Better Streetlights for Tulsa

[thundercougarfalconbird]

Ok, bad news.  PSO called back, and said that they can't do the spray paint solution on a streetlight because of the city.  The city requires it to shine in all directions.  She suggested that I go to my city councilor.

[patric]

Ok, bad news.  PSO called back, and said that they can't do the spray paint solution on a streetlight because of the city.  The city requires it to shine in all directions.  She suggested that I go to my city councilor.

It would have been good if you got a name to go with that, because there's no such ordinance. 
In fact, there's not even an ordinance requiring streetlights, period.

PSO has and does shield streetlights that are nuisances, but only if driven by complaint(s), you just need to stay on them.
Having your councilor on your side couldn't hurt, either.  CC: them with any correspondence.

[Conan71]

Two words come to mind:

Pellet & gun.

[patric]

Ok, bad news.  PSO called back, and said that they can't do the spray paint solution on a streetlight because of the city.  The city requires it to shine in all directions.  She suggested that I go to my city councilor.

Here's a street view photo of a street light that has been painted on one side near Braden Park (about 9th & S. Braden, just East of Yale).

http://g.co/maps/95mrg

Since this streetview photo was taken, they have replaced the plastic lens with something called a Hubbell SkyCap.
It's an add-on that converts a typical NEMA street light into a fully-shielded street light, often used in communities to bring older fixtures into compliance with newer ordinances that address nuisance light or require efficiency.  Nowadays it's more economical to replace older fixtures with new ones that already come shielded from the factory.  

A sampling of other solutions:
http://www.skykeepers.org/good_fixtures/ca-shields-mods.html

 

[thundercougarfalconbird]

Good to know.  Apparently, IDA is coming up with a set of sample by-laws that can be presented to a city council.  I'll be interested to see what those look like when they're ready.

[patric]

Good to know.  Apparently, IDA is coming up with a set of sample by-laws that can be presented to a city council.  I'll be interested to see what those look like when they're ready.

The Model Lighting Ordinance was a ten-year joint project between the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the International Dark-Sky Association.  I was a peer reviewer and, while much of the language I contributed was adopted, the final draft is not one I feel comfortable promoting to our city council.

It is still a work in progress, though.
The MLO's present form is quite expansive, yet the city has resisted even the simplest of initiatives, such as requiring efficiency standards for streetlights (i.e., that a streetlight actually light a street effectively,) or that older, failing streetlights be replaced with newer, lower-glare technology when the time comes.

Our mayor recently signed off on another 53 energy-wasting glare bombs simply because someone decided empty stretches of road in north Tulsa needed them to chase crime away.  http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=11866.msg212802#msg212802

The technology exists to do wonderful, yet affordable things with our municipal lighting; we just don't have the political climate to make it work yet.

[thundercougarfalconbird]

Aha, good to know.

I think the most effective path would be to educate the city council on how much money we're wasting annually on inefficient lighting.  It may cost quite a bit to replace the current lighting with more efficient lighting, but that change can pay off in a few short years.

[thundercougarfalconbird]

Found this video appropriate.  Watch all of it.  Great example of how a city can do lighting better:
"There may be no more simple, affordable, and effective way for cities to improve their urban life than through better lighting."

[patric]

Found this video appropriate.  Watch all of it.  Great example of how a city can do lighting better:
"There may be no more simple, affordable, and effective way for cities to improve their urban life than through better lighting."

Interesting urban study, and not just from the lighting perspective.

Phillips has sort of been in the doghouse in past years because of a misleading campaign to market their Metal Halide lamps as "white light".
What they were peddling was clearly environmentally UN-friendly blue-rich light, but they were comparing it to the gold hues of Sodium to exaggerate their point.

Maybe this is a departure from that, as they were showing a lot of warmer, more inviting colors, as well as some hip-looking shielded LED fixtures.
Their Cosmopolis Ceramic Metal Halide line also now includes a warm (2800K) lamp that looks more like incandescent than Metal Halide, so a little public pressure can go a long way.

[TheArtist]

The Model Lighting Ordinance was a ten-year joint project between the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the International Dark-Sky Association.  I was a peer reviewer and, while much of the language I contributed was adopted, the final draft is not one I feel comfortable promoting to our city council.

It is still a work in progress, though.
The MLO's present form is quite expansive, yet the city has resisted even the simplest of initiatives, such as requiring efficiency standards for streetlights (i.e., that a streetlight actually light a street effectively,) or that older, failing streetlights be replaced with newer, lower-glare technology when the time comes.

Our mayor recently signed off on another 53 energy-wasting glare bombs simply because someone decided empty stretches of road in north Tulsa needed them to chase crime away.  http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=11866.msg212802#msg212802

The technology exists to do wonderful, yet affordable things with our municipal lighting; we just don't have the political climate to make it work yet.

I don't get where this mayor has the nerve to do stuff like that and then tout himself as being some "energy efficiency leader".   Boggles the mind really.   

[patric]

They're getting warmer (so to speak):



LED street lighting is slowly becoming less blue, which is good news for environmentalists (and people that don't want their neighborhoods looking cold and garish).
An engineer I correspond with said these are around $200, which for some communities, is cheaper than just replacing a burned out lamp on a Sodium fixture.  While 4000 degrees Kelvin is bluer than the ideal 3200K (incandescent) it's considerably warmer than the earlier 5700K.
http://www.cree.com/lighting/products/outdoor/streetlights/xsp-series-streetlight

It sounds like the manufacturers are listening, and with any luck we will have warm white LED's by the time the city gets around to the residential areas.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I don't get where this mayor has the nerve to do stuff like that and then tout himself as being some "energy efficiency leader".   Boggles the mind really.   

