Street lights go out when I pass by
 

........................................................

Did you pay your electric bill? :D

the lights do go out on their own, when they get too hot and it's usually in order...

That's happened to me too, it's wierd. Only on one road though, but it happened on several occasions. I only ever saw them go out while I was walking under them, never at other times.

I had 2 that i could see outside my window at my parents house and all night long they would go off and on, i've also had them turn off while walking under them and such i think it's just a coincidence. But i KNOW they go off on their own, Also sitting in a car with a girl under one it happend twice we were in the car for about 3 hours "talking"

glad I'm not the only one who's observed this occur. It always made me feel kinda weird cause every time I passed this one particular light on the side of the highway it'd go off. Freaky coincidence.

Either I'm having deja vu or I read about this happening to someone elsewhere on the internet. It has not happened to me. I doubt it's just coincidence that this his happening to you. Especially if it's ongoing. You have to go with statistics. If it happens to the average person less than once an year and it happens to you several times a year, then it's probably you. As to why it is happening, I have no idea.

I actually have the opposite several times, as I'm driving, even when it's like midnight or 2 in the morning or something when its completely dark, the lights will come on when I drive under them and go back out after I get to the next one, one might think that this is some kind of thing where the city does it to save power by switching them on and off when they're used, but nope, our cities not that advanced and we got a dumbass mayor. DAMN YOU VERA!!! but anyways, I think it's weird, because it happens to me a lot, and it's the opposite of what you guys are experiencing. Also I know it's not anything about electrical radiation or something from something in the car, because I drive a friggin old 67 Mustang, and there is nothing like that in the car wutsoever. Anyways, my 2 cents, I think it's creppy, but it's kinda cool for me when your on a date, and the lights turn on for you, kinda magical if you think about it.

Sorry bout that folks, it's the damn lightswitch on the wall... used to think it didn't operate anything... sooo every once in a while I flip it, sometimes quick sometimes slow.... then everyone started complaining bout the light thing... so I put two and two together...and with the answer of 2 I realised that it must be me.
Once again... sorry.

Never had it happen to me while walking, but it used to happen to me all the time when driving. And it was always the same lights.

The Straight Dope covered this topic, and I read it.
This is just one of those things, you only notice it when it happens.
Do you ever notice all the times a streetlight doesn't do this? Of course not. If it really was you, then the lights would either always do this, or quite often, but I bet only occurs about .001% of the time you pass under a streetlight, but it seems so strange that you notice it.

In The Straight Dope, it all just boiled down to coincidence.

It happens sometimes to me. The weird on was when I walked up a parking garage spiral ramp, and 36 lights in a row did it. That was fucking weird.

I wonder if something like this can run in the family, because my cousing has managed to set off metal detectors while wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, shoes off, no metal anywhere on him.

weird, yeah i think it isnt you, ive never noticed this, does it only happen in USA? or do british lights do it as well?

I live in New Zealand and as I said above, it has happened to me.

(Yes, there are in fact places other than the US and Britain that have streetlight technology!)

Streetlights are controlled by photocells that turn them off when they "see" light, and turn them on when it's dark. Sometimes a car's headlights can reflect off of a wet road or a parked car window, hit the photocell, and turn off the light. It's not magic. It's a switch.

Darn space creatures messing with your head

Just a coincidence...........how many do you pass under that stay on??......Bet it is a Hell of a lot.......

Does that mean in my case that I am that friggin evil or have a darkness about me, that they turn on when I pass under them?
This has also happened where they turn on for me in broad daylight, not dusk or early morning, but midafternoon.
Also I've been on an completely empty completely dry freeway with nothing reflective and this has happened to me where they turn off, my car is very dark and unreflective as well, so it's not my car doing it.
Actually this happens to me about 50% of the time. And it is not the same ones either.

I posted here yesterday......and well,,,,a whole damn row of lights went out on me while crossing a bridge ( at 5:00 am ).....That's wierd....

