It's a typical example of government inefficiency. A "green idea" comes along (in this case, using LED bulbs in traffic lights to save energy and money and please the environmentalists) and city fathers snatch it up without putting serious thought to other effects.But those other effects are proving disastrous...and deadly. Because the LED bulbs do not burn hot enough to melt away snow or ice, making them completely ineffective in providing safe passage through intersections. Dozens of accidents have already occurred because of this blunder and at least one person has been killed.
The primary response to the problem so far has been sending men out to manually remove the snow and ice from the traffic lights (so much for efficiency and cost-cutting) but otherwise the citizens in cold-weather communities are getting a lot of hot-air talk about what might be solutions: weather shields, water-repellent substances, and...uh...heating elements.
It sure would have been nice if some city planner had thought of these things before installation. And before winter driving made them so dangerous to the citizenry.
