Re: Why do street lights go out as I approach them while walking?

Ms. Vaillancourt,

I have occasionally noticed this as well during walks at night.  I have
trouble believing that my presence or absence will make a streetlight turn
on or off, so I think this phenomenon may be rooted in our perception of
the event.

While it seemed like the street light always turned off as I approached it,
I was not usually thinking about the street light when I walked down the
street, and so I only noticed it when it actually turned off.  I noticed it
only when I was nearby and facing it, so if it turned off then, I tended to
associate that event with approaching the streetlight, but it was not
actually cause and effect.

Here are some ways that you can find out if the streetlight is actually
dependent on your approach, or if it is just randomly turning on and off.  

You could take along a journal on your walks.  When the light turns off,
note which light it was and how far away you were when it turned off.  Then
also make a note about when it turned back on.

Take along a lawn chair some night, and sit and watch one of the offending
street lights for about fifteen minutes, and see if it turns on and off
randomly, or if it only turns of when another person approaches it.  If you
get a friend, they can help you out by being that other person.

When you approach the street light and it turns off, stop and wait for it
to turn on again.  You might even time it.

All of these experiments are designed to test if your approach and the
streetlight flicker are randomly associated or if they are in fact cause
and effect.  If you find that it is cause and effect, ask us again (I
personally think we'd be stumped for and answer) or call the public works
office of your local government.  If you can convince them that it is cause
and effect with written proof, then they may be able to figure out why it
happens.

As to the streetlights which seem to always turn off for you and the ones
that only occasionally turn off, I suspect that the "always" lights tend to
randomly turn off more often.