Eli5 Why are most street lights and car lights orangish yellow and not white?

Question

Eli5 Why are most street lights and car lights orangish yellow and not white?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Orange light does a great job at reflecting and travelling, the only problem with sodium lights is that they are expensive. In the UK (North Scotland, where I am), they have started to replace the lights with a white light, these are cheaper to run but do not light up the area as effectively as the orange light.

Hope this helps!