Taiwan switching to LED traffic lights
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Jul 4th 2007 3:40PM
posted Jul 4th 2007 3:40PM
Taiwan, always known to one-up the global marketplace when it comes to traffic control and street lighting, has announced that within the next three years all of its traffic lights will become LED based. The country's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has budgeted roughly NT$229 million ($7 million) for the project, which is set to begin in 2008, and will convert 420,000 traffic lights to the LED standard (350,000 have already been changed over). The MOEA claims the total savings in power consumption will be close to 85%. After the sweeping reform of its traffic signals, Taiwan will invest another NT$130 million to swap its street lights out for LED-based models. Nations of the world, the gauntlet has been thrown down.[Via Digg]
a lot of the traffic lights where my parents live in Canada now have led yellow and greens as well as pedestrian signals
I support your idea.in fact the LED will be saving much electric power for our present resource.I am from shenzhen,China.After educated from University,I choose the LED INDUSTRY till now.I believe that the LED will promote a revolution in Illuminance.
Y'know, maybe it's a California/Bay Area thing, but we've had LED traffic lights for quite some time, now. Not widespread, mind you, but as the old, lightbulb-based ones burn out, CalTrans is replacing them with LEDs.
Yeah, we've pretty much always had LED lights in the Bay Area. At least, as long as I've been around.
It's not always a good thing.
I live on Evergreen Terrace in Springfield (the one near Capitol City) and they replaced all the old traffic bulbs with LEDs a few years ago. The problem is that I have a jerk for a neighbor who keeps stealing the LEDs to use them on his Xmas lights. It's very annoying and it's costing the city a small fortune. Not that the mayor cares because he's also a jerk!
True. I'm pretty impressed with Taiwan's cost of only 7 million dollars to replace all the lights. Caltrans probably charged us closer to 100 million for those lights that they've changed so far.
California switched to LED lights during the power price gouging years after deregulation. It was supposed to save quite a bit of money and energy over a long time. The program was extremely aggressive and they were rolled out in weeks. I don't know where they got the supply!
They first changed all the red and green lamps (since they fire longest), and now some ambers have been replaced due to natural causes. All new lights are LED oriented now.
The odd flat stoplights are untouched. I don't know what kind of light they are... they glow like an LED sort of, but don't seem to be incandescent. I first saw them in the 80's. They are sort of polarized so that they look a little dimmer at some angles, but bright when viewed head-on (do not apply directly to the forehead!).
TTFN
We have had LED traffic lights for the last few years here in Australia, and I know a few European countries have too.
Oregon's using LED lights as well.
i live in the uk and all new lights are LED and all old lights are slowly being replaced,
Yeah, we have them in Brussels and Antwerp here in belgium too
I was just going to mention the same thing about Antwerp, and I thought: wow, we must be one of the first cities in the world to do that. But then I saw these other commtents :(
Which also reminds me: many of the lights in Mumbai, if not all, are LEDs. Many major cities in Gujarat are in a similar position as well.
I forgot to mention that many Indian cities also have those countdowns next to the lights, but I don't remember about pedestrian lights.
How is this news? In Upstate NY I see LED traffic lights everywhere.
yep, all over NY in fact..
Yah, Bloomberg had a huge energy conservation campaign in NYC quite a few years ago where all traffic signals and pedestrian signs were replaced with LEDs... Additionally, he replaced many (if not all) of the city office computers with new, 'low' energy PCs...
Nothing new here...
Now they just have to tell the drivers to obey them...
The unions representing the street sign/signal workers here were opposing the replacement of traffic signals with LEDs because the LEDs have a longer lifespan than bulbs and that was going to reduce the demand for workers to replace the bulbs.
This is news? All new lights in Britain are LED.
Connecticut is packed with LED traffic lights as well.
Looks like the gauntlet has been picked up and carried for some time in this country and others.
Big deal, Tallahassee, Florida has had these for years and years.
We converted as bulbs burned out. They started with Red (They went first) then Green, lastly yellow. There are still some yellow traditional bulbs around town, but I'm sure those will go soon.
-GReg
we have them in amsterdam.
some old ones are still to be converted, but I can remember many since a long time.
In some parts of Kansas I know the traffic lights are all LED. And that's Kansas for god's sake...
Always had LED traffic lights here in the twin city's suburbs... As far back as I can remember actually... and the Twin Cities are in Minnesota just in case ya didn't know
California was one of the first to push LEDs... I know for a fact as early as 1998 they were already showing up. In the last five years, they've switched most of our town (NOT in CA... by a couple miles) to LEDs. Our crosswalks even have countdowns now.
