Mar

Milwaukee To Lose All Stop Lights During Snowstorms

First, let’s review the rosy Milwaukee environmental story the green media told us about today:

“Milwaukee’s traffic lights are going green.

We Energies gave the city $104,000 in grant money to help transition from the old bulb lights in traffic signals to the newer LED lights.The LEDs are not only more energy efficient, but they’re also brighter and last longer.

“We think that that provides a safety benefit a cost benefit and a safety benefit from — the brightness of the lights, so it’s a winner on all counts,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said.

Crews hope to install LED lights in all 730 traffic signals in Milwaukee by the end of the year.”

I would normally be fully in favor of this move to upgrade stoplights to LEDs for efficiency’s sake (being a Republican I am a strong believer in efficiency, small government and cost-benefit analysis) but, the media failed to mention the huge risk we are taking with citizens’ lives by doing this:

“After converting 420 traffic signals to LEDs, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation discovered snow cakes onto the lights and does not melt.

The old light bulbs in the signals burned hot enough to melt snow, but the new light-emitting diodes don’t generate as much heat, so snow and ice can stick to them and block the signals, said Andrew Dirks, WisDOT southeast region electronic operations supervisor. It only occurs when the heavy, sticky snow is blowing, he said.

It is a problem on WisDOT traffic signals across the state, so the agency is testing lenses that cover the lights. For now, crews scrape the lights clean when the department receives complaints, Dirks said.

“We respond to inquiries that we have received from law enforcement,” he said. “We are not staffed to go out and clear 420 intersections.”

So if WisDOT can’t clear the 420 intersections across Wisconsin that have snow caked to the lights causing traffic hazards, how is the City of Milwaukee going to clean off 730?

“We think that that provides a safety benefit a cost benefit and a safety benefit from — the brightness of the lights, so it’s a winner on all counts,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said.

I am afraid you missed something here Mayor Barrett, ice/snow scraping costs may quickly kill any cost savings considering our long winters and the danger caused by non-functioning/frozen traffic lights will kill any safety benefits.

A Republican may not have done any better but, we don’t know because we haven’t elected one since 1908.

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