The city of Los Angeles has approximately 223,000 streetlights which are designed, constructed and maintained by the Bureau of Street Lighting (BSL). These lights come in more than 400 different styles, ranging from modern to ornate to historic. Together, they illuminate roughly two-thirds of the city.

The agency, formed in 1925 as the Bureau of Street Lights, operates under the Department of Public Works. The Bureau’s maintenance division responds to over 45,000 light outages each year.

Currently, at any given time, more than 25,000 streetlights in Los Angeles need some kind of repair. The backlog of streetlight outages is a challenge for the BSL’s field team of about 200 people.

An LAist reader wanted to know why the streetlight repair situation seems bad, and what the expectations should be for how long it’ll take to fix all the lamps. We found out.

A Little History -

Back when L.A. had a population of fewer than 10,000, a lamplighter on horseback would ride around town to light the gas streetlights at dusk. That was in 1867, went the first gas lamps were installed on Main Street in modern-day downtown Los Angeles.

The city of L.A. installed its first seven electric streetlights in downtown in 1882, at a height of 150 feet, that shined with 3,000 candles worth of power. Those tall lights were called “moonlight towers,” because of how they illuminated large areas like the moon. Some of L.A.’s oldest streetlights can still be found downtown.

In the San Fernando Valley, streetlights were developed in the 1940s and 1950s. Street lighting came to south, central and west Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s, according to the bureau.

One of the oldest remaining original electrical systems in Los Angeles can be found on the northeast corner of West 3rd St and Norton Ave. That streetlight dates back to around 1911, according to Miguel Sangalang, BSL’s director.

Why do streetlights matter?

According to a 2009 review of the safety benefit and the effects of roadway lighting by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, street lighting can reduce pedestrian crashes at night by about 50%. The review also found that street lighting resulted in a 23% reduction in nighttime car crashes.

A 2019 University of Chicago study found that nighttime crimes were reduced by about 36% in areas treated with adequate lighting.

How are streetlights maintained in LA?

Street lighting maintenance is financed primarily by the money collected from annual assessments on property owners, about $58 on average per home. That collected money goes into the Street Lighting Maintenance Assessment Fund, which generates $42 million annually. The fund covers all costs associated with the operation and maintenance of the city’s street lighting system, according to the bureau.

How do you get an LA streetlight fixed?

If there’s a streetlight repair to be made anywhere in the city of Los Angeles, residents can report that outage:

• by calling 3-1-1
• through the MyLA311 App
• emailing [email protected] to fill out a street lighting service request online form. 

Sangalang said the BSL uses reported outage information to keep track of streetlight-related trends throughout the city. All those reports filter into one asset management system overseen by the BSL field team.