Subscribe to RSSThe New LED Highway Lights
A bank of 130 new high-tech lights were switched on tonight along a rural state highway in Auckland.
It’s NZTA’s trial testing of a new generation of lights for the country’s state highway network.
The 130 poles fitted with LED (light emitting diodes) lights along State Highway 22 between Drury and Pukekohe are being tested for the first time against the high pressure sodium lights traditionally used to make night time travel safer for road users.
Travis Watson (@travnz89)kindly snapped a photo for us to see what they’re like.
6 Comments
Awesome. I imagine they’re about perfect for this application. Efficient, and cheaper over the long-run.
Wow! They look really nice! I hope we can get them down here in Timaru soon.
Whoah, that’s bright! Awsome. Just hope the design is throwing all the light to the ground and not up into the sky where it is wasted - last time I checked we don’t drive in the sky. Well, some might try.
These are on Sandringham Rd too in the vicinity of Eden Park (so not their first time on a NZ road, just the first time on a NZ state highway), and at a number of train stations. They’re very good lights.
I assume that most of the cost saving will come from reduced electricity use and less need to replace them over time.
@George, yip, I imagine that the upfront cost is probably an order of magnitude higher than a regular fitting, but the cost of getting a bucket truck and a couple of guys out to replace a burnt out regular bulb tends to help overcome the price difference.
The only downside of LED lamps I have seen is in Cold winter climates where the new LED traffic lights do not warm up the housings like incandescent ones ( which made snow slide off) , thus the fittings get snowed over
http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/led-traffic-lights-d.html