Los Angeles residents have been posting videos of a strange sight around the city: streetlights glowing a vivid purple instead of their usual white.

Content creator Evan Lovett of L.A. in a Minute saw the city streets take on a bluish purple cast in the summer of 2024. In a TikTok video, he explained that the unintentional color shift is caused by the phosphorus coating on the bulbs starting to degrade.

Without this coating, LEDs project more of their core blueish color. Lovett warned that the effect could be dangerous because humans struggle to distinguish detail in blue and violet-saturated light. 

“I’m a fan of the color purple, but I don’t want my streetlights to be that way,” Lovett told USA Today. “It’s kind of dangerous.” 

Purple hues caused by degrading phosphor

“Even though it’s a pretty nice color, it could actually be dangerous,” Lovett warned. Because the human eye lacks blue-sensitive cones at the center of the retina, it’s difficult to distinguish detail in blue and violet-saturated light. 

“While we see the white light of the LED street lights, it’s actually blue LEDs coated with a type of fluorescent substance called phosphor,” he said.

“So when the blue LED light goes through this layer, the phosphor absorbs some of the blue wavelengths and spits out different ones that appear to the eye to be white light.”

The phosphor in streetlights could be delaminating due to heat buildup from constant use, vibrations from passing cars, or gravity tugging on the light fixture.

@evanlovett If you’ve been out after dark in Los Angeles, recently, you’ve noticed the purple- and blue- tinted street lights. Why are these here, are they safe, and will they be replaced?  Let’s get into it!  #Streelights #LosAngeles #LAInAMinute #DriverSafety #Inverted #greenscreen ♬ original sound – L.A. in a Minute

The streetlights in Los Angeles really are turning purple

Angelenos in the comments said they noticed streetlights turning purple all over the city. 

“Happened at the BART station in town. Whole parking lot turned purple overnight.”

“In south central there’s either a whole bunch of purple lights or just no lights at all!”

“yessss i’ve been noticing since late 2022! there were a bunch in burbank that went purple around that christmas.”

American cities, LA included, began replacing orange-hued sodium bulbs in streetlights with LED lights around 2010. Now that the bulbs are delaminating, the effectiveness of streetlights is compromised and officials are tasked with replacing them.

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The post Yes, the street lights in Los Angeles are going purple. Here’s why appeared first on The Daily Dot.

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