text: orange halogen street lamps - do they decrease night vision for drivers? since blue mercury vapor lamps have been replaced it seems harder to make out the pavement, curb, parked cars ahead etc in the dark. anyone else? i'm not the only one. if concrete is yellowish and so is the light, it tends to wash out the object. for example yellow filters are used by skiers to better make out bluish shadow detail in the snow. anyone have ideas or information? yellow colored lights are actually   high pressure sodium lights.  they do have a tendancy to mask objects of the same color but the output is greater than metal haleid.