White-Painted Streets: Phoenix Monitoring Pilot Program in Los Angeles (ABC15 Arizona)

As featured by ABC15 Arizona:

Ten degrees cooler, we'd take it any day during our hot summers!

And there's a new idea being tested right now that could make it possible and that temperature difference could be even higher.

ABC15 went to Los Angeles to check it out and see if it's something the Valley should consider to cool us down.

"My first impression was, 'What is that?'" explains Joshua Wassung, who lives in the Westchester neighborhood by LAX in Los Angeles. "I had no idea. It seemed so strange."

Call it what you want.

The City of Los Angeles says it could be the coolest way to fight back against rising temperatures across a city that's getting warmer.

"We take the issue of climate change very seriously," explains Lauren Faber O'Connor, Mayor Eric Garcetti's chief sustainability officer.

And so to fight back against those red-hot temperatures, the city is getting creative and painting some of its streets white.

It's all to fight back against what's known as the "urban heat island effect."

"It offers an immediate cooling effect to that area," explains O'Connor. She says, by ten degrees.  

"We've even seen people walking their dogs, and their dogs are preferring that area because it's lighter on their paws."

Over the last year, the City of Los Angeles has painted three lane miles of blacktop with a substance known as CoolSeal.  

It goes on white but dries a shade of gray. The company says CoolSeal works by reflecting the sun's rays, so they don't get absorbed and then radiate heat.

‍

This article was originally published by ABC15 Arizona. Read the full article here.