thanks for posting this FLU. I’ve read about it on Friday and could not believe the stupidity. All I have to say that this nonsense will be long lived due reality kicking in at some point in the future (short term is not the case, hence, long term with more pain)…..

P.S. I just got back from looking at some houses ( even thou I can’t believe some call them that…more like shacks)….it looks that I’ll rent for a looonngggggggg time

thanks for posting this FLU. I’ve read about it on Friday and could not believe the stupidity. All I have to say that this nonsense will be long lived due reality kicking in at some point in the future (short term is not the case, hence, long term with more pain)…..

P.S. I just got back from looking at some houses ( even thou I can’t believe some call them that…more like shacks)….it looks that I’ll rent for a looonngggggggg time

To me this looks like misleading accounting with the intent to make the government look bad.

For example, people whose jobs were saved because of $70 mln in DPW spending obviously did not earn $1.5 million/year. Where is the money? Two thirds of the DPW stimulus budget involved street resurfacing projects. There are substantial costs associated with these projects, in addition to direct labor costs, (e.g. equipment rental and raw materials) and you can’t say that spending money to buy asphalt and rent heavy equipment does not create jobs. Were all these jobs counted correctly? I bet they weren’t.

About those traffic lights. Notice that the cost quoted is ‘per location’. At a typical intersection, there are at least eight normal traffic lights (x3 or 4 light bulbs each), + pedestrian traffic lights. One traffic-light-sized LED light bulb can cost on the order of $100. So $5000 per intersection, including labor, seems reasonable. Again, where does most of the money go? To light bulb manufacturers. Those are probably located in the United States because of the ‘buy American’ provision in the stimulus bill (Republicans wanted to take it out, but failed). Did anyone count jobs saved and created in the company that produced and supplied light bulbs, and in the company that produced raw materials for those light bulbs …? Evidently not.

To me this looks like misleading accounting with the intent to make the government look bad.

For example, people whose jobs were saved because of $70 mln in DPW spending obviously did not earn $1.5 million/year. Where is the money? Two thirds of the DPW stimulus budget involved street resurfacing projects. There are substantial costs associated with these projects, in addition to direct labor costs, (e.g. equipment rental and raw materials) and you can’t say that spending money to buy asphalt and rent heavy equipment does not create jobs. Were all these jobs counted correctly? I bet they weren’t.

About those traffic lights. Notice that the cost quoted is ‘per location’. At a typical intersection, there are at least eight normal traffic lights (x3 or 4 light bulbs each), + pedestrian traffic lights. One traffic-light-sized LED light bulb can cost on the order of $100. So $5000 per intersection, including labor, seems reasonable. Again, where does most of the money go? To light bulb manufacturers. Those are probably located in the United States because of the ‘buy American’ provision in the stimulus bill (Republicans wanted to take it out, but failed). Did anyone count jobs saved and created in the company that produced and supplied light bulbs, and in the company that produced raw materials for those light bulbs …? Evidently not.

To me this looks like misleading accounting with the intent to make the government look bad.

For example, people whose jobs were saved because of $70 mln in DPW spending obviously did not earn $1.5 million/year. Where is the money? Two thirds of the DPW stimulus budget involved street resurfacing projects. There are substantial costs associated with these projects, in addition to direct labor costs, (e.g. equipment rental and raw materials) and you can’t say that spending money to buy asphalt and rent heavy equipment does not create jobs. Were all these jobs counted correctly? I bet they weren’t.

About those traffic lights. Notice that the cost quoted is ‘per location’. At a typical intersection, there are at least eight normal traffic lights (x3 or 4 light bulbs each), + pedestrian traffic lights. One traffic-light-sized LED light bulb can cost on the order of $100. So $5000 per intersection, including labor, seems reasonable. Again, where does most of the money go? To light bulb manufacturers. Those are probably located in the United States because of the ‘buy American’ provision in the stimulus bill (Republicans wanted to take it out, but failed). Did anyone count jobs saved and created in the company that produced and supplied light bulbs, and in the company that produced raw materials for those light bulbs …? Evidently not.

Three comments on the LED traffic lights.
1) They use a small fraction of the energy that the normal ones do. Portland OR. replaced theirs, payback on cost was under 3 years. There are some energy ‘rebates’ tied to replacing the incandescent traffic lights with LED – don’t know the specifics on it. The reduction in energy costs ends up being a ‘recurring savings’ with a payout of about 33% on cost after the 3 year period due to energy savings alone.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=111737
2) The LED lights last a lot longer than the incandescent (claimed 3x as long – they must be stressing the LEDs, because it should be longer. I hope they are using a heat sink in the mounting for the LEDs). This cuts the yearly maintenance cost in a third.
3) Not all LED traffic light lamps are made in the US.

Eyeballing the costs. 4 way intersection, 2 assemblies per direction – 3 lamps each : 24 bulb assemblies – approx $100/per lamp = $2,400 in material. The $5000/per may be high, but it is near the ballpark. It could be the ‘fat lazy union-workers’ ;-P who pad up the bill with slow bulb changes – though I see that labor costs are taken out of the $5000/intersection.

Three comments on the LED traffic lights.
1) They use a small fraction of the energy that the normal ones do. Portland OR. replaced theirs, payback on cost was under 3 years. There are some energy ‘rebates’ tied to replacing the incandescent traffic lights with LED – don’t know the specifics on it. The reduction in energy costs ends up being a ‘recurring savings’ with a payout of about 33% on cost after the 3 year period due to energy savings alone.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=111737
2) The LED lights last a lot longer than the incandescent (claimed 3x as long – they must be stressing the LEDs, because it should be longer. I hope they are using a heat sink in the mounting for the LEDs). This cuts the yearly maintenance cost in a third.
3) Not all LED traffic light lamps are made in the US.

Eyeballing the costs. 4 way intersection, 2 assemblies per direction – 3 lamps each : 24 bulb assemblies – approx $100/per lamp = $2,400 in material. The $5000/per may be high, but it is near the ballpark. It could be the ‘fat lazy union-workers’ ;-P who pad up the bill with slow bulb changes – though I see that labor costs are taken out of the $5000/intersection.