Streetlights turning off...

Hello, I am new to this board and this is my first post. I've been lurking over this website for about a year, but only now have I decided to register, and I'm kind of glad that I finally decided to do so. There are certainly many intelligent people on this website, and many if not all of you are here because you've experienced something or are aware of things that you simply cannot explain. This is why I signed up, I want to discuss with people the paranormal because I may learn something from someone else that I may not have ever thought of on my own. Of course, I'm also very interested in other topics, such as government conspiracies, for one.

Okay, I don't want to bore you talking about myself for too long, so I'll go ahead and post why I created this thread.

To begin, I have no idea if this is something paranormal or not, but it sure has caught my attention in recent past four weeks. I have a job at the Lansing State Journal here in Lansing, MI and my job is to deliver newspapers to stores and racks starting at 3:00 a.m.. This is kind of hard for me to do because I am a full-time college student and the job does interfere with my sleeping pattern, but I do it because it's good money. During my work everynight, I travel many streets that are quite busy during the day but mostly empty during my work hours of 3-5 a.m.. So I am quite aware of everything around me, and when a streetlight goes off as I come near it or pass under it, naturally I take notice of it. If this only occured once or twice a night, I would have ignored it, but this anomaly (for lack of a better word) occurs at least 5 to 10 times a night. One of my friends suggested that it may be occuring because the lights on the streets have light sensors which control when it should turn on and off depending on the amount of light outside. Even so, how does that explain why they go off just as I pass under them? I don't know if there is a simple explanation for this, but if there is, I certainly am not aware of it.

Does anyone have any explanation for why this may be happening?

I think if you want a paranormal explanation, you might have been better off posting in the paranormal section. Maybe you want a scientific explanation though and that is why you posted in this section.

One reason if you're driving a car is that your headlight beams may be reflecting light upwards and they may activate or turn off the light sensor on the street light.

Another reason is that a number of these street lights are always turning off and back on again at any given moment as well. Therefore lots of people experience the street lights turning off and/or back on again as they drive or walk underneath them.

If you want to read lots of other posts, do a long term search (since the beginning) on sliders. I lost my bookmark for searching by tags but if you search for the thread on tags, it has it there somewhere. I believe someone tagged almost all related threads with either s.l.i.d.e.r.s. or the same with s.l.i.d.e.r.s with no period at the end. I don't remember. I thought the tag slider or sliders would have worked a lot better.

Do you work for Matt?

High pressure sodium lights, the type used most commonly in street lighting (next is metal halide) will kick off when they overheat, or when they are nearing the end of the bulb's life. If you watch, they will cool down for a few seconds to a few minutes, and then you will see the ignitor spike the bulb again to turn it back on. The more freuquently the bulb cycles on/off, the closer it is to its death.

The only reason they turn off when you pass under them is becuase you are present to notice them turning off.

Ah, I knew there had to be a simple explanation for all of this. I will do a search on S.L.I.D.E.R.S. laterto find out more, thank you. And yes, I have noticed lights that turn off and on, and they're usually very bright lights, unlike the ones that look like candles.

Code 3, sorry, I don't work at Matt's, and I don't think I even know where that is, to be honest. Are you from Lansing, MI?

Here. This might help.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Many street lights are also light sensitive, meaning the come on automatically when it starts getting dark, then turn off when it starts getting light. Sometimes car headlights will cast enough light on the sensor to turn the light off, I suspect that is what is happenning.

Depends on the orientation of the photosensor and whether or not it has a state delay. I contracted for a manufacturer locally for a time and theirs had a 5minute delay circuit, primarily for the very problem of car lights and things like lightning. And while some models had the sensor off to the side, others had it pointing straight up.

Anyone who owns high pressure sodium lights is aware that their lights work quite well when in their presence... until the bulb is in its last year or so of life at which point it will periodically cycle on and off. In other words, this SLI business is bogus.

This is quit common, and it happens to LOTS of people. Although there isn't a perfect explanation, there is numerous causes such as:

1. Electromagnetic field generated from Human body
   
2. Super Natural causes
   
3. Sensors in the light going off from cars passing by
   
4. And numerous other things
   

I honestly think it's scientific not supernatural, but that decision is entirely on YOU.

Most of those street lamps contain photo-cells. Some of which are probably horribly aligned, to the point where the light from the lamp could reflect in just the right way off of the person walking nearby. In turn, shutting off the lamp.

I know how picky those damn sensors can be, you can spend hours trying to position one on a machine, before you finally find just the right angle and shade to prevent it from being interfered with by surrounding equipment and objects.