Is your head shiny? Maybe it's reflecting light into the photocell.

:D

The streetlight phenomena is a case of selective attention. You remember the times that the light eerily goes off over your head, but you do not remember the thousands of other times when it didn't. Coincidence explains the rest, those lights flicker on and off due to stray light on the photocell or overheating of the elements.

My best friend and i have noticed this. I always said it was a coincidence, but had no proof. Now I can shut his mystic-crap believing ass up! Thank you TFP! ( Yes, I love to set him straight with a verbal bitch-slap.. All in good fun.)
Hehe

As Crow_Daw mentioned, Cecil Adams has covered this in http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_047.html]The Straight Dope[/url]

<center>Can some people extinguish streetlamps by means of their bodily emanations?

28-Oct-1994</center>

Dear Cecil:

I hope you can help me with this one--most of my friends think I'm crazy. I am convinced my physical presence has the ability to make streetlights burn out. On an average night, walking through a parking lot, at least one or two street lights will go out when I approach, then regain their luminous state after I have passed. Could there be some sort of electrochemical imbalance in my body that causes this to happen? Am I surrounded by some strange magnetic field? This happens only with street lights, not with lights in my home or public buildings. Is there a scientific explanation, am I looney, or do I just pay too much attention to street lights? --Matthew Davis, San Jose, California; similarly from Neal Duncan, Washington, D.C.

Cecil replies:

Nothing personal, Matthew, but our default explanation for things like this is that you are looney. However, on investigation (we had little Ed bring it up on talk radio), we are wondering if there is more to this than meets the eye.

When the sodium vapor bulbs commonly used in streetlights start to go bad, they "cycle"--go on and off repeatedly. Cecil is having a hard time getting the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board to agree on what happens, but apparently the bulb overheats, goes out, cools down, then relights. If you're walking past when this happens and you're the neurotic type, you think it's your fault. This surely accounts for most of the reports we have gotten about this over the years.

But maybe not all. While making one of his periodic reports to the nation on the Mara Tapp show on WBEZ radio in Chicago, little Ed mentioned your letter, figuring he might get a few calls from, as he indelicately put it, "the looney tune quadrant of the listening audience." As usual he got no help from Mara Tapp, who thought he was making the whole thing up. Also as usual, though, the lines lit up with listeners saying the same thing had happened to them. One caller, saying there was a 12-step program for streetlight snuffers, pointedly told Mara it was common for people to be in denial about this. So there.

And then there was a call from Joe. Joe claimed that when he and a friend walked down a street in Chicago once, eight or nine of the dozen or so street lights they passed went out as they approached, then relit after they had gone by. While subsequent forays into the city have not been so unenlightening, Joe says he will sometimes put out two or three lights in the course of a stroll, although he cannot do so at will. Hmm, said little Ed.

We are not about to say we believe in bodily emanations. No doubt it is all just coincidence. Or maybe Joe is lying, crazy, or under the influence. (He sounded OK, but on the phone you can't tell if your source's eyes are dilated.)

But we never rule anything out, especially if we can get a column out of it. We checked with several electrical engineering types, who professed bafflement. Deficient hypotheses include:

• Joe is somehow triggering the photocell that causes streetlamps to switch on and off. But Chicago streetlamps don't have individual photocells. The photocell is in a master electrical box that controls 25 or 30 lights.
• Joe is causing the bulb to vibrate loose. Supposedly if you hit the pole in the right spot the luminaire (the part with the bulb) will whip back and forth so sharply that the bulb loses contact. But Joe says he doesn't hit the poles, periodically drop a box of anvils, or anything like that.

Seeing as how we're not making much progress, we are faced with several choices:

1. Give up in frustration. We'd sooner die.
2. Conduct six weeks of in-depth investigation. Right, like we get paid by the hour for this.
3. Fob the job off on the Teeming Millions. The very thing. We invite reports from persons who believe they douse more street lights than can be explained by mere happenstance. We are particularly interested in hearing from people who can do this at will, without the aid of wire cutters, slingshots, etc. Perhaps nothing will come of this. But you never know.

