Hazardous Roads Get a Dose of Daylight

Crosswalks at several busy intersections and a few sharp curves along Santiago Canyon Road now will be more visible to drivers, thanks to solar-powered lights installed last week by the city.

Orange is the first U.S. city to use the lights, which store solar energy during the day and emit a soft glow at night. The light, which shines from traffic reflectors embedded in the pavement, helps drivers see pedestrians using crosswalks, officials said.

Similar lights have been used successfully in England and France, but never before in the United States, city officials said.

Orange traffic engineers also have installed about 150 yellow lights on some darker curves along Santiago Canyon Road, where drivers are known to speed or drift across lanes. The lights are considered 10 times more visible than normal highway pavement reflectors, city officials said.

City Traffic Engineer Hamid Bahadori said the lights were installed at three high-traffic intersections: Chapman Avenue at Cypress Street, Glassell Street at Wilson Avenue and Prospect Street at Maple Avenue.

“Nobody else had stepped up to the plate, and we wanted to introduce this in the U.S. market,” Bahadori said.

Installation of the solar-powered lights cost the city about $12,000--much less than the cost of lights powered by electric wires, he said.

After a six-month trial period, the city will decide whether to put the lights on more crosswalks, Bahadori said.

Other cities such as Irvine and Laguna Niguel have expressed some interest in installing similar devices, Bahadori said.

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Alex Katz may be reached at (714) 966-5977.