We're pleased that Rochester Public Utilities has embarked on a pilot project to test the viability of using LED streetlights throughout the city. And we're even more pleased to learn that 80 percent of the costs — a total of $360,000 — were paid by a federal block grant.

That's a bargain, because there's already solid evidence that LED lights are a cost-effective alternative for improving visibility on our streets.

In 2008, the city of Oakland, Calif., teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy and the local utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric, in a scientific comparison of LED streetlights vs. traditional high-pressure sodium lights.

The results were compelling. For starters, there's economics. LED lights used about 60 percent as much electricity when compared to traditional lights. They also last longer, retain more of their lighting efficiency over time and require less maintenance.

The downside? Each LED light in this study cost $833, compared to $346 for a traditional streetlight. That means the return on investment for an LED streetlight is 12-15 years — which, according to the study, is "still at the outskirts of acceptability for the majority of commercial customers."

Rochester, of course, isn't a commercial customer — it's a municipality that's going to be around for a lot more than 15 years.

There are other factors to consider. LED streetlights were found to have smaller "hotspots" of bright illumination directly under the light, while having a wider range of illumination. In other words, they light up more of the street, without casting a spotlight in one area.

And finally, there's customer preference. Surveys of people living in the test areas found that 85 percent of respondents preferred the LED lights — and 60 percent "strongly preferred" the new technology.

Rochester is going about this in the right way. Even if a decision is made to install LED lights citywide, it would happen incrementally, only as the traditional vapor lights burn out. That means the increased costs would be absorbed over time. (The study found that doing a massive replacement of working vapor lights would have a 26-year return on investment — which no one is going to do.)

So we encourage drivers to go on a field trip to one of the five test areas, then send your feedback to RPU. If LED lights can live up to their billing, this decision would appear to be a slam-dunk for a city that is trying to get the most out of every taxpayer dollar.