defrog: (science do)
defrog ([personal profile] defrog) wrote2009-12-18 11:50 am

NATURE 1, TECHNOLOGY 0

ITEM [via BoingBoing]: Cities everywhere have been replacing incandescent traffic lights with LED lights, because they use 90% less electricity, last longer and are more durable.

One thing incandescents have that LEDs don’t – excess heat to melt off snow.

Oops!

"I've never had to put up with this in the past," said Duane Kassens, a driver from Indiana who was involved in an accident attributed to a snow-clogged traffic light. "The police officer told me the new lights weren't melting the snow. How is that safe?"

Which is why Dave Hansen, a traffic engineer with the Green Bay Department of Public Works, offers the following fix: if you can’t see the traffic light, slow the hell down and do what you do when the power’s out. (Unless yr one of those people who figure no light = keep going, in which case don’t do that.)

Red light green light,

This is dF

[identity profile] isis-lives.livejournal.com 2009-12-18 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
Don't quite know why, but this just cracked me up. I keep being told I have a weird sense of humor, well, this represents it!

Thanks!

[identity profile] garbagecanmusic.livejournal.com 2009-12-18 10:01 am (UTC)(link)
This has been blamed for actual traffic deaths. One person thought it was green and lost a battle with a Semi.