Posted on 11/10/2010 7:19:06 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine
Town halls are plunging our streets into darkness as they try to cut energy bills, damning research reveals.
Up to three-quarters of councils are planning to turn off street lamps or dim the lights in an attempt to save money and meet climate change targets, a poll has found.
But police fear that darkened streets will act as a haven for burglars, muggers and vandals – and motoring experts warn that there may be more accidents on the roads.
Evoking memories of 1970s-style blackouts, the poll found that 43 per cent of town hall bosses are already committed to switching off lights.
Another 12 per cent say they are dimming lamps – meaning that more than half of councils are cutting back in some way.
Meanwhile, a further 19 per cent of local authorities are also considering some form of blackout, according to the survey of 75 councils.
If these results are replicated across all councils, nearly three-quarters could be cutting back on lighting to save money.
Britain’s 7.5million street lamps cost an estimated £500million a year to run. Each one costs between £20 and £40 a year and many councils have at least 100,000 lights.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Not a big deal where I live because we only have about 4 street lights in town anyway.
I wouldn’t want to live in a city without streetlights.
Here in America, street lights actually help out criminals.
We had a break in recently in some rental property. If we hadn’t had 20 gazillion street lights lighting our neighborhood, they would have never known that the cottage was there.
In my city they added a special street light charge onto my utility bill.
Would motion sensors work?
I can see how hand it would be if lights would go on if some one was within their area
and also turn them off afterwards
But I also worry that the cost of retrofitting sometimes is more than the cost savings
Why not strobe the lights (1 second on - 1 second off) and save 50% on energy! /sarc
Gee...why don’t they install Spaghetti Bulbs like the want the rest of us to do?
Maybe I’ll get some more use out of my 3rd gen NVG’s with the 5x mil-spec lens...
So much for all those big brother camera’s all over the City to watch terrorists as they go about their bombings.
But
But
But
They have to pay for this !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somali family given £2m house... after complaining 5-bed London home was ‘in poor area’
Posted on July 11, 2010 9:53:04 PM GMT+09:00 by cycle of discernment
Somali asylum seeker family given £2m house... after complaining 5-bed London home was ‘in poor area’
By CHRIS HASTINGS, GEORGE ARBUTHNOTT and MATT SANDY
10th July 2010
A family of former asylum-seekers from Somalia are living in a £2.1million luxury townhouse in one of Britain’s most exclusive addresses at a cost to taxpayers of £8,000 a month.
Abdi and Sayruq Nur and their seven children moved into their three-storey property in a fashionable area of London last month because they didn’t like the ‘poorer’ part of the city they were living in.
Mr Nur, 42, an unemployed bus conductor, and his 40-year-old wife, who has never worked, are now living in Kensington despite the fact that they are totally dependent on state benefits.
They live close to celebrities, including artist Lucian Freud, singer Damon Albarn and designer Stella McCartney, and their home is just minutes from the fashionable Kensington Place restaurant which was a favourite haunt of the late Princess Diana.
The family’s new home is believed to be one of the most expensive houses ever paid for by housing benefit, which is administered by local councils but funded by the Department for Work and Pensions.
http://state-of-the-nation.com/
In a few years LED technology will make this a non-issue.
Once they lick some low-temperature performance and production cost issues the cost of outdoor lighting is gonna plummet like a rock off the Chrysler Building.
But MOST streetlights are poorly designed:all the light shining up into the sky doesn't help drivers or pedestrians.IF streetlights put 99% of their light shining DOWN onto the road and sidewalks we would only need half as many streetlights.
MANY installed lights send the glare into the eyes of drivers much like driving when the sun is low in the sky.I DESPISE the bright orange lights mounted almost vertically on only one side of the roadway,so as to "illuminate" the road with fewer lights.I suppose a tenth of the light actually falls on the road!"Sun delays" occur here because the sun shining into drivers' eyes;has no one analyzed the effect of poor artificial lights?
Seriously,the problem stems from long-honored practice of installing a cheap,poorly designed item for a purpose;much as house builders use cheap crap flakeboard and wall studs fit only for kindling !The cost of installation usually far exceeds the materials cost.So why don't we insist on well-designed quality that will save in the long run?
Rockefeller researchers discover a biological clock within a clock
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/ru-rrd011106.php
A New Push to Turn Off the Lights in 2009
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/a-new-push-to-t/
International Dark Sky Association
http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do;jsessionid=9C40725E8FEBF885AF2DC00465840464.mc0?sitePageId=119791
Some people are surprised to learn that security lighting can be counter-productive. Turning off lights halved the number of thefts and burglary in Övertorneå Sweden. [1][2] A test in West Sussex UK showed that adding all-night lighting in some areas made people there feel safer, although crime rates increased 55% in those areas compared to control areas and to the county as a whole.[3]
“ In the early seventies, the public-school system in San Antonio, Texas, began leaving many of its school buildings, parking lots, and other property dark at night and found that the no-lights policy not only reduced energy costs but also dramatically cut vandalism.[4] ”
Bright, unshielded floodlights often prevent people from noticing criminal activity, and help criminals see what they are doing. [5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_lighting
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