32 days?? What a joke - try more like 32 weeks -IF you're very lucky! Several years ago I did the web-site report on a light out next to my house, with correct address, pole-number, etc. It was AT LEAST A YEAR before it was finally replaced.

This has been a constant personal battle for me. I've been waiting 15 months for the light in front of my house to be fixed.

@Andy - For the last 15 years I have seen many lights around Seattle that only stay on for 30 or so minutes, turn off for 30 or so minutes and turn back on (not every light has 30 minute frequency, but varies). The lights up and down my street do this at alternating frequencies and so do ones around Gas Works park and other places where I have walked regularly and noticed it. Maybe in your area they don't. The behavior of the lights to alternate seems much more like it is by design (perhaps to save electricity or bulbs) rather than faulty lamps given that they have been like this for a very long time (> 4 years).

@BB; thanks for the info! I've reported those sometimes-on-sometimes-off lights at the Safeway gas station corner at least 3 or 4 times over the past couple of years and they never seem to get fixed. Hope this did it!

@Jeffo: I have neighbors with very bright yard lights that shine right into my bedroom every night. It's really rather annoying. The New Yorker magazine had a great article on lighting pollution that I wish everyone would read. (Sorry if this doesn't link directly. Perhaps someone can fix that for me.)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/0...

@pr: The lights are supposed to stay on continuously, no different than the lights in your house. The ones that are going off & on are in fact in need of repair, which is why the reporting form has "off/on" listed as one of the problems one can report.

Streetlights around bus stops, schools, pedestrian crossings, and busy ped areas should be the priority for SCL crews, don't you think?

By the by, your timely post about construction at the SE corner of 15th and Market is very likely related to getting access to an electrcical connection box that needs to be upgraded. Dysfunction in that box is the source of the near total absence of working lights at that incredibly busy ped, and transit corner.

Everything is connected with everything....

For me, having functional lights is mostly about pedestrian safety--pay attention next time you are driving down Leary, or some of the other stretches referred to. It's very evident when two lights in a row, or lights on opposite sides are out--peds crossing in that area may not realize that they are nearly invisible, given our penchant for mostly black outerwear.

I plead to all of us who drive to slow down, pay attention, and focus on what we are doing--driving.

32 days! Hah! I've reported a light twice in the last SIX MONTHS and it's still out. I heard they have outsourced this service and it's causing upset with the city light workers. True?

I agree that keeping outdoor lights on at night is totally wasteful. Smith is right on in recommending a motion sensors. They are inexpensive and really easy to install.

My neighbors do too. I find it odd and wasteful. I'm all for a motion-detector if you are worried about interlopers, but my backyard is illuminated by light pollution so I don't worry about it...

kind of on a separate subject (I'm all for the safety provided by streetlights).

do most people put their backyard door lights on all night? My neighbors all seem to have flood lights illuminating their lovely homes at all hours of the night. Is this normal?

If you do a neighborhood sweep and note the pole number and cross street of each light along with (is it pulsing on and off, or is it just out), you can just email the whole list to them and they will get to them. In fact, it is more efficient this way. If they know they have a list of every dead streetlight in Ballard, they can just have their trucks spend a week replacing every light in Ballard, only spending 5 minutes or less driving between each light.

For what it is worth, it is *really* easy to get pole numbers by bicycle. I have turned in a couple lists of 50-100 lights before.

i hope the ones around the ballard churches are being replaced if necessary.

it makes breaking into cars pretty when there is no light for people to see you doing it!

nice math, boardbrown! :)

Most lights are not on all of the time, they stay on for part of the time, shut off for a bit and turn on again. How can driving around gauge the actual number of lights that are "burnt" out?

There has to be an easier way to report these that one at a time with the online form (I've turned in at least 8 that are being worked or have been completed). On Aurora, between Northgate way and the stadiums, I would estimate that 40+% of the lights are out. Particularly bad by the zoo and north of 85th.

When you're driving past, it is hard to get the pole number and the address to properly report it.

Keep reporting, well lit areas keep annoyances like graffiti, vandalism, and car camping to a minimum.

I currently have 2 burned out street lights on my street. I went to the website 2 months ago and reported the outages and they are still not fixed. I do not believe that they are getting to them in 32 days!

32 working days sounds crazy slow at first...but then I did the math.

Per truck, figure about 45 minutes per light, which includes driving to the next one, parking the truck w/in range of the lift, setting up cones, getting in the lift, going up, removing the lens (and Lord only knows how many stripped or rusted screws hold those things on), replace bulb, replace lens, go down, secure lift, pick up cones, drive off. So assuming no major traffic issues, a single crew could probably replace 10 bulbs in a single 8 hour work day.

So if our fair city has 3500 burned out bulbs at 10 per day, it'd take the equivalent of 350 work days to replace them all, or one year and 4 months by the calendar.

So the real question is, of all the Seattle DOT crews out there, how many spend their time changing light bulbs? I really have no idea, but in order to get a turn around time of 32 work days you'd need about 10 crews who's only task is to replace those bulbs day in, day out.

I'd say 32 work days sounds about right.