Is the Ministry of Transportation utilizing new, energy efficient LEDs for street lighting?
The Ministry actively researches new technologies we are aware of to determine their suitability for use on the Provincial Highway System. Our priorities are safety and value for the taxpayers’ dollar. LED technology has had a major impact on the traffic signal industry, providing up to 90 % power savings over the previous incandescent traffic signal bulbs. The Ministry partnered with BC Hydro to convert all of our traffic signals to LED and realized these power savings. LED street lights are still in their infancy and are significantly more expensive than the current high pressure sodium technology we use almost exclusively for street lighting on the Highway system. In addition, the efficacy (lumen output per input watt) for High Pressure Sodium is still higher than it is for LED fixtures.