Here in Mexico there have also been LED traffic lights for quite some time now...
I've seen them at lights in Ann Arbor, wouldn't be surprised if they are
being used elsewhere throughout the state. It looks like they've been approved for use here in Michigan since 2004:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot_IM04-01_82029_7.pdf
Missisauga Ontario uses LED traffic lights if I remember correctly. Some parts of Markham Ontario and Richmond Hill Ontario uses LED traffic lights as well.
We have it also in Spain, since this year
I wonder if the street lights will be bright enough over a large area using LEDs?
They have been in Denmark for ages...
Street lights do not seems like a great idea for LEDs, currently Mercury Vapor have the highest efficiency, their light also interferes the least with astronomy because it has very distinct frequencies.
South Florida is now all LED. Which is not supposed to burn out, right? I wonder why some of the older ones have rather patchy LED grids . . .
Hah. I noticed many dead ones here in Australia, too.
I went to Taiwan 8 years ago and they've had LED signals at least since then. They also have that crazy pedestrian signal with the animated 'green walking man' that starts running as the countdown on top gets below 10 seconds.
St. Louis and Columbia, MO have had them for years... perhaps Taiwain is pretty far behind the trend.
I wouldn't be surprised if the lights in your city is manufactured in Taiwan.
the post never said it is the first place to use LED traffic lights... its saying its the first place to have use ONLY led traffic lights, including converting all old ones over to LED.
But most countries are doing that already. When bulbs are replaced in UK traffic lights, they are replacing them with LED ones. Most new cars are coming with LED lights as standard here too.
Here in NY, almost all state roads have LED based signals. In Nassau County, all new traffic lights being put up are LED based as well.
In this county, the traffic light bulbs on old style fixtures seem to last one year, and are replaced every summer. At this point in time, there are a lot of bulbs burnt out on many traffic lights.
Orange County, North Carolina (where Chapel Hill is located) is completely converted to LEDs I think - It's been a while since I've seen a traffic light with a bulb in the county. Raleigh, however, is nowhere near complete, nor Durham if I'm not mistaken.
For those saying that Taiwan is behind the trend, one should note that Taiwan was one of the first countries to pilot the use of LED lights (afterall, the LED industry is huge there).
As a previous poster mentioned, LED lights has been in place for many years now (more than 8 in my city from what I remember). I believe this "news" is merely about the decision to make a nation-wide changeover (to include the country-side and smaller towns as well) and to expand the energey-saving technology to street lights in the future.
Why are we still on Red, Yellow, Green system, is there a better way to do it?
How about i.e. Counter clock that displays Red, Yellow, Green Numbers... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... on second thought maybe not =)
At the busy intersections here in Vancouver, BC, the pedestrian signals have timers under them showing how long you have left to finish crossing. Knowing drivers also realize that this is a fairly accurate indication as to how much time is left until the light turns yellow ;) (or green if you can see the numbers going the other way)
Oh, and almost all signals are LED now.
We've had them in Sacramento for years.
The country of Qatar (especially Doha city) has been using LED street lights AND led bumps for years now....
old news, here in dr evil's secret volcano lair island we've had LED traffic lights since the 1960's.
All new traffic lights in Milwaukee Wisconsin are LED. Also all old ones that the light burns out are replaced with LED retrofitted bulbs. Biggest reason every one uses LED is they dont have to spend tons of money having them replaced so often.
Nothing new.
Uh, Taiwan already has LED lights. I live in Seattle, and we've had them here for years as well.
hey~.. Taiwan has used LED lights for years, many years, since 1998. Taiwan is the world's biggest LED supplying country. Even iPhone is made by their companies. Do you know who invented the walking green man? It's a Taiwanese company. LED lights really saves energy. I've been there before. It is really a very advance country. But I heard that China PRC is trying to take it as their land. The PRC kicked Taiwan out of the UN, and now Tw is trying to get the place back. abraços todos.
China won't be able to take Taiwan back anytimes soon since U.S. of A's planning to use this coutry of the size of Lake Michigan as their 13th Carrier Fleet......Good Luck China, Taiwan's one unsinkable SOB!
Austin TX has had them for a while too.
Philly converted 100% of its red lights to LED many years ago. Many yellow and green are LED as well, but not all. I think the idea is that since LEDs last longer, it's more important (safety-wise) for the red lights to not burn out as often.
The entire nation of Singapore has been installed with LED traffic lights more than 2 years ago.
Yup I second that (has it only been 2 years? Feels longer :P)
The City of Adelaide in Australia, has had LED traffic signals for quite a number of years now also.
LED, Tungsten, Neon, OED.... it doesn't really matter here in Taiwan, as the lights are frequently ignored. Many drivers close their eyes and trust the force to guide them when in charge of any vehicle.
In fact, if they got rid of them all, Taiwan could save 100% of the electricity costs.
This is news because? Even us redneck geeks in Georgia have had LED traffic signals -- mostly retrofits -- for years now. I haven't seen an old incandescent traffic signal in I don't know how long.
The city where I live in Mexico there are LEDs trafic lights everywhere, and they been there for years now.
singapore has them as well, all new traffic lights are led-types, i dare say normal bulb lights are very very rare nowadays.
Is taiwan, however the 1st country to go on to streetlights using LEDs?
They are being used in Australia. Around Sydney, all new traffic lights are led based, and older ones are being replaced quietly. There was no announcement or news about it ever, they were just brought in.
PS Taiwan may have made the green walking man, but Australia made the speaker to go tith the signal :p.
Wow, here in Recife, BRAZIL we have a lot of these LED traffic signals. Some with count down panels. I've seeing some of these in Europe too...
Singapore did this change a long long way back:
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:1EUY_Sl6WbQJ:www.stee.stengg.com/2005/newsRm/pdf/yr00/2000-10a.pdf+led+traffic+light+singapore&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=sg
Am very sure Singapore wasn't the 1st either ...
I'd guesstimate that here in Sioux Falls, around 75% are LED.
Kentucky finished up switching over all of the traffic signals to LED state-wide not too long ago. They are a lot brighter and more visible during the day with the sun shining on them. Kentucky is a lot more socially superior than one might think. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/2/1/17 http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/2/9/21
What the hell is new here??!
Even India has been using ultrabright LEDs for traffic lights for over a decade now.
A company, Bharat Electronics Limited has been making them for ages now.
Hmmh...
This is not a big news, is it? For a small city where I live, we've been utilizing LED traffic lights for some time. Taiwan is considered a more developed country than Indonesia... and we already utilize the technology on a few big cities. :)
Perth, Western Australia, has had LED lights for years now too. Any that are new or are being replaced are LED. This is hardly news fit for engadget.... or is it just a slow day? :)
Back when I was a civil engineering student in 94 or so, a visit to the local traffic control office revealed LED signals in testing (in 3 or 4 places in town) that, at the time, had been in place for about 2 years. Initially there were problems with color consistency and diode life.
Most California metro areas switched over entirely during and after the "power crisis" several summers ago.
The little walking green man that people are talking about. I think this is one of the many versions out there.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3iJa1QPFRfM
This is hardly news, even here in Wisconsin (Where?) I see nothing but LED lights. They simply make too much sense not to use. They use vastly less electricity and they last about 11 years of continuous use, which comes to 20 years for lights that are on for only half the time and even longer for some lights, so they save a lot of labor costs replacing them.
Gosh, Singapore's had for at least the last 10 years now. Can't remember what a 'normal' one looks like?
But i do love those crazy Taipei underpasses at cross junctions, it's like a mini maze. Loves it!
I live in South Africa - supposedly a 3rd world country and even we have the LED traffic lights here. So no, Taiwan and alll the other places aren't as ahead as they think they are.
BTW the LED's really do make a difference.
Here in Antarctica we have LED traffic lights too.
It does not mean that the traffic lights will be replaced to LED.
Taiwan has been replaced traffic lights for many years.
It means that all of traffic signal will be replaced.
it doesnt mean taiwanese will switch to LED traffic lights from now, it shows the taiwanese will change all traffic lights into LED in whole country
We've got them too, here in Santiago ;)
I am from Taiwan and I believe yes, there are some areas in the country where a small portion of the drivers, like in other countries, don't obey traffic rules. I was in rural Missouri for a year as an exchange student and no one, literally no one stopped at the stop sign. Okay about the LED lights, why is everyone feeling hurt? I don't see why a pioneering national make-over policy would not benefit the world. (I understand, by reading previous posts that Singapore had done it and I have to say that people of Singapore is very united and the nation is also small in size. Those could contribute to the fact.) For many of you still think of Taiwan as a country that makes the dollar-store toys, being a tech-enthusiast, you should think of Taiwan generally as a post-developing country. But after all America is where many of the technologies originated. I do give credits to you guys for that!