"New" airport lighting distracting? (taxiways)

[Mesabi Miner]

Posted this in the "Safety" Forum as well, but wanted to put it here to get more visibility.

Has anyone noticed the "new" type of taxiway lights being installed at airports recently? (west side of KDTW and all of KBMI for example) They seem to be either of the LED or flourescent type. Does anyone else find them distracting? To me, they seem to leave a "trail" behind them as I move my eyes and I find them annoying. I only hope they don't replace the incandescent lights on the runway with this new type. Comments?

MM

 

[STL717]

LED lighting is the future. Have you noticed most traffic signals have been changed to LED in the last five years? California saves enough electricity with LED traffic signals to provide electricity for 10,000 homes. Automobiles, trucks and planes are changing to LED’s with huge savings in fuel used. Changing all the reading lamps on all US airlines to LED’s would save approximately 375,000 gallons of jet fuel a year.

Airports are now changing out lighting to LED for the same reasons, increased efficiency and long life.



Reference:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/SSL/PDFs/Niche%20Final%20Report.pdf

 

[erj-145mech]

And aviation systems are in the works too:

http://www.whelen.com/aviation/catalog/LED Lighting.pdf

 

[glasspilot1]

Changing all the reading lamps on all US airlines to LED’s would save approximately 375,000 gallons of jet fuel a year.

And they wouldn't burn out and you could actually read by them!