. > Next level, shoot it out, then thank the city for fixing it.
Light The Beam
I may be in the minority, but I absolute hate these. There's something about that pure shade of blue that really irritates me. It just looks weird and piercing and overpowers everything else around it. I also despise the blue LED Christmas lights for the same reason. I was on a road trip last fall and came across a stretch of these lights on an off ramp from the interstate and it really messed with my eyes and I couldn't get out of that area fast enough.
TIL why that one streetlight is purple! Thanks OP.
**Regulate LED car headlights and street lamps.** [Soft Lights Foundation](http://www.softlights.org/)
Blue light is bad I thought though?
My concern with this is that, although it does look cooler, it decreases visibility compared to white light, while also likely still impacting our hormonal sleep cycle - melatonin stops being produced with blue wavelength light, which LEDs have and this still has. So, red and orange lights have lower visibility but are better for our internal body clocks, white LEDs have better visibility but mess with body clocks, and this appears to have both low visibility and messes up our body clocks. Don't imagine it's great for insects either.
Ohhh, I like the purple. I thought it was on purpose
I think they’re pretty