It was announced this past summer that the City of Grand Rapids would be changing current street light bulbs with LED bulbs. The Grand Rapids City Commission approved the adoption of LED lights for all neighborhood street lighting. The project will cost $6.2 million.

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James Hurt, managing director of public services said,

"We know that most accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists happen at night, and many of those are the result of poor visibility. Additionally, better lighting will make residents feel safer in their own neighborhoods — cities like Detroit have seen great results when they transitioned to this LED temperature for their street lighting."

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The city has approximately 18,000 streetlights to be converted. The city expects an estimated annual energy savings of approximately $350,000.

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Bruce Sweeris, utility systems manager commented,

"Color temperatures in LED lights are measured in kelvins and range from warm orange (lower kelvins) to cool blue (higher kelvins) tones. The city selected 4,000 (kelvins), which offers a good balance and closely represents natural moonlight."

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314 of the country's largest cities have also chosen this same color for their street lights.

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North East Citizen Action commented on Grand Rapids Reddit,

"I am happy that we will be energy efficient, but do we need each streetlight to be brighter than the sun? These new bulbs are waaaaay too bright."

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Torrence73 added,

"Just like how they went from halogen to the bulbs we have now, you will get used to the LEDs eventually. Some areas need to brighten up."

The citywide LED project is estimated to last 18 months.

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