***THE DELIGHTFUL ONES: A REPORT***

Dear Cecil:

Here's what I've seen as far as the streetlights thing goes, where they go off as people approach, and come back on as they move away. Senior Week in '93 down at Ocean City, Maryland, my girlfriend and I were hanging out with another couple. This other couple had been having a rocky relationship over the preceding few months, but then about three days into the week they had some incredible love thing happen. Both later said that that was their most memorable time in their relationship. Anyhow, as the day wore into night we went to the boardwalk for a little fun, and as we walked down the boardwalk we noticed that the streetlights would flicker and go off as we approached, then flicker back on as we walked away. After a while the other couple separated and went off to do something. As I watched them walk away I noticed that a ratio of about eight out of ten streetlights would go out as they walked beneath and then come back on as they passed by. It had stopped happening to my girlfriend and me, so obviously it was the other couple who were causing this. They later mentioned that it continued all night.... Weird stuff, man. --Mutant, via the Internet

Dear Cecil:

While a student in Boston, I often experienced the streetlights shorting out as I passed under them (sometimes three and four in a row). This was witnessed on several occasions by friends. However, I am unable to make this happen at will. In my case, this phenomenon occurs when I go hyperactive. During this period, usually brought on by binge drinking or a full moon, I have no choice but to exist for long periods of time without eating or sleeping. This hyperactive state is when the lights go out, in more ways than one. --Michael Burns, also via the 'Net

Dear Cecil:

It used to happen to me, too. Then it began to happen less and less. I'm only 30. Too young for electropause. Then I read your column, and on Saturday night I get this whole bank of streetlights to come on. Not as a group, but one after the other just preceding my path down Ashland Avenue. --Lon Ellenberger, Chicago

Dear Cecil:

I have caused streetlights to go out in North America, Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nepal, New Zealand ... --Anonymous

Dear Cecil:

... Chicago, New York, Athens (Georgia), upstate New York, and Arizona ... --Nina Keinberger, Chicago

Dear Cecil:

If I had a few in me it became clear I had some secret, but uncontrollable, power over the streetlight ... --Joe Wackerman, Washington, D.C.

Dear Cecil:

This is an example of what we in our lab call "the van is always at the corner" because one only notices the van when it is indeed parked at the corner, not the times when it is gone. How many lamps does one walk under that don't go out? You just notice those that do. --Josh Telser, Chicago

Cecil replies:

Much as I admire your steely logic, Josh, I'm never letting you sit around the campfire when I'm telling ghost stories. I'm charmed by the thought that powerful physio-emotional emanations may be behind HLS (human light switch) syndrome. Lest you think my mid-life crisis has put me completely off my nut, I realize it's a crock. But it's a fun crock.

Now, since my contract obliges me to insert at least one fact per column, this word from a top high pressure sodium engineer at General Electric: "It is a combination of coincidence and wishful thinking.... Cycling [on and off] occurs because the [lamp] ballast is only able to sustain an arc with a certain maximum voltage. As high pressure sodium lamps age, their voltage increases as sodium is lost by various chemical processes. [The lamp starts at a low voltage, which climbs to a steady-state value as the lamp warms up.] It is the steady-state voltage that slowly increases with burning hours due to sodium loss. Eventually, the ballast will only be able to start a cold lamp and warm it up to the dropout voltage." Then it goes out until the lamp is cool enough to restart. The GE guy preceded these comments with the note: "Here's one explanation. Space aliens is another." Hmph.

--CECIL ADAMS

Warrrreagl,
Did you ever stop to think that it may be static electricity in your body that effects the street light? We all have static electricity in our bodies, some more than others. When there is way too much, it causes spontaneous human combustion.

