When you're driving along, why do you always see street lights turning on/off?

Question

I know of this one street light, that every 10 seconds or so it turns off, then 10 seconds later it comes back on and repeats. it's really strange. but I always see them randomly turn off while I'm driving o_o it's weird.

Answer 1

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.

... or drive by, in your case.

Answer 2

Oh gosh, I thought this was just me! Thank god I'm not going mad lol. I get it all the time driving home from work and it really freaks me out. Sorry I really have no idea why they do it but I am really glad to know it's not just me it happens to lol.

Answer 3

The lights have a sensor on them that reacts to daylight to turn them off. When it's dark out they come back on. If the sensor picks up your headlights, the light will turn off. Once you've passed, they turn back on because they're reading ow light situation.

Answer 4

do do..do do...Someone is watching you :) . The lights are light/motion activated.  They sense the auto coming along and act accordingly

Answer 5

The street lamp outside my house does this all the time. Because it sits under a shade tree they set the photo cell to its highest setting. Problem is that every car that goes past turns it off with it's lights and on a Moonlit night after the leaves fall off, it never illuminates at all.

Answer 6

Dunno what neck of the woods you come from.

They only turn off when the timer says it is daytime and turn on when it is night.