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City Will Replace Blinding LED Streetlights
By
Miranda Katz
Published May 14, 2016
Modified May 14, 2016
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By
Miranda Katz
Published May 14, 2016
Modified May 14, 2016
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New York City's lights might not be bright enough to blind Taylor Swift, but they're still quite bright—and they've been getting brighter, as the city's begun converting its 250,000 streetlights to energy-efficient LED bulbs over the past year. Those new lights quickly drew the wrath of residents, who compared the lights' glare to a prison yard and a "strip mall in outer space," among other creative similes. Now, after over a year of fielding complaints, the city is replacing those 78-watt bulbs with lower-intensity 64-watt bulbs.
"Once again, the citizens know best," Mayor de Blasio told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on the station's new, weekly #AskTheMayor segment. "[The lights] were too bright in many cases initially."
De Blasio said that the city's Department of Transportation has begun "toning those lights down," and though he's "not a lighting expert" (shocking to all), he does know that the number of 311 complaints has decreased substantially since the replacements have started.
According to the NY Post, the city received some 150 complaints about the 78-watt bulbs, which have only been installed in a tenth of the city's streetlights so far. The 64-watt bulbs will reportedly prevent the glare from the lights extending above the horizon.
When DOT first began installing the brighter bulbs, affected New Yorkers circulated a petition demanding that the lights be "fully shielded," so that they direct all of the light down toward the street. They also demanded that the color of the lights be adjusted, as blue-rich LEDs can disrupt the body's circadian rhythms. That petition garnered over 500 signatures.
"The lights have just been changed recently on our street and it is awful," Brooklyn resident Marisa Buick wrote on the petition. "I noticed it immediately. It's like we are living in a prison. There is a peculiar glow in our children's bedroom—have we been transported into a sci fi movie set?"
The switch to LEDs was set to cost $75 million, but ultimately save the city $6 million on energy costs and $8 million on maintenance each year. It's not clear how much replacing the 29,000 78-watt bulbs will cost, but it'll certainly save the city from a prolonged earful of complaints. According to de Blasio, if the lights on your block are still too bright, call 311, and the city will send a crew to make the switch to a 64-watt bulb.
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