Better Streetlights for Tulsa