Spontaneous human combustion is a sham.. soz.. There's nothing in your body to cause a spark, or is it possible for the body to burn inside out seeing that it is 70% water or something.. :D And to have the light go out the electricity would have to leave the circuit that the light is on.. :)

K. I'm not sure if there was a post about this, because I am INCREDIBLY lazy, and I didn't read them all. I realize that maybee I should have, But oh well.
I have heard of this.. what you're experiencing. I've looked into it some... not a WHOLE lot... I just checked to make sure it wasn't a hoax.
But, anyway... there IS a condition like this. It's not because the lights get too hot and go off on their own or anthing so simple as that.
You are what is referred to as, among many other things, a "Shocker."
No, you don't have any sorta super powers... no you don't have ANY special abilities except this: Electric accesories and the like respond to you.
They don't jump out and say hi, they just sorta fritz when you get near.
People who have studied it have no idea what causes it... maybe it's too much of some chemical in your sytem... maybe it's powerful brain waves... hell.. maybe it's even an Alien conspiracy.
We just don't know.

I hope i cleared SOME things up.

And, again... if I just made myself look like a fool because somebody already posted something on this BEFORE i did and had a more reasonable explination, I am sorry.

-indy

Three words: Tin foil hats.

I've got mine on right now

that happened to me all the time near my old house. i found out if i sanfg this little light ofmine it would turn back on. i have no idea what causes it.
i only talk and post when i drink

I guarantee you that this has happened to me for about twenty years now. I first noticed it when I was in college, and as I walked under the campus street lights, they would each go out in turn, and then start working after I got out from under them. I told other people that I thought it was crazy that the lights went out whenever you walked under them, and they looked at me like I had 10 heads. Then, I knew that it was only happening to me. But, it is definitely an interesting and so far unexplained phenomena. And no, it's not delusions of reference, or some odd thing where I only notice when it goes out. It's not a coincidence when you walk under 12 lights, and each one of them goes out when you go under it. Now, as to why they go out, I'm not sure. One thing I learned in physics is that all bodies above absolute zero radiate electromagnetic waves across the spectrum. Now, I don't go for astrology and auras and all that garbage, but to me, this is the only thing that makes sense. Somehow, the detectors that think it is day are tricked when I walk under them. My best guess is that it is caused by some energy radiated from certain people. It's hard to imagine that this hasn't been documented and observed somewhere???

I've had it happen. Usually it happened the night before a big midterm or final. And I usually didn't do too well on that test.

Coincidence? Maybe. Have something to do with the fact that on the night before a big test I'm out walking the streets instead of studying? More likely.

WHEW! Thanks for the scientific explanation! There was this one streetlight that ALWAYS would go out as I drove by on the way home from my gf's house. It really got to me after a while. I figured there was some explanation for it, but it was only the one light! Of course it was at the apex of a curve in the road and I drove straight toward it, so this explanation above makes tons of sense.
What a relief. Plus, I can sound semi-smart whenever someone else mentions the same thing. Always a plus.

As far as being a 'shocker' is concerned...would that explain why the lightbulbs in my house never last as long as they should, and we seem to have more than the average number of problems with electrical appliances?

check out "star child" on the net. it might help

I think it is probably just your smell that is freaking out the light bulbs so they are trying to hide and once you pass they turn back on after the stench goes away.

Happens to me too. No use wondering about it though.

There are more important things to worry about.

Like, is it OK to yell MOVIE in a crowded Fire House? and the classic, Does the Pope REALLY s**t in the woods?

Answer these and all will become clear grasshopper.

I have this type of thing happen to me with street lights randomly and its always when Im stressed out or thinking to a point where im almost in a hypnotic state. My wife will testify in times of high stress I blow out our porch light every single time, I used to do it to the bedroom light but it seems if I do not touch it the lamp is fine. Another odd thing happened about 6 months ago we had the battery replaced on our saturn by the dealer also the battery posts which are side posts. Well these were brand new and I lifted the hood to check fluids before we went to the local theme park , the car was turned off and we had gotten into an argument about my wifes crazy mother, well as I was cussing up a storm in my head,the post made a loud electric zapping sound like a snap and the post blew clean off. I dont know if I caused it , I have actually been trying to figure this out for myself. I used to tell myself I was crazu but when others around you notice it you have to wonder.

