Calgary residents say street light outages make them feel unsafe

Calgary has a backlog of about 500 street lights that need to be repaired, and some Calgarians are feeling frustrated about the delays.

The City of Calgary says it has a service standard of 30 days to fix burnt-out or problem street lights. The current average response time is 47 days, but some residents say they've been left in the dark for too long.

"It took about four months to have it dealt with," said southwest Calgary resident Robert Roxborough.

He says he reported several street lights that were off around Oakridge earlier this year.

"It was pretty scary when it wasn't getting dealt with, mainly because the roads were all dark and no one could really see."

Roxborough says he typically bikes to get around, but the street light outages are a safety issue around corners with low-visibility in his neighbourhood, especially during the winter months.

The Calgarian man says he reported a string of street light outages in Oakridge at least three times, using the city's online reporting system, calling 311 and eventually reaching out via X, formerly known as Twitter. 

"At that point, I was pretty annoyed," he said.

Roxborough says the street lights were eventually repaired, but it took "way too long to deal with the situation."

"Street lights need [to be] more of a priority over anything else."

And Roxborough isn't the only one who feels frustrated about safety and repair times.

Anna-Maria Ciorogariu-Ivan used to live in south Calgary but now lives downtown. She says that she's noticed street light outages all over certain areas she frequents, and that the darkness feels "dangerous."

"If you want to go for a walk, forget about it. Especially if you're a woman. There's no chance you can go for a walk without street lights," she said. 

"If you are in a dimly lit area, you feel like there's nobody there that can see you. If something were to happen to you, it would be under the cover of darkness."

Ciorogariu-Ivan also says she feels like street lights stay out for a long period of time.

"It doesn't feel like anybody actually does maintenance on them and it just stays dark," she said.

Backlog of 'about 500' street lights needing repairs

Calgary has roughly 100,000 street lights. Not all are maintained by the city and its contractors, but for those that are, reported street light issues appear on a website where the service contractor can see the work order.

Michael Gray, street light design leader with the city, says crews are working through a backlog of work orders following the switch to a new maintenance provider last year.

The switch from Enmax to Iconic Power Systems was driven by a decision by Enmax to "focus on their core business and get out of street lighting," said Gray.

In January 2023, there were roughly 2,700 open work orders. 

"Because of the backlog, there were more street lights out at any given time than we've seen in recent history," he said, referencing last year, when the backlog started to grow.

Calgary's street lights also underwent a major change. Roughly 80,000 high-pressure sodium street lights were replaced with energy efficient LED bulbs by late 2017, thanks to a $32-million project.

Gray says "the maintenance is probably similar on both" in comparison.

"Where the LEDs are really superior is the electricity savings," he said, noting the city is saving around $5 million annually on street light electricity costs.

But Calgary resident Doug Dunlop says his neighbourhood's street lights are still inconsistent.

"A lot of the lights that are out are the new fancy LED lamps that use less energy … should they still be out?"

As a cyclist, Dunlop says street lights are a security feature, but he feels discouraged. After numerous calls to the city, he says he's given up.

"I used to call 311 for a lot of things, but the system has gotten way too hard to use."

There are various reasons for outages, and certain street lights can be more difficult to repair than others, especially in older neighbourhoods or areas with construction.

Gray says the hope would be to have around 800 to 1,000 work orders open for street lights that need to be repaired — problems like outages or flickering — and the goal is to have the issue repaired within 30 days of a report.

As of this month, Gray says there are around 1,500 work orders open — "about 500" of which are part of a backlog of work orders obtained during the switch from Enmax to Iconic Power Systems.

A news release last December from the City of Calgary said "as the service transitions and Iconic begins their street light contract, citizens can expect to see an improvement of street light maintenance response times by mid-2023."

Now, Gray says, he expects to "be close to that 30-day repair time again" by the end of the second quarter of 2024. 

CBC News contacted Iconic Power Systems for an interview but hadn't received a response as of Friday.

In the meantime, for Calgarians impacted by outages, the street light leader says to make sure issues are reported and escalated via the online form or call 311.

"The best way to get the light looked at is to make sure that it's been reported into the system," Gray said.