How Many Street Lights do You Think There Are in Bangor?

I grew up in a time when street lights were everything.

As children of the 70s and 80s, street lights were always the beacon signaling the end of your day. Maybe it's still the same, but when I was a kid, the street lights were the surefire sign that you had to be home. If my butt wasn't walking in the door when they came on, you better bet my mom was on the back porch hollering my name in a way that only a parent seems capable of.

I admit, I even had a nostalgic twinge when they all started changing over to LED bulbs. I missed the soft orange-ish or blue-ish glow they put off. These days, street lights are at least as bright as the jerk in the pickup who tailgates me when I'm going 15mph over the speed limit. They're near blinding levels of brightness.

So the other day, I got curious. How many street lights are there in Bangor?

I was blown away recently when I learned that Maine overall, only has just over 1000 traffic lights. this also led me to wondering about the number of street lights there are around here. I mean, someone has to maintain them, so there has to be some kind of definite number.

While I couldn't find a number for the whole state, I found out how many Bangor has. Around here we have over 2400 in the city itself. That's 2400 bright night lights to keep us on track, literally. Lighting things up to keep us safe, and make the people who like to walk around at night, feel a smidge safer.

I actually would've thought the number a bit higher. Informal Google searches show Portland has three times as many as us, where a town like Brunswick has only about 25% of the number we have. Is there a rhyme or reason? Who know? But there's definitely a number. And around here... It's 2400. Go figure...

Can you name any of these places off the top of your head?