YES! There Really is a (Progressive) Kalamazoo!

A HUGE thanks to Commissioner McCann, who on the Monday before his wedding took time out to finally answer my question about whether or not Kalamazoo has (is) replacing it's incandescent traffic lights with LED's. I think this should have been something I could have found out easily — something the City should be bragging about on their website! And, definitely something the Gazette should have mentioned!

Here's the scoop right from the City's "public service staff"

Over the last several years, we have upgrade traffic signals on all the major street corridors in the City that we control. Generally, these upgrades have included installation of new signals with LED technology as well as camera activation which allows for smoother and less disrupted traffic movement.

Currently, the City has been able to reduce electrical usage by traffic signals as a result of these upgrades by 82%. We are currently working with Consumers Energy to get a credit on the City’s electricity bill for this since traffic signals are not separately metered but are billed based on a set calculation. We should have this rectified shortly.

As far as other benefits, four of the major corridors have been evaluated and the following reductions and fuel savings have been calculated just for these four:

Total Emissions Reduced per year:
228.2 tons of volatile organics, nitrogen and carbon monoxide/carbon dioxide emissions

Fuel Savings per year (gallons):
2,095,821 gallons

Fuel Savings per year (dollars):
$4,191,642 (at $2.00 per gallon)

Way to go Kalamazoo! I KNEW it had to be true even if I couldn't find us bragging about it.