I've had this happen too, but I've had a lot more lights not go out.

You see a light go out, you think, thats wierd, you see another you think, thats really wierd, you see 3 you are ready to think your mind is turning off lights.

If you went down the street and all the lights were going out, and this always happened, then you might be onto something.

wow im the opposite .. i can go near lights and they brighten.. like a small power surge.. ive been known to blow out bulbs.. they grow bright then pop.. i dont believe i do it personally yet my friends do. ive even ruined a puter monitor before like this.. yet static eletricity.. its strange and that is the part that brings goose bumps and tears to my eyes.. yeah when the freaky happens thats what i do..

in all my life i have never been popped by static eletricity. everybody.. everyone that has tried get nailed in a rebound i guess you would say.. stuff sticks to me i.e. clothes ballones and such like everyone else.. ive had about 23 near lightning strikes in my life one left me blind for several moments .. yet ive never been struck.. i tend to sit outside in a powerful thunderstorm when the sane would hide in shelters and wait for something to happen but it never does..

most the pics of me when i was little seem over exposed like there was a light around me. i never guess i thought of it much till i saw this thread..

keep in mind, that many streetlights use photosensative switches, i.e. at a certain lightness darkness they go on or off. That's why you don't see them on during the day. It could be that a certain series of them have the sensativity set wrong and your vehicle causes a change in the lighting. Also, car's produce emf's so if the controlling circuits arent shielded the emf from your car could be messing with them.

Street lights go out all the time when anyone passes by. Some people are more observant and notice. They go off because they overheat and then go back on because they have cooled off. The bulb or ballast needs replacing in some of those lights.

I, too, seem to set streetlights going haywire... Turning on when they were off, off when they were on. And, while I don't know why it happens, I wouldn't be so quick to judge that it's just some fluke. Both my mom and my aunt have always had electrical devices respond oddly to them much the same way they do to me... And man, you should see what happens when the three of us get together in a room. I'm not supposing that it's any kind of "mystical" reason or anything like that, but to say that we're just crazy for believing we affect electric devices is ridiculous since you can't point out an answer yourself.

This happens to me all the time. It has to be something more than me just "noticing them turning off." It can't be coincidence. Last semester, every single time (or at least 75% of the time) I walked by this one lamp, it flickered off and on. And it didn't do it a lot, I could see the lamp for a long time before I got to it, and it didn't flicker. Then right when I step around 5 ft. close to it, flickerage. Weird.

I couldn't believe it when I found this thread. This has been happening to me for years. My wife is more in awe of it than I am. Sometimes it happens so often when I'm driving, walking or running there's just no way it could be coincidence.

This happens to me all the time. There are 3 street lights outside of my building that everytime I leave they go out as a aproach. Every time...

I started to notice this about 13 yrs ago
 

I consider myself a critical thinker, believing that the simplest answer is the correct one. I have a science degree and am now studying law so I have been trained to disect every situation in life; break it down to its essential components; then analyze each component before erecting the whole once more. That given, I still do not understand why this occurs. I often have lights go out while I am walking down the sidewalk or driving down the road. It is never the same light, but rather different lights of different types. There are times when it is a street light and others when it is a light over a doorway. Now that I consider it, they always seem to be outdoor lights. I always considered it a coincidence, yet people around me began to comment on the fact that it happened to them only when I was with them. It has begun happening more often; that is, once or twice a week, rather than once or twice a month. My wife has begun to notice it at times when I do not and it is something that I cannot figure out. I do realize it happens when I feel a certain way, but I want to believe that is just because during those times I am more alert. I would like to read more people's experiences so that perhaps I can understand what is occuring.

