Why are streetlights in America changing to purple?
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If you're over 25, you likely remember the warm, yellow-orange illumination of streetlights, created by sodium vapor lamps, which dominated for many years. However, with advancements in lighting technology, these older lamps have been replaced by more efficient LEDs. Unfortunately, the new LEDs chosen for street lighting have led to some unexpected issues.
In this video, our Editor-In-Chief, Kyle Cheromcha, explores the reasons behind the growing number of purple streetlights across America and potential solutions to the problem.
Personally, I find the color quite appealing; it adds a moody synthwave atmosphere. However, that wasn’t the intention of any municipality when switching from the old lamps to LEDs.
As Mr. Cheromcha explained:
“The 2010s marked a significant effort by local, state, and federal governments to replace old lamps with LED streetlights, which offer much greater efficiency. They emit a harsher, colder, bluish-white light that many find unpleasant. But why are they turning purple now? The reality is that true white LEDs don’t exist. Manufacturers create white light by using a blue LED that shines through a special filter that changes it to a whitish hue.”
“It turns out that in the rush to transition to LEDs, no one realized that the filter layer would deteriorate much faster than anticipated, resulting in the lights turning purple or blue, depending on the extent of the failure.”
So, it's fundamentally an issue of quality control—or the lack of it.
Watch the video for a comprehensive understanding, and don’t forget to subscribe to The Drive's YouTube channel to catch these explanations as they’re released!
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Why are streetlights in America changing to purple?
When sodium vapor streetlights were swapped for LEDs, the soft yellow illumination was substituted with a bright white glow. However, the shift to purple was not intended to occur.