Is the Sodium Vapor Streetlight Becoming Extinct?

[Mdcastle]

Mercury vapor was essentially extinct by 1990 in the Twin Cities, except for the Minneapolis parkways and a few isolated city owned installations. HPS is well on the way to extinction with all utility owned lights, MnDOT lights, and downtown Minneapolis city owned lights having been converted.

[roadman65]

When the HPS lamps first came out in my region, Staten Island used them first in NYC.  I remember how dismal looking they were and actually hated going to Staten Island as a kid as my dad used to buy his liquor there as prices used to be cheaper in NY than NJ.  Then they moved outside Staten Island and in NJ the NJ Turnpike was one of the first roads there to use them, but the NJ Turnpike nixed the domes and used the clear bottom so the light was dimmer.  The GS Parkway started to use them after a mercury bulb would burn out so in the 80's you saw mixed of mercury and sodium lights.

I-287 replaced them all in 1985 when I worked in Somerset, as I commuted that road each day and saw them get replaced all at once over a period of a month.  The ones over the Raritan River near Bound Brook got done when the bridges from River Road to Route 28 got their NB lanes redone as it was part of that rehabilitation project then so it was last.

Speaking of NJ, does any community still have candelesant bulbs?  Even in 1990 places like Westfield, Scotch Plains, Lambertville, Hackettstown, and even Parsippany used them in residential areas, and they were cool and did not pollute as much light as mercury or sodium lights do.