Los Angeles to Spend Millions Painting Roads to Combat Urban Heat

When it comes to bad ideas, California is king. Every bizarre trend seems to start there and work its way out.

The latest example comes to us from Los Angeles, where they’ve decided to paint the roads white in an effort to combat climate change.

“Los Angeles, like so many other modern cities, is encased in thousands of miles of asphalt,” CBS News reports. “And dark-colored asphalt absorbs between 80 and 95 percent of the sun’s rays, heating up not just the streets themselves but the entire surrounding area. So when temperatures in Southern California rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, surface temperatures on its asphalt roads can climb to 150.”

This amplifies the “urban heat island effect,” which is a real thing. This is why cities tend to be much warmer than rural areas with an otherwise similar climate.

So the city of Los Angeles is spraying a grayish substance called CoolSeal on the roads. A truck makes the initial spray, then guys come behind with squeegees to make sure it’s spread evenly.

The cost to L.A. taxpayers is $40,000 per mile. This is a dopey expense for a city that, just a year ago, was over $200 million in the red.

According to the L.A. City Bureau of Street Services, there are 6,500 centerline miles of roads in Los Angeles and an additional 800 miles of alleys. They aren’t painting all of it, but there’s no way this should be a priority for any city that isn’t running a massive surplus. Frankly, I’d rather get a refund check anyway.

I understand wanting to combat the “urban heat island” effect. Lower temperatures in the often-unlivable area would be nice. But the cost is ridiculously high — just another irresponsible idea from California’s Democrat menace.