LED Traffic Lights Are Efficiently Inefficient During Snow Falls

Over the last several years LED lights have been hailed as a must have for going green, they put out much less power and burn cooler than traditional incadescent lights, unfortunately for engineers that efficiency is causing problems in one specific area, traffic lights.

It turns out that several cold weather states that installed the LED lights didn’t realize that the cool burning bulbs wouldn’t melt snow like their older counterparts did. This fact has led drivers in areas with snow to encounter stoplights that they couldn’t see thanks to snow mounting inside the lights canister.

Several drivers have been injured and one death has resulted from the LED installations. Tech experts are currently working on a fix, but in the meantime most drivers say they treat obstructed stoplights as they would stop signs, making them a little more safe for most drivers. [Gizmodo]