Street lights go out when i pass them - DRIVING ME NUTS

[epj3]

For the past 3 years, I've noticed that almost every trip i take ANYWHERE, a few street lights will turn off and right back on (ie, turns off then starts to glow to 'warm up')

It has happened when in the van, my car, my dad's car, and when just WALKING down the road. It happens at any light, not necessarily the same one all the time.

I assume it's just a coincidence, and that I'm just an observative person -- but come on, this is driving me nuts!!

 

[epj3]

Oh yea, i'm looking for a rational explanation. A google search turned up people saying they are electrified -- that is stupid.

 

[codex57]

Happens to me occasionally on my street. Weird. Does it even when I'm walking so the few theories I had went out the window.

 

[MyHarley]

Street lights these days have dark sensors.......when you pass with your lights reflecting in their light output direction, the lights think it is now daylight and turn off, when dark again, the lights reappear............timers are a thing of the past, so that the lights come on in times of thunderstorms, fog, etc.


As for walking by a light and it turns off, maybe you're casting a shadow on the sensor or the sensor is too sensitive.............hmmmmmm, I dont know.[???1]

 

[Bryan330i]

You are driving so fast you are creating a redshift.

A redshift is a shift in the frequency of a photon toward lower energy, or longer wavelength. The redshift is defined as the change in the wavelength of the light divided by the rest wavelength of the light. [fake]

 

[Kirby]

Sounds like an episode of X Files I saw a few years ago!

Seriously, the lights you are talking about are probably Sodium Vapor, the ones that cast a yellow/orange color, or maybe Mercury Vapor, the bright blue/white ones. It's a defective bulb and/or lamp ballast circuit that causes this problem. The lamp comes on, it is cool and drawing low current. The nature of these lamps are that as it heats up it draws more current and gets brighter. Due to a defect, it draws to much current, so the safety circuit in the transformer shuts down. After a safety delay, it restarts, and continues this cycle ad nauseum until either it totally burns out or somebody goes up in a bucket truck and fixes it.

 

[Kirby]

By the way, EPJ, I like that vector drawing of your car in your sig!

 

[epj3]

Thanks! I actually traced it, took me about 2 hours. Well worth it in my mind

 

[wileycoyote]

I'm pretty sure that the light sensor on street lights is located on top of the lamp assembly, at least it is on the commercial ones we have at our plant. Your headlights would need to be aimed pretty high, and be pretty bright to hit the sensor. It's possible the sensor is on the side (to keep bird droppings, dust, etc. from affecting the operation of the sensor) so I suppose your headlights could turn the lights off. MyHarley, aren't you in the lighting business? Want so shed some light on this? Ha! I kill me...

 

[MyHarley]

funny funny Wiley...........yes but I already answered and no one liked my answer.......there are also lampholders with a built in sensor. Depending on the strength of the sensor determines how much light output is needed to turn on or off.........I have lights in my backyard (no trees, only pool and decking) that come on by 5:00 in the summer and it is still daylight........I have lights mounted on the side of the pool house with a lampholder sensor that on a cloudy day stay on full time.....is that enough already........BTW, most street lights are high pressure sodium with instant restrike capabilities.......

 

[epj3]

The censors are on the top, but it doesnt matter if I'm in my car or not, and it could be a normal old incandescant bulb, or one of the newer mercury/whatever bulbs.

 

[Bryan330i]

Thanks epj3 for my “electric “zapper” guys nightmare” [fake] [joke]

I have very few of these that I can remember but this was a strange one.

So I wake up at 4 am today after this intense dream of trying to get away from these “electric zapper guys.”

They would get you when you get too close to lights.

So we (me and some other faceless people) were outside in the dark (everything was dark everywhere). And we walked by a streetlight and it came on and out come these “electric zapper guys”, they chase us and try to kill us by firing electric charges at us.

In time we figure out that if we stayed away from the lights they would not come on and therefore the “electric zapper guys” could not get us.

Well, after much running around from building to building in the dark we find a TV and decide to turn it on and see what the world status is on these “electric zapper guys.” We had no more turned on the TV and “electric zapper guys” started jumping out of the TV.

We fought off the TV “electric zapper guys” and decided that we need to stay away from anything electrical.

The ending was a conversation on how we must learn to live in the dark, without electricity, forever.......

 

[skandalous]

Here's my guess: They buy the lights from the lowest bidder, so they suck and go out all the time.

 

[skandalous]

Thanks epj3 for my “electric “zapper” guys nightmare” [fake] [joke]

I have very few of these that I can remember but this was a strange one.

So I wake up at 4 am today after this intense dream of trying to get away from these “electric zapper guys.”

They would get you when you get too close to lights.

So we (me and some other faceless people) were outside in the dark (everything was dark everywhere). And we walked by a streetlight and it came on and out come these “electric zapper guys”, they chase us and try to kill us by firing electric charges at us.

In time we figure out that if we stayed away from the lights they would not come on and therefore the “electric zapper guys” could not get us.

Well, after much running around from building to building in the dark we find a TV and decide to turn it on and see what the world status is on these “electric zapper guys.” We had no more turned on the TV and “electric zapper guys” started jumping out of the TV.

We fought off the TV “electric zapper guys” and decided that we need to stay away from anything electrical.

The ending was a conversation on how we must learn to live in the dark, without electricity, forever.......

Sounds like the end of the world as predicted by either the mayans or aztecs, can't remember which. Anyways, technology is suppose to come alive and kill us. Sounds like fun.

 

[Bryan330i]

Sounds like the end of the world as predicted by either the mayans or aztecs, can't remember which. Anyways, technology is suppose to come alive and kill us. Sounds like fun.

Are you serious?

And here I was blaming epj3. [fake]

 

[canada5]

It's your gaurdian angel letting you know they are looking after you!!??

 

[Bryan330i]

It's your gaurdian angel letting you know they are looking after you!!??

I like that explanation.

 

[motoyen]

That happens to me all the time too, doesn't matter if I am walking or driving. For some reason electrical items fail around me. Including TVs, cell phones, computers etc. Most of the time when I buy some new gadget something goes wrong with it and I end up having to return it. Most people don't believe me because I can't prove it to them but it is annoying.

 

[wileycoyote]

That's really wierd. With me, things move. If I turn at my desk really fast, I can see the papers still move a little. I think they are alive, maybe doing some kind of ritual dance thing, and when I turn real fast I catch them before the can stop. Trees do it also, and sometimes the curtains if I leave the windows open. One time, about a month ago, I was Paso Robles, CA, and even the buildings started dancing. A couple danced so hard they fell down. It was really amazing, to bad a couple peopl got hurt.