Agreed. But these decisions are being made by (and I must admit here I know nothing about the subject matter at hand, this is just speculation) almost certainly

Agreed. But these decisions are being made by (and I must admit here I know nothing about the subject matter at hand, this is just speculation) almost certainly tens of thousands of municipalities across the country, independently. From small towns to big cities. From huge, organized departments that attend traffic signaling conferences, to folks who treat this component of their job as almost an afterthought. And we're only noticing the towns that screwed up, not the one that wisely chose NOT to implement LEDs for these reasons. Or the ones that made the calculated choice that, based on snowfall patters in their region, energy savings, savings on maintenance costs, vs the higher purchase price of the LEDs, that the LEDs were probably the right choice.