busted highway lights (Los Angeles, San Jose, Redwood City: property taxes, fence, prices)

[Scott_403s]

I see them around in a lot of places, some interchanges or exit ramps aren't lit at all. They have light poles but they are not on. I see that a lot around San Jose. Do you see that situation a lot in Peninsula or East Bay?
Some of those are mostly around more sketchy areas but when you get off on local streets they are perfectly lit everywhere. Are any portions of freeways lit in Bay Area or California at all besides bridges? Most states I have been too have fully lit highways (not just on interchanges) in urban areas whether large cities or suburbs.

[mstnghu2]

9 times out of 10 it's from low-life copper thieves who break into utility boxes and steal copper wiring, causing the street lights to not work. There was an article about this awhile back in the SJ Mercury News "Roadshow" section. I've seen this problem in places all over the Bay Area.

As long as copper continues to be valuable and shady recycle centers continue to accept "questionable" copper, it's going to continue.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadsh...e-280-680-dark

[Scott_403s]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

9 times out of 10 it's from low-life copper thieves who break into utility boxes and steal copper wiring, causing the street lights to not work. There was an article about this awhile back in the SJ Mercury News "Roadshow" section. I've seen this problem in places all over the Bay Area.

As long as copper continues to be valuable and shady recycle centers continue to accept "questionable" copper, it's going to continue.

Roadshow: Eerie darkness on I-280 and I-680 - San Jose Mercury News

That's strange, I haven't seen that problem in Chicagoland, or Milwaukee but I am pretty sure theft exists there too. But over there is a lot of cameras and state highway patrols on roads pulling out cars everyday. In Bay Area I see cars pulled over, but I have seen that more often in Midwest. There is however lowered speed limit in most urban areas only 55 mph in Illinois unless you drive in rural areas that have 65mph speed limit. And most drivers there drive fast 70-80, they don't drive 55 miles or below, some do but much much less than in Bay Area or even here closer in Los Angeles or Vegas.

I guess its little easier to enforce anti-theft measures in Chicagoland since counties can charge higher property taxes (property prices there are lower though but no limit on increase) and most stretches of highways (especially outside Cook county) are tollways but cost of tolls are much lower than average in this country. Gas taxes are higher than average and they are highest in the city of Chicago.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

The market for suspect copper around here has some peculiar characteristics. One thing to keep in mind is, we have one of the key bulk cargo ports here (Port Of Redwood City) with many ships taking scrap metal to China and Russia. That makes it really easy to fence the stuff quickly and make it disappear.

[bigdumbgod]

The less illumination, the better to not see the potholes.