Green lights: LED stoplight hazard.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Citings - Light-emitting diode - Brief article

Replace the incandescent light bulbs in traffic lights with more energy-efficient LEDs? For green-minded city councils and transportation agencies around the country, it sounded like a great idea. After all, traditional bulbs use almost twice as much energy.

Yet all that excess energy comes in handy during the winter, since the heat melts snow and ice that accumulates around the lights. In December the Associated Press reported that snow-blocked lights have caused dozens of accidents across the country, and an obscured light has been blamed for at least one death in Illinois.

City and state transportation officials told the A.P. that...