How towns and cities could cut energy use, greenhouse gasses, and save money — painlessly

by ken winston caine

Towns and cities could cut electricity use significantly — simply and painlessly.

Almost overnight.

All they have to do is to commit to quit trying to light up the night as though it is day.

Turn off, or turn down, street lighting, building lighting and after-hours electric signs on businesses. (This was decreed by President Nixon as national policy during the first oil embargo in 1973, alongside more drastic measures such as gas rationing and a national 55 mph speed limit.)

Cutting street lighting has been shown to CUT crime. (More on that in a moment.)

Bring back the night.

Bring back the stars.

If cities would turn off just every other streetlight, on alternating sides of the street, immediately they would cut streetlighting energy use in half. And cut the cost of streetlighting in half.

Why is no one thinking like this at a time when greenhouse gasses produced by coal-and-other-carbon-fuel-fired power plants are destroying the planet’s equilibrium and by extension, our current and future quality of life … and simultaneously, world-wide, we are facing an energy shortage?

Instead, power companies are calling for more power plants and, at the same time, selling brighter and brighter streetlighting to cities and state highway departments and convincing home and business owners to install super-bright electricity-gobbling on-all-night security lights that obliterate the stars and, with their blinding glare, destroy neighbors’ nighttime privacy and natural peacefulness.

It’s an easy sell. It plays on people’s fears of the dark.

Schools and factories and shopping centers now are lighting up their empty parking lots all night long.

Why?

While it is commonly believed that night lighting reduces crime, this belief is not well-supported by scientific studies. In fact, some show precisely the opposite — that night lighting streets and properties attracts criminal activity.

One well-controlled UK study showed that street lighting increased incidences of night crime by a whopping 55%!

A test in West Sussex, UK showed crime went up in lit areas. In certain test areas, all-night lighting was installed; other areas were kept as control areas. West Sussex Police monitored the crime patterns for comparison with the previous year in both test and control areas and polled residents about their perceptions and the affects of the all-night lighting.

Polling results confirmed people thought lighting prevents crime and most residents felt safer after the all-night lights were installed. Crime statistics, though, showed a 55% increase in crime in the test areas as compared to the control areas and to the county as a whole! West Sussex has subsequently decided against all-night lighting.

– http://calgary.rasc.ca/lp/crime.html

For a good review of the evidence regarding the effect lighting has on crime, see http://calgary.rasc.ca/lp/crime.html, http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/crime.html, http://www.skyandtelescope.com/resources/darksky/Bright_Lights__Big_nb sp_Problems.html?showAll=y&c=y, and http://www.darksky.org/resources/links/seculigh.html.

Security lighting, where truly needed, should be tied to heat/motion sensors so that it only pops on while it senses someone (or some warm thing) within its range. Then it serves as an alarm, pinpointing for security the location of a potential intruder. It should be well-shielded so that it does not create a blinding (and obnoxious) glare. And well-directed to light up only the intended area when its motion detector is triggered.