Things of signs to come: New LED street light

I've traveled enough around the United States to know there are places that have great road signs and others where you wind up groping around in the dark, until suddenly you're past your exit and the drivers behind are making rude gestures toward your rear view mirror. Streetlights are notoriously unreliable, and the ones illuminating highway signs even moreso.

LED maker Dialight would have you believe, however, that the new Streetsense RS Series LED Roadway Sign Light (pictured) could keep you headed in the right direction.

The technology is meant to replace the 250-plus-watt fixtures that are used commonly for road sign lighting, offering an energy savings of approximately 60 percent to 70 percent. The lights come in rugged housings to deal with weather, corrosion and highway "shock." They have a projected life span of about 10 years, and can hold onto about 70 percent of their lumens after 60,000 hours of operation. That means that road crews won't have to replace the bulbs as often. The company is selling a retrofit kit for converting existing lamp fixtures.