Since its founding almost a century ago, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting has been on the forefront of innovation, technology, and design. As our lives become more and more digitally connected, the Bureau is improving and enhancing LA’s street lights to make them provide even more benefits to you and your community. The Bureau was among the first cities in the world to convert our street lights to low-voltage LED, improving lighting conditions and saving energy. Building off this achievement, these are some of the ways that the Bureau is continuing to expand and explore what is possible:
BSL is expanding the way we think about our street lights, making them into even greater neighborhood assets that bring pride to our diverse communities:
- BSL has installed 18 air quality monitoring sensors to support the City’s Clean Up Green Up program. The Bureau has also recently received a grant through NASA to augment ground-level sensors with satellite imagery.
- Lights in our new Transitional Lighting Zones increase brightness during high levels of pedestrian traffic, improving visibility and safety.
- 20 Safety Cameras have been mounted to street lights to help deter illegal dumping.
- Street Light banners depict events, art, and identify the culture of our neighborhoods — and new digital banners will provide more real-time messaging for public information.
To bridge the digital divide, BSL is undertaking a pilot project to install WiFi access points on street lights. The project will bring public internet access to some of our most disconnected communities.
LA is on track to become the first 5G city in the nation, working with telecom companies to increase cellular speeds throughout the city. There are currently over 2,670 5G devices attached to street lights in operation citywide.
As most cities embark on LED conversations, 98% of LA’s network of street lights has been converted to LED. Each year, this investment delivers:
- 64% energy savings
- 67,000 fewer metric tons of CO2.
- Approximately $10 million in energy savings
Over 430 EV chargers have been deployed on street lights with more on the way.
The bureau is exploring ways to further improve sustainability, including through solar and battery technologies that could enable our streetlights to run fully off-grid on renewable energy.
BSL has deployed 37,000 operational smart nodes across the City with plans to install 7,000 additional nodes within the next five years. These nodes provide real-time status and notify us of outages — improving our response time to lighting issues.
The bureau has also created an Infrastructure Protection Division to pilot new ways to stem growing copper wire and power theft issues in our city.