Yeah, it does.

But you have been around here long enough to not be really too surprised by this clown...he is just the latest of caricatures this state elects on a regular basis.  THAT is what really boggles my mind - how otherwise seemingly rational and intelligent people can so continuously buy into the BS spewed by the likes of him, and Fallin, and Inhofe.

[patric]

Another reason not to rush to blue-rich streetlighting:

The American Medical Association Wednesday adopted recommendations based on a report co-authored by a University of Connecticut researcher asserting that certain types of nighttime lighting can adversely affect health and may be linked to breast cancer and other medical conditions.

The AMA's house of delegates voted to adopt policies based on the report "Light Pollution: Adverse Health Effects of Nighttime Lighting," co-authored by Richard Stevens, an epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He was one of four writers.

Stevens' theory is that exposure to artificial light for prolonged periods will disrupt the body's biological clock that regulates sleep and wakefulness, known as circadian rhythms. Electric light — around for only the past 150 years — has impaired these natural rhythms, which have evolved over millions of years. As a result, Stevens said, hormone and melatonin levels are disrupted and that could lead to the onset of breast cancer.

The report calls artificial light "a man-made self-experiment" that throws sleep out of whack. It also asserts that excessive light at night — including light from TVs and computers — can cause sleep disorders, especially in children and adolescents.

http://www.courant.com/health/connecticut/hc-light-dangerous-ama-0621-20120620,0,257372.story


More:
Exposure to 'White' Light LEDs Appears to Suppress Body's Production of Melatonin More Than Certain Other Lights, Research Suggests

ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2011) — Exposure to the light of white LED bulbs, it turns out, suppresses melatonin 5 times more than exposure to the light of high pressure sodium bulbs that give off an orange-yellow light. "Just as there are regulations and standards for 'classic' pollutants, there should also be regulations and rules for the pollution stemming from artificial light at night," says Prof. Abraham Haim of the University of Haifa.

"White" light bulbs that emit light at shorter wavelengths are greater suppressors of the body's production of melatonin than bulbs emitting orange-yellow light, a new international study has revealed.

Melatonin is a compound that adjusts our biological clock and is known for its anti-oxidant and anti-cancerous properties.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110912092554.htm

The fact that "white" artificial light (which is actually blue light on the spectrum, emitted at wavelengths of between 440-500 nanometers) suppresses the production of melatonin in the brain's pineal gland is already known. Also known is the fact that suppressing the production of melatonin, which is responsible, among other things, for the regulation of our biological clock, causes behavior disruptions and health problems.

In this study, conducted by physicists and biologists from ISTIL- Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Italy, the National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and the University of Haifa, researchers for the first time examined the differences in melatonin suppression in a various types of light bulbs, primarily those used for outdoor illumination, such as streetlights, road lighting, mall lighting and the like.

Taking into account the necessity for artificial lighting in cities, as well as the importance of energy-saving bulbs, the research team took as a reference point the level of melatonin suppression by a high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulb, a bulb that gives off orange-yellow light and is often used for street and road lighting, and compared the data from the other bulbs to that one.

From this comparison it emerged that the metal halide bulb, which gives off a white light and is used for stadium lighting, among other uses, suppresses melatonin at a rate more than 3 times greater than the HPS bulb, while the light-emitting diode (LED) bulb, which also gives off a white light, suppresses melatonin at a rate more than 5 times higher than the HPS bulb.

"The current migration from the now widely used sodium lamps to white lamps will increase melatonin suppression in humans and animals," the researchers say.

The researchers make some concrete suggestions that could alter the situation without throwing our world into total darkness, but first and foremost, they assert that it is necessary to understand that artificial light creates "light pollution" that ought to be addressed in the realms of regulation and legislation.

Their first suggestion of course, is to limit the use of "white" light to those instances where it is absolutely necessary. Another suggestion is to adjust lampposts so that their light is not directed beyond the horizon, which would significantly reduce light pollution. They also advise against "over-lighting," using only the amount of light needed for a task, and, of course, to simply turn off lighting when not in use -- "Just like we all turn off the light when we leave the room. This is the first and primary way to save energy," the researchers say.

"Most Italian regions have legislations to lower the impact of light pollution, but they still lack a regulation on the spectrum emitted by lamps. Unless legislation is updated soon, with the current trend toward sources as white LEDs, which emit a huge amount of blue light, we will enter a period of elevated negative effects of light at night on human health and environment. Lamp manufacturers cannot claim that they don't know about the consequences of artificial light at night," says Dr. Fabio Falchi of ISTIL.

[patric]

A new study on lighting and fatal accidents compares roadways with and without lighting, and finds fewer accidents at night on darker roads.
Conventional wisdom suggests that lighted roads should be safer, but doesn't take into account people take more unnecessary risks when the road is brightly lighted.
Might explain why accident numbers went back up when expressway lights were turned back on.

http://tinyurl.com/8f7pz2u

ftp://ftp.asce.org/ICLEM%202012%20Files%20for%20Kase/Files%20to%20Vendor-K
ase/Volume%201/4%20Logistics%20Risk%20Mgmt%20and%20Safety%20Tech/20120460.
pdf

Lighting conflict points like intersections, ramps, etc., is still the preferred method because the change in lighting draws your attention to what needs it.

[patric]

The intersection on North Harvard Ave. where 7-year-old Elijah Rivers was struck and killed by a car:



It's a continuous installation of 200-watt Sodium drop-lens Cobra-heads.  Really bright, and really glarey, yet the first thing out of people's mouths was "add more lights" when asked what to do about the tragedy.

Instead of more lights, how about lights with less glare?
Would even cost less to operate if done right.