The large city I live in is now converting its old sodium lights to new LED lights. Instead of a soft yellow glow, the LED lights are a hard blue light, and so bright that you can't even look at the lamps directly. Even a quick glance burns your eyes.
Perhaps they use less energy, but the color, not to mention the brightness, is deeply unpleasant. I've wondered how these new very bright LEDs will affect wildlife and insects. Not positively, I think.
My neighborhood in Washington, DC recently replaced a number of old sodium streetlights with new LED streetlights. The number of lights was doubled, but power consumption was still halved. The ballasts on the LEDs angle down at about 45 degrees—light pollution is reduced by 80% as a result.
The LEDs are a much brighter color temperature but I worked with the city to get them reduced from 4000K to 3000K (which has very little blue light).
All in all, a big win. There are technical solutions these days, and they pay for themselves. However, municipalities often operate on auto-pilot; let your local officials know where you want them to head.
And it doesn't even have to be that way! We have the power to choose something different. I've seen nice indirect lighting fixtures that aren't nearly as harsh, or lights that are warmer. They're just not the norm.
Or frankly just don't have street lights. I moved somewhere that doesn't have them, and I don't miss them at all. And I found out that I did miss darkness and was glad to reclaim it.
My city replaced it's old sodium lights with LEDs this year, and I was afraid they would do something similar but it's actually much better.
The LEDs they installed have a much narrower beam, around 45 degrees vs 180 for the sodium lamps. My apartment is at the level of street lamps, so the light would shine in directly through the window in the living room. Now I get only reflected light in.
The LED lights have around the same intensity as the sodium lamps, and because of the smaller beam angle, streets feel darker. However as the light is directed mainly on the road, it doesn't have any impact on driving.
The colour temperature is around 3500K which is still a bit colder than what I'd prefer. The colour temperature of sodium lamps definately invokes feelings of nostalgia. Part of this is because getting warmer than ~3000K LEDs is basically impossible as there is very little market demand, so nobody makes them.
It's easier to filter out the old sodium lights, too, for astronomy and astrophotography. (although these are essentially hobbies... I do think the other broader arguments in favor of stopping light pollution and making the night sky visible to people again are stronger.)
I was frequently walking my dogs at night when they made the switch in my town. I noticed I my visibility was greatly reduced because the LED lights were less diffuse. Anything under the lights I could see just fine but a few feet away was under the vale of darkness.
I think people would be much healthier if we allowed the night to be dark. Personally I sleep much better in darkness. I don’t really understand why everything needs to be lit up at night.
A lot of things are either only possible at all, or a lot safer, with light. A simple example is driving, the more you can see the safer you are. Environmental lighting is a big part of this, particularly in countries with tyrannical policing of anti-modification regulations like Australia or (even more so) Germany.
Anecdote: My old Mazda was the top-of-the-line when it was made, the nicest road car you could get from Mazda no matter how much money you had. And the headlights were terrible. Well-lit streets were always noticeably easier to drive at night. I could have replaced them with a HID or LED for less than a thousand dollars, and been much happier and safer, for a week. Then I'd be pulled over, given a defect canary (a fine, a huge sticker on your windshield labelling you to other police to harass, as well a requirement to prove you've "remedied" the situation). Get a few defect notices, and the police can have your car crushed into a cube with no recourse under "anti hoon" laws.
> … it just takes someone in the decision tree actually caring.
Right there is pretty much exactly why light pollution won't even matter in 20-30 years. People in decision-making positions don't care about anything except money and power. Because of that little detail, we're all gonna have much more serious things to worry about than light pollution or street light energy usage 20-30 years from now.
First World problems here guys.
Sorry but this is absolutely impossible to implement in any second/third world country with high crime rates.
Please, don't misunderstand me, but everybody here should take a walk in the suburbs of any South American country to be convinced otherwise.
Anyway I admire the noble idea of the creator of this article.
I used to live in a city with light pollution laws. It was always nice being able to see the stars from virtually anywhere in the city. I now live in a regular city without such laws and I haven't seen stars since the last time I traveled. But it's not just about seeing the stars, it was that night felt like night, but now night is so lit up being out here that I frequently see drivers at night without their headlights on, probably because it makes little difference to the driver and they can't really notice them not even being on.
[+] [-] acabal|4 years ago|reply
Perhaps they use less energy, but the color, not to mention the brightness, is deeply unpleasant. I've wondered how these new very bright LEDs will affect wildlife and insects. Not positively, I think.
[+] [-] jonstewart|4 years ago|reply
The LEDs are a much brighter color temperature but I worked with the city to get them reduced from 4000K to 3000K (which has very little blue light).
All in all, a big win. There are technical solutions these days, and they pay for themselves. However, municipalities often operate on auto-pilot; let your local officials know where you want them to head.
[+] [-] throw0101a|4 years ago|reply
The Dark Sky folks recommend <3500K for colour temperature:
* https://www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-indus...
Another criteria to get their seal is controlling the angle that the light comes out to control for glare and such. Roadway lighting:
* https://www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-indus...
Street:
* https://www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-indus...
[+] [-] zbrozek|4 years ago|reply
Or frankly just don't have street lights. I moved somewhere that doesn't have them, and I don't miss them at all. And I found out that I did miss darkness and was glad to reclaim it.
Illuminated billboards should just be illegal.
[+] [-] fy20|4 years ago|reply
The LEDs they installed have a much narrower beam, around 45 degrees vs 180 for the sodium lamps. My apartment is at the level of street lamps, so the light would shine in directly through the window in the living room. Now I get only reflected light in.
The LED lights have around the same intensity as the sodium lamps, and because of the smaller beam angle, streets feel darker. However as the light is directed mainly on the road, it doesn't have any impact on driving.
The colour temperature is around 3500K which is still a bit colder than what I'd prefer. The colour temperature of sodium lamps definately invokes feelings of nostalgia. Part of this is because getting warmer than ~3000K LEDs is basically impossible as there is very little market demand, so nobody makes them.
[+] [-] Robotbeat|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wusher|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Wowfunhappy|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 4ad|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] warglebargle|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] spaetzleesser|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deadA1ias|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sophistifunk|4 years ago|reply
Anecdote: My old Mazda was the top-of-the-line when it was made, the nicest road car you could get from Mazda no matter how much money you had. And the headlights were terrible. Well-lit streets were always noticeably easier to drive at night. I could have replaced them with a HID or LED for less than a thousand dollars, and been much happier and safer, for a week. Then I'd be pulled over, given a defect canary (a fine, a huge sticker on your windshield labelling you to other police to harass, as well a requirement to prove you've "remedied" the situation). Get a few defect notices, and the police can have your car crushed into a cube with no recourse under "anti hoon" laws.
[+] [-] tester34|4 years ago|reply
damn, those trade offs!
[+] [-] sparker72678|4 years ago|reply
Especially since in many cases the better lighting is as cheap or cheaper (tco), it just takes someone in the decision tree actually caring.
[+] [-] blooalien|4 years ago|reply
Right there is pretty much exactly why light pollution won't even matter in 20-30 years. People in decision-making positions don't care about anything except money and power. Because of that little detail, we're all gonna have much more serious things to worry about than light pollution or street light energy usage 20-30 years from now.
[+] [-] okokwhatever|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DigitallyFidget|4 years ago|reply