Ahh, like I said. They get hot, they go off and cool down.
Just be happy that you are more observant than most and notice it. :)

That happens to me everyday at school when I'm walking around campus at night. Everytime I go outside at least one light on the street will go out if not more. We used to think they were motion senored, and we still think the ones in front of our building are, but the regular street lights aren't and one will just randomly go out.

I have a friend in Indiana who says there is a light in his town that if you punch it every light on the street turns off for a couple seconds, then they come back on...haha, just thought that was an interesting thing to throw in here. Cheers!

no....that's never happened to me.

My buddy and I were walking around his block just the other night, we were just walking, and talking about life, we come to a street light and it went out right as we were under it, and we were spooked out, but as we walked further about half way to the next light we looked back and it was on, but it was the green tint, not the usual orange. I turned and started walking, then again looked again and the light was orange, then i assumed it was just the process of lighting up all the way, then the last time i look back, about 5 secs after fully lighted its off again.

It happens to be quite often. I used to ponder about it, but now I am pretty sure that it is just coinsidence. Of course you only see it when you are there, because that is the only time you are there to see it.

I've had the random coincidence thing, and;
On my way to class one specific light would always go out as I neared it.
Starting the new semester after the christmas break I drove to school, I was in the far lane when I passed it and it didn't go out. On the way out I was in the near lane and it did.
There's been loads of variables, other cars, other people. I've been biking, walking, driving. I've been there at different times. It only goes out for me.

Sorry to up such an old thread but this has been happening to me for the past 2 months, Just one light that turns of when I walk past it in the morning, the funny thing was though, I walked past it at night and it turned on and every other one was still off...

Possibly that's just because they're stupid. After all, they're stupid enough to study it in the first place.

but then again i believe this.. light bulbs dont emit light they suck darkness.. when they suck all the darkness they can they burn out.. well they do leave that black smudge inside dont they? residue of all the darkness they sucked up.. you flip a switch and poof the darkness goes away.

As a critical thinker myself, I tend to believe this can be more easily explained. Certainly everyone can present anecdotal evidence of turning on/off a street light since they do this overheat-reheat cycle. However, I think the "wishful observer" has its effect here. If you really had an electromagnetic aura, excess static electricity, mind-powers, or super-powers, why does this not occur with a normal incandescent bulb?

Unless you can consistently say that everytime you walk under a streetlight it turns off AND everytime you walk under a house light it turns off, you cannot say it was any effect of your own. The difference must be in the composition of the bulb/light apparatus; you are the constant and the light is the variable. With all variables, certain values can elicit unexpected responses. Even if you subscribed to the "superpower" theory, it would be easily solved by examining the light itself.

Because there are many logical reasons they could burn out, examining any light you think you've caused to turn off would easily give your answer. Some, unlike Chicago's lights, have individual photovoltaic/photosensitive sensors. Photovoltaic sensors are sensitive to heat as well as light, because heat is an emission of "light" in the UV spectrum. The heat (250+ degrees) and headlights of a car combined are certainly enough to trigger one of these cells. Similarly, body heat and reflection/refraction of light off of anything "shiny" on your body, from aglets to earrings, could be enough to temporarily enable the sensor, but only during your presense.

In the case of a light with a shared sensor (between many lights) there is the possibility that something/someone is triggering that sensor and appropriately lighting/unlighting the bulbs in a close proximity to you.

Combine the unpredictablity of sensor activitation with the "wishful observer" idea -- that you only pay attention when it DOES happen, not when it does not, and I think you have a very plausible, rational explanation.

but there you are.. using logic .. you do realize that there is the supernatural in this world right? why cant there be a dragon, or ufo's or such? because someone that spent most thier life in a book says there isn't? sorry that falls into the mass hysteria syndrone effect.. where one of certian credentials or popularity says it so the masses believe it to be gospel.

sure i know what happens when every light in the world is switched on and off at sometime or on timmers given by engineers standers around the world.. or even what the composition of the concrete i use every day. that dosent make it set in stone and universal law.

ball lightning, a duck billed platapus.. mammal that lays eggs.. hmm outta that nature bound..

not jumping on your case or anything.. im the last person to ever do that.. just the fact that well.. it gets tiresome to hear those statements come from anyone with no sense of belief and such but just jump into a conversation or thread with the answer to everyting.. . which your in your right to express them and they made valiad points dont get me wrong. its just here we let go the bounds of right and science

but yet ive seen some wonderful and terrifying things in this world that have yet to live of to the wonders of science that i work through every day i walk this mortal plane.

