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Comment by stickfigure | Hacker News Reader

Does it really cost ~500€ per month to run a single traffic light?

Assuming 100W light bulb and 0.3€/kWh cost, it's ~22€ for the electricity. So I guess we're left with the maintenance. These guys have pretty decent hourly rate even if light bulbs need to be changed every few months ;) But in all seriousness it seems somewhat understandable. During all these years you may need to change the pole, some elements, maybe repaint the pole, maintain cars and equipment of these guys who change the bulbs and so on. Plus it seems likely that it was calculated as city traffic light infrastructure expenses divided by the number of traffic lights. Then you have some upgrades of electronics, leds, counters or cameras in other parts of the city.

I'm not trying to say that governments spend money efficiently, just that the figure may be not as ridiculous as it seems.

Don't forget the people employed who keep watch over the whole lights system. It's not fully automated afaik.

Yes, and in this case it's just the amount of man hours spent monitoring the system divided by the number of lights because in this case there's not many decisions to be made by the monitors.

Another thing re maintenance: When I saw a TV segment about these lights, they mentioned that the maintenance crew will always exchange all three lights, despite yellow and green never getting used. The reasoning is again consistency: If you told the crew to specifically not replace these two bulbs, there might be a mixup and they would end up not replacing some vital bulbs.

Who still uses bulbs for traffic lights these days? Here it's all LED. Cheaper and much clearer. (The old bulb lights were sometimes really hard to see when the sun is low behind you.)

Lost of places. Here it's a mixture of lightbulb and LED lights. Also LEDs may be cheaper over time due to electricity costs, but the initial upgrade is surely more expensive than a new bulb. Then there is the problem with snow not melting and you don't know what maintenance contracts are there for bulb replacement and how long those last.

We are talking about the average cost over 30 years. There were no LEDs used in traffic lights for the better part of that time, and I have no idea about efficiency of light bulbs in the 80s.

I was surprised too - the article seems to address 'why on Earth has this light been red for decades' but open and leave the bigger question of 'why on Earth does powering a single light cost €5500pa'.

There are two lit lights on the pole, so you can halve your astonishment :)

That is true, but the figure seems to refer to one:

> And the total cost of maintaining this one traffic light over almost three decades runs to roughly €150,000. Every year maintenance and running costs come to €5,500.

'Traffic light' is used throughout to refer to the one that's been red for 28 years; not the whole system.

Regardless, I don't think I'd have been less surprised or inclined to comment on it had the article stated the cost was €2,750pa!

I'm hopeful that this cost figure is a result of a journalist getting details almost right as they so often do.

In my local town, I've heard a figure of $100,000 to install a new light. If we assume similar costs in this case that's $3,300 per year right there and we still haven't powered it on or put any money into monitoring it nor maintaining it. The systems in place for monitoring are largely a fixed cost across all of the traffic lights in the city. I can only guess that maintenance costs are lower with newer lights and increase with age.

If the number quoted in the article includes the initial outlay to erect the signal, then I don't see the 30 year cost being that out of line. If that cost is truly only maintenance and operation, then it does seem quite excessive.

> 'why on Earth does powering a single light cost €5500pa'

Exactly. I can sorta understand the argument that if the intersection has lights then this street needs one too even if it's always red, but for me the real WTF was

if one red light costs €5,500 yearly, how much are we (over)paying for the whole system?

Exactly why I have a resistance to government 'solutions' when it comes to anything beyond constitutional basics. Governentnt is rarely more efficient than the free market/private sector. Those jackasses actually have the green and amber light bulbs included in the maintenance.. those bulbs got replaced as well. €5500 yearly -- even if a guy got paid €100 per hour, how could a a single light require that much expense? Is someone inspecting and maintaining it on a daily basis? Concierge traffic light service?

How many drivers a month avoid losses thanks to this traffic light? I'm gonna guess the ROI is positive overall on traffic lights.

*Sent from my iPhone while driving 75 on the freeway, eating fast food listening to a book on tape, navigating with Google Maps

(Not really, but people do this)

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