Your states street lighting

[PNWRoadgeek]

I was thinking about this today, something that doesn't really get talked about much is street lighting, and how it looks or how it works. Y'know.

How nice do you think your states street lighting in is?(Specifically on how it looks and how's the quality), mainly on freeways but major highways can come into the equation as well.

I think Oregon's is kind of so-so, they take a lot of their street lighting from California in terms of design and touch it up a little bit. Lighting wise I think it's great, driving at night doesn't really cause any issues.

[ChiMilNet]

I will comment on states I have lived in or spent a significant amount of time in:

Illinois - It's sort of a tale of three DOT standards:
IDOT District 1 (Chicago Area) - Generally and historically well lit roads and highways. Uses aluminum poles (truss and some davit style), which is good with harsh Chicago winters. A little slow to upgrade to LED.
IDOT Downstate (Outside Chicago) - Generally does an decent job in most cast cases with lighting, but uses cheaper materials in spots and less frequent lighting at interchanges with exceptions in District 8 (Metro East), where newer installations tend to resemble those in D1. Still OK, but D1 does a better job.
Illinois Tollway (ISTHA) - By far the best of the agencies in Illinois. Well lit up tollways, especially newer construction (lighting down the middle), fully converted to LED lighting, uses high quality aluminum truss poles, modern look.

Missouri (MODOT) - Inconsistent lighting, cheap looking and rather ugly steel poles, odd positioning of lighting poles, big contrast between some municipalities and MODOT (see KC Metro). Overall, needs to use better materials and better standards

Florida (FDOT) - One of the best State DOTs for lighting. Uses modern looking aluminum truss poles, consistently lit up interchanges, and well maintained. A little delayed on updating to LED in some spots, but overall a good example for other states to follow.

Georgia (GDOT) - Frustrating lack of lighting in spots where there should be lighting (see I-285). Georgia has a very questionable policy of making municipalities pay for maintenance of state highway lighting (even Interstates). This has resulted in some maintenance issues, such as a stretch of I-75 in Cobb County. The materials are hit or miss in quality and appearance, when actually installed. Decent pavement quality, poor lighting.

Virginia (VDOT) - Some of the same frustrations as Georgia except with inferior road quality. I-85 heading North into VA can be very dark the whole distance.

[SkyPesos]

I've seen 3 main lighting styles on Ohio's Interstates. Not sure what they're actually called though.

1. Generic median poles with an "arm" towards each side
2. C/handle shaped
3. High-mast

[Mr_Northside]

I've seen 3 main lighting styles on Ohio's Interstates. Not sure what they're actually called though.

1. Generic median poles with an "arm" towards each side
2. C/handle shaped
3. High-mast

The style I default most to when I think of light poles on Ohio interstates actually isn't in that list - it's the curved arms (I'm sure there is a more technical term) like this:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/v3ciDar1zazYhew48

That goes back to trips in Ohio when I was really young (and noticed the contrast between the PA Turnpike's straight arms vs the Ohio Turnpike (and free interstates) curved versions.
Of course, now in 2026, a lot of those poles have aged out.

[tman]

Nebraska lights its urban freeways far, far more than I've seen elsewhere in the region (compared to, for example, Wisconsin placing lighting only at interchanges on the Interstate around Madison, fairly spotty lighting on the Madison Beltline for its status as a busy urban freeway, or MNDOT's similar approach on 494/694).

Lighting is continuous in Omaha for the urban portion of I-680 (the outer beltway), I-480 (the inner loop), US 75 (both North Freeway and Kennedy Freeway portions), and I-80 from the westernmost Omaha metro exit (Gretna/NE-370) all through the city to the river/state line at Council Bluffs. They've just added high mast lights further northeast on the more (formerly) rural portions of I-680 as well. Their approach consists of largely median poles with some high-mast fixtures at major interchanges (I-80 and 680, 680 and Dodge/US 6, etc.)

Iowa seems a bit closer to Nebraska than it does to Wisconsin and Minnesota in this regard, with gaps I've noticed like near Merle Hay Road in Des Moines, or the older, northern portion of I-29 in Council Bluffs.

Missouri seems to be on the minimalistic side too (I-29 in St. Joseph, as well as south of there into the Kansas City area).

[SeriesE]

California: except a few sections, no lighting on freeways except near interchanges.

The existing lights have all been switched to LEDs though. Newly installed lights have a warmer color temperature while older ones have cooler color temperature.