I wasn't even going to justify this attack with a response, but I have a few problems with your above comments:

Are you condoning or attacking religion here? Your first sentence would lead me to believe that you believe in a "supernatural", whereas the last sentence is a description of the very procedures used in the spreading of supernatural beliefs, including Religion. Last I checked, this was Tilted Paranoia ..not Tilted Philosophy. If me presenting a logical explanation of something makes me "unfaithful", I'd be glad to discuss it in the proper forum - Tilted Philosophy.

I agree -- Knowledge is relative. However, that does not mean we should dismiss the most logical explanation for something because it could be explained another way. A car drives down the road -- I say its because the engine provides power to the drivetrain and driving wheels -- another person says it is powered by gnomes. Should I not hold my belief that is the engine (based on acquired knowledge) drives the car based on the fact that there is another possibility? I'm certainly open to the gnome-explation, provided it is supplemented by evidence, like seeing gnome's feet under the hood. Your reductio ad absurdum argument is again quite easily trumped by Occam's Razor: what's simpler? That you have a huge scientifically unmeasurable "aura" that somehow effects only sodium lightbulbs, or the fact that these have photovoltaic cells and heat dissapation problems?

I'd reply to this, but I'm not sure what it means -- it looks like a list of animals -- if you're attempting to say that these cannot be reliably defined by science, I would beg to differ for the reason above. If your explanation of why lights turn off is conclusive, I would ask that you share that opinion rather than telling me mine is too "logical."

From the sticky "Guidelines for Paranoia": Please offer your more believable explanation for the cause of this light-switching conundrum -- I am far from dismissing your interpretation, but I've yet to hear anything more than anecdotal experiences of "when I walked under it, it turned off."

there's a certain road i drive quite frequently near my neighborhood and the lights along there will frequently go out (not all at once) when i go by, but my brother-in-law says its cuz my headlights hit them and give them too much light and since they are supposedly light sensitive, they go out. only thing is, sometimes my lights don't hit them. *shrug* when i walk places i notice that more often than not, street lights go out. i do believe there are supernatural things out there, so i wouldn't rule that out, but the overheating thing makes sense too. i'm not gonna chalk it up to anything in particular, because i honestly do not know the explanation for it.

I know what you all mean. In high school, my bus stop was under a street light. When there was an odd number of people, the light stayed on but as soon as there was an even number of people waiting for the bus, under the light, the light went out. I am sure this was just my mind creating a theory but it was kind of an odd, fun thing to watch.

Maybe your a paranoid skitzo. Get some help. Lay of the drugs. Stop drinking caffeine and get plenty of sleep. :)

Dear All,I have also noticed that street lights would go off when I drove by.
But not all of them usualy three of them and would go on when I passed.
First I thgought it was my car,but bouhgt a new car and the same thing happened and is still happening but not with all lights.
I noticed one light on my street that it went off when i passed by.It hapened regulary.Then they changed the bulb and that is not repeating anymore.
So it apears to me that some of us can influnce on these bulbs which are about to end their life..
Why how I do not know but I am 100% sure its my electricity which somehow interupts the bulb.........
Kind regards to all
p.s. I am from Europe

It's just EMF. No worries....

Hi,

I was very surprised to find something about this issue. I have had these kind of experiences since I was about 16 years old. I have to mention, that lately I do not experience this as often as I used to.

It does seem to have a connection to my emotional state, especially the less joyful states.

My personal record is a sequence of 3 streetlamps going out (and stayed out) as I walked down the road.

