It's so nice to see news from years ago making it back as 'new' headlines. Whatever.
Feedback for such schemes has been the following-
a: that people felt incredibly unsafe (especially women) and stopped going out out night, regardless of being able to turn the lights on.
b: non locals, travelers, elderly people, disabled and so on can't use it easily. period.
c: most street lights are high power sodium lights, which are (According to wikipedia and other sources) one of, if not the most, efficient form of distributing energy in the form of light. They also happen to have a fairly significant startup time, so motion sensors wouldn't be very efficient. It's not obvious that replacing with more efficient startup lamps and motion sensors would help.
d: would you want to drive where your eyes would constantly have to re-dilate as the lights come on?
e: i've seen some pilot programs that have photovoltaic collection plates on top of street light stands, which collect energy during the day to activate the light at night. Feels more like the future we've been looking for.
I'd much rather see policies which force office lights, computers and so on be turned off at night (or face fines, etc) than street lights that work less efficiently.
It's so nice to see news from years ago making it back as 'new' headlines. Whatever.
Feedback for such schemes has been the following-
a: that people felt incredibly unsafe (especially women) and stopped going out out night, regardless of being able to turn the lights on.
b: non locals, travelers, elderly people, disabled and so on can't use it easily. period.
c: most street lights are high power sodium lights, which are (According to wikipedia and other sources) one of, if not the most, efficient form of distributing energy in the form of light. They also happen to have a fairly significant startup time, so motion sensors wouldn't be very efficient. It's not obvious that replacing with more efficient startup lamps and motion sensors would help.
d: would you want to drive where your eyes would constantly have to re-dilate as the lights come on?
e: i've seen some pilot programs that have photovoltaic collection plates on top of street light stands, which collect energy during the day to activate the light at night. Feels more like the future we've been looking for.
I'd much rather see policies which force office lights, computers and so on be turned off at night (or face fines, etc) than street lights that work less efficiently.