Well congratulations Eco-nuts! This insane push to go green in all aspects of life seems to amazingly have consequences. So here is one for you that I found tucked away on PI Newswire.
As it turns out the push to save energy is endangering lives. While cities across the nation buy into the anthropomorphic global warming boogie man and surge forward to come up with any way they can to try to save energy, one of the ingenious ways that some cities have decided to go about this is to install LED traffic lights. Sounds like a good idea right? well not always. Here is a fantastic case in point: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who in an effort to save electricity has installed said LED Traffic lights. The city council of Milwaukee thought that this would be a fantastic way to save money. Except for one minor hitch – it snows there, a lot. They seem to have forgotten one important thing – LED lights do not put off very much heat.
So while yes LED lights do use up to 90% less energy and have saved the state around $750,000, they just can’t seem to get hot enough to melt the layers of snow and ice off the lights after a storm making the light not easy to see and has resulted in more than a dozen traffic accidents. Similar stories have also been reported in Iowa, Minnesota, and other cold weather states. See what happens when you do not do your research or have even a modicum of common sense?
Because of this slight oops the state department of transportation is now scrambling to come up with a solution and there are no shortage of good ones like putting heat elements on the lights (kind of defeats the purpose of energy saving huh), or coating the lights with a substance similar to rain-ex that repels water. (Oh good Union state workers get overtime, kinda defeats saving money.) How about installing a weather shield? (Yeah fur coats for traffic lights won’t PETA be pissed.) This is insane! How about this – instead of doing very expensive options why not see how much it would cost to use the good old fashioned ones that melt the ice? But then again city councils and state governments are nothing more than glorified committees and you know what they say: A camel is a horse designed by committee.
So here is to going green and I hope nobody dies…
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