It happens in Europe, as well as the States. It does not seem to matter, but it have to be natrium/sodium type lamps.

Also it seems to be contagious, since my best friend (who at first was very sceptical about this) has it even more than I have now.

Cheers

wow, i joined this site just so i could respond to this post.
i googled this topic because i wanted to find out why this always happens to me, but obviously i am not the only one that this happens to.
its really frusterating because people who say "this is normal" "the lights are programmed, and you are just someone who notices them turning off" just dont understand...
tonight 6 street lights turned off and 2 turned on while i was directly under them .. on DFFERENT streets (it wasnt a chain reaction).. and i was only driving for about 5-8 minutes.
this happens when i am walking also.. and its not always the same lights liek some of you have been saying.. they are always different.
besides this one time when the same one went off 2 times while i was standing under it.
but stop lights also turn off for me too.. like during the day, when they are not suppose to turn blinky yellow.
this hapens to me way to much, and its not just because i notice it.

I have been noticing this for the last two years or so. Starting about 6 months ago I began asking people with me if they noticed that lights would go out often when we were under them. I asked my kids to look for lights ahead of us down the road going out.

I finally searched the topic and ended up here.

I have read the explanations. I will keep an open mind but it seems really weird to me. So far I am more convinced by my experience than the explanations.

I searched tonight because five lights went out at various places as I was driving home and was directly under them. Did not see any other lights going out.

I wish my odds on mega millions was as good as this light thing.

Street lights go out when I go under them
 

I also joined this forum just to discuss this topic. I am not superstitious in anyway. So I'm searching the web to find out why this happens to me all the time, there must be some logical reason. Over the last several years I've noticed how frequently street lights go out when I drive under them, even my kids agree how freaky it is! It is regardless of what car I'm driving or what city I'm in. I kept track this month, and so far just in November it's happened 6 times! One night it was 3 in a row, but each went out when I was directly under them, but normally it's just one random light, sometimes it happens a few times on the same night but on different roads. Does anyone have any non-superstitious reasons for this?

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_047.html
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...8424.Eg.r.html

Happens to me all the time too.

So either sodium lights can fluctuate and being a light we notice them, or its magic.

I also notice I look at the clock a lot at 11:11, ever sense I read about those nutjobs who turned it into a cult.

I dont' think either require a supernormal explanation.

So you don't take your eyes off the road for too long, have your kids count how many you pass under that don't go out.

We can do one better. We can construct Camelot!

Wait, no. It's only a model.

Let's see if we can't make some conservative estimates here. Let's assume that on the streets you drive on there's a street lamp every twenty-five feet. And let's also assume you do very little night driving; say, an average of 1000 yards a night (or, if you prefer, about three miles a week). This would really mean that you're hardly ever under any lit street lights, comparatively speaking.

But then we crunch the numbers. And we discover that by using my decidedly arbitrary numbers we can calculate that you drive by (((1000*3)/25)*7) or 840 street lights per week. Today is the 21st of the month, so assuming there haven't been any new instances, we've had six incidents in the past three weeks of a lamp going out as you passed it. At a rate of 840 lights per week we have ((840*3)-6) or 2514 street lights that didn't go out. Thus, according to the figures I'm using here (and remember that I've chosen deliberately low numbers) for every light you've passed that's gone out, there have been 419 that didn't. Really, given that arc sodium lights are notoriously unreliable, the true wonder is that you don't see this more often.

Of course, this is all hypothetical on my part. I don't know your driving habits, nor the average street light density of your area and thus I have difficulty putting real numbers into play. However, I think it's probably safe to assume you drive more than three miles per week in low light conditions (most folk do) and that your street lights are very unlikely to be spaced further than 25 feet apart (they very rarely are). Thus, we ought to be on the low end of average; it wouldn't surprise me if the actual number of lit street lamps was double or even treble the 2514 I came up with. Which all just goes to show that we as humans are really good at noticing the stuff that doesn't do what we expect it to and really bad at noticing the stuff that does.