Red lights in Taiwan will soon be much greener. By 2011, all traffic lights on the small island republic will be fitted with efficient LED lights thanks to a NT $229 million (US $7 million) project set to begin next year. Almost half of all traffic lights in Taiwan already use LEDs; the remaining 420,000 traffic lights will be converted over three years, providing an estimated savings of 85% in power consumption.
In addition to saving greatly on energy costs, LED traffic lights last years (standard bulbs only last months), remain brighter longer and their higher contrast levels with sunlight allow them to be viewed from longer distances. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to continue the LED work and change street lamps to efficient bulbs once the traffic signal project is complete.
[...] launching in Taiwan to kit all traffic lights with LEDs by 2011. According to our friends over at Inhabitat there are plans to tackle street lights as well, with Taiwan leading a shift in climate-friendly [...]
roundabouts do not require traffic lights or electricty
[...] Taiwan is going to replace their streetlights with LEDs in a US $7 million initiative to cut power consumption of the lights by 85%. LED streetlights are [...]
I think its a matter of getting the LED lights switched. Here in US, I’ve seen slow conversion of LED lights taken over my neighborhood – also depending on area too.
Just out of curiosity… is the second picture (one with all the lights) real ? as in – real traffic light being used, somewhere in the world?
plenty of LED traffic lights up here in new england too. this is the perfect example of where LEDs work best … companies trying to force LEDs to compete and outperform T8 lamps and halogen light sources really miss the point. LEDs are great in high-contrast settings…I doubt they will ever be able to create the ambient light we all see by.
wow, that’s a lot of traffic lights…
we also have some LED traffic light in Melbourne, they’re really good, you can see them from a long way off and they seem far less inclined to be out of action. the speed at which they change does take some getting used to, it is very fast!
and yes, they use significantly less energy.
Not that this isn’t a good thing but it’s not exactly a pioneering effort either. LED traffic lights are fairly common in many countries these days. I can’t remember the last time I saw an incandescent traffic light here in Australia.
We have those in mexico for years now