What color street lights are better?

[Pirate]

Generally the argue for the yellowish-orangish street lights is that they are easier on the eyes at night whereas the bright white ones tend to fatigue the eyes after a while.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the yellow street lights last longer because of the type of bulb has some type of gas that creates the light or something?

You are right. The yellow ones are sodium vapor lights. These are cheap, efficient, and long lasting, but their color spectrum is horrible. The whitish-blue ones you see are <edit>mercury vapor - a cool spectrum that washes out people's color. They also last pretty long. Landscape lighting to highlight the greens and blues of plants are usually metal halide or a type of halogen which provide a fuller spectrum and good cool tones. Yellow sodium vapor lights are used when you need a lot of them and don't want to pay a lot for maintenance. (It's my job to know these things)
<edit- checked my notes, corrected a few things>

 

[WS78]

Are you talking about street lights?
If it's worths anything, white for traffic, yellow for residential.

 

[viper275]

I prefer yellow. The white ones hurt my eyes and if I look at them and then look away I get a strange & annoying after image.

 

[Johann MacLeod]

well i personally thine we should go back to whale oil!!