The Street Division is responsible for all the streetlights in the City of San Diego. The City of San Diego has over 40,000 streetlights in operation. Nine thousand of these lights belong to local community "Lighting Districts" which pay a special assessment fee to support the additional or ornamental lighting in their neighborhoods. In addition, Street Division maintains over 4,000 lights in parks, community ball fields, and other City facilities. We also share responsibility with Caltrans for lights on the freeway off/on ramps that intersect city streets.

Currently, there are two types of streetlights in San Diego, Induction lights, which emit a white light and Low Pressure Sodium (LPS), which emits a monochromatic yellow light. Induction lighting is the City's standard type of street lighting. Because of the need to limit light pollution that affects Palomar Observatory, LPS is used in all areas within a 30-mile radius from the Observatory.