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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - "Indy's traffic lights will soon be greener"

Francesca Jarosz of the Indianapolis Star reports today on Indianapolis' switch to LED traffic lights. A quote:

The city is replacing incandescent bulbs with more energy-efficient lights, which also throw off more light, at all of its roughly 9,200 traffic signals. Indianapolis will use $1 million from federal stimulus money doled out for conservation efforts to finish a switch of the signals' bulbs that started two years ago with a $500,000 state grant.

It's part of an effort to reduce city energy costs that also includes making buildings owned and operated by the city, such as the City-County Building, more efficient.

The traffic-signal project is expected to be completed this fall. City leaders say the bulbs use about a tenth of the energy of an incandescent bulb, a reduction that's expected to save $250,000 each year. The city paid about $600,000 last year to power the traffic signals.

"It helps with costs savings and also helps improve our local environment," said Kären Haley, the city's director of sustainability. "We're using less energy than with a standard bulb."

The ILB had a long entry on Jan. 3, 2010 headed "LED Signals Seen as Potential Hazard -- Or not."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 10, 2010 08:52 AM
Posted to Indiana Government