Street Cents : Tallying the Costs of City Fixtures
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Most Los Angeles drivers pass thousands of dollars of equipment every day without realizing it. And that’s not necessarily from those on-location movie shoots.
Just sitting at a stoplight, drivers are probably surrounded by more than $100,000 worth of traffic signals, signs and lighting. A railroad crossing alone costs about $200,000 for all the bells and whistles.
Equipping the city with signs and other fixtures is costly. At $40 to $60 apiece, city street signs may seem pretty cheap. But consider that there are about 700,000 of the signs in the city (180,000 in the San Fernando Valley), and that 70,000 of those are replaced every year due to damage or theft. That comes to about $3 million yearly.
Shown below is a sampling of city fixture costs. Amounts are approximations and include installation, unless noted. Costs vary depending on factors such as location, the amount of wiring needed for electrical items, etc.
Sources: Caltrans; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; city Department of Transportation; Metropolitan Transportation Authority; Bureau of Parking Management; Bureau of Street Lighting; city Department of Recreation and Parks; Metrolink; Pacific Bell; U.S. Postal Service
Researched by JULIE SHEER/Los Angeles Times
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