Priddy!

cafenitro

@Monty: My question as well.
If these work as well as the stick-up light in my closet, I look forward to blindly stumbling to the bars for once.

92BuickLeSabre

@Zlevee:

hmm that a good idea, though I'm more looking at how it would change the look of where you are. Sure Manhattan would look fine, but I don't know if I wanna see where I grew up changed in that way. It's just my opinion really, and since it's more economical I guess it can't be a bad thing.

br4nd0n

It's a Light-Scythe! O_O

Zaxxon Q Blaque

@br4nd0n: the reason they
re not trying that is that supposedly the poles are also going to be configured to more easily have modular things attached to them like walk/don't walk signs, etc. and they're gonna have various head configurations to light in multiple directions and angles.

Zlevee

@Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish: Which is what they'll do anyway lol.

RE-L

@SGlick1980: Screw that. Dump it in the East River along with everything else.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

Wow those look so different, but in a nice way. Hopefully they really are an improvement. We'll see.

RE-L

I think they should just retrofit the old ones with led bulbs.

br4nd0n

@iatacs19: The old lamps end up in landfills anyway, either when they modernize or when the light bulbs burn out. The idea would probably be to phase these in when new posts were needed.

trendspotter

Anyone know what the light output is of these compared to what they replace? I didn't see that listed in the article, and ultimately the amount of light from LED's is the biggest complaint about them (ignoring the cost, of course).

Monty

If NYC is smart (that's a BIG IF), the old ones will be sold for scrap. Copper fetches a good price these days.

SGlick1980

and the old lamps will end up in landfills?

iatacs19

And, as a bonus, they are nightsky friendly. And look like giant space alien arms!

nightsky

thats awesome. I'll have to see where they are placing them.

coolfelix

coolt, göteborg borde skaffa nåt liknande:)

citizen024

It's both elegant, and vaguely reminds me of Herbert's limp light saber. Awesome.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

Sweet! But I have to admit, they look like some high tech equipment from a sci-fi movie!

Joolz

I would think that a major selling-point is that the light coming off these things will be more or less WHITE, instead of the ghastly orange-pink of the mercury lamps currently in use.

russdanger

and old tennis shoes hanging in 3...2...1...

Noobs-R-Us

I understand the need/want to save energy, and be friendlier to the environment, but like all of these more efficient cars, there is waste from the previous gen, as well as the carbon footprint to make new posts.

Why not just retrofit bulbs and light refractors to use the same lamp post. Call me old school or whatever, but until there is a REAL need to replace the entire lamps, like say the are all rusting and becoming a safety hazard, it seems like another way to spend money to me.

beekerstudios

Doesn't look bright enough...
I don't wanna walk down a dark street at night only to find myself robbed or dead the next morning cause I couldn't see anything >>

Mr_LaZy

I thought LED's used less power, and lasted longer than described here...

Y2KGTP

BZZZZZZZZZZZZ LED's are a good idea NY. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ whats that?!?! BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ I can't hear you over the buzz of this mercury light! BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

axiomatic

@br4nd0n: Well yeah, i agree it's gonna change the night look of the city and i'm not sure i'm happy about that either. The bulbs themselves will do that, but the whole multi-directional thing will make it extra weird.

Zlevee

I like the flag hanging idea a lot

cafenitro

nice, I can see people hanging flags on those things, my neighbours would hang clean underware art. damn posh pdx hipsters.

dysthymia

I'm singin', just singin' in the [6800 K LED illuminated] rain!

Stem_Sell

We need faster development cheap/bright LED lights.

The compact fluorescent bulbs everyone is recommending contain mercury. I know there is only trace amounts, but when you sell millions of them its starts to add up. Only a fraction of these compact fluorescent bulbs are recycled. The rest of the mercury ends up in the environment (landfill or incinerator).

ljj

Holy crap! The future is now!

Also.

Soylent Green is people!

nonbreakingspace

Personally, from that pic it looks like ass...

I'm all for power efficiency, but do they have to look like fishing poles in the sky?

CutePuppyz

@Mr_LaZy: You must be thinking of somewhere else, NYC is a very safe city, if you lose your way, simply call out to one of it's friendly residents and they'll come out with a flashlight to guide you to your destination. That whole "Urban Jungle " myth was created in the 70's because the streets were getting to be too clogged with tourists.

russdanger

Apparently they've not yet been installed, but when they do, could we get pictures of how well (or how poorly) they work at night?

DigitalSciGuy

Oh lookie, yet more lights to be broken by teenagers...

jinsaotomex4

Finally

vgart

Hey, how are they supposed to shoot the lights out now... it's gonna take several shots per post to get the light off.

TheCapt

From the article:

"The bulbs themselves for this $1.175 million contract are being designed by Lighting Science Group and the company expects that for each pole and light source that is replaced, the payback period for the city will be two to three years."

$1.175 million for SIX lamp posts?!? 2-3 years payback EACH? How many lamp posts do they have in NYC again, like 5 million? So, it will only take 10-15 million years to pay for these. I love how practical all of these "environmentally friendly" alternatives are. You know, like light bulbs that cost ten times as much as regular bulbs and contain environmentally friendly _mercury_ that is sure to do wonders for the soil when they are disposed of (Don't believe me? Check your new twisty light bulbs. There's an Hg on the bottom piece).

ldsdj

nyc wouldn't be the same w/o the amber lights

Weihovah

Hey, dumb ass, ldsdj, learn how to read English. The quote says, the bulb were designed by Lighting Science Group and the contract was $1.175 million. There's probably a lot of cost for the research and design. Who knows how much the bulbs cost, the article never said 6 lamp posts cost $1.175 million. Freaking idiot. You never did well on the SATs, did you?

Passions

@Aleki: Ah, but remember, heat generated is energy wasted. The snow gathers on top anyway so shouldn't be a problem (assuming that it will not block any light sensors...)

ecobore

Interestingly enough I was just talking with a UK govt consultant about retrofitting old lamp posts and apparently the actual posts are rotting away. So there is an actual risk of the posts themselves collapsing. That's why they have to replace the whole thing every 25 years or so... Needless to say this UK town is going for Metal Halides rather than LEDs (as far as I could tell, they didn't trust the tech behind the LEDs!)

ecobore

Saving money and electricity is all well and good, but what happens when these things get blanketed with that thick wet snow in the winter? I don't think these things produce enough heat to melt it quickly.

Aleki

I wanna be in the city ....that never sleeps!!!1
-Frank Sinatra

Salinger

As a New Yorker I am very excited for this. I was a little sad when they replaced the old Walk/Don't Walk signs, but now I am used to them and they are quite an improvement in terms of visibility and legibility.

However there is the hilarious new phenomenon of people putting up black stickers on one of the fingers of the Don't Walk Palm to make it look like the Shocker.

Overall it seems they are improving the aesthetics and design of a number of street stuff found in the city. My neighborhood (Alphabet City, Lower East Side) just got brand spanking new bus stops which look a lot nicer than the old ones.

The5thElephant

@The5thElephant: the best is when they tape up the "dont walk" hand so it looks like the heavy metal horns. that's more like it.

as for these new streetlights, i's definitely be loking forward to seeing how differently the streets will be lit up. lets hope the aliens that will someday invade the city won't have similar limbs. cause that would be downright awkward.

SleepingMartyr

LED's are fun but the light emitted doesn't travel around objects like regular light does. I have experimented with led flashlights and my conclusion is to buy more spare batteries, use a regular bulb and hava bright ass flashlight that you can hit people with. Good ol' 4-5 D cell Maglight.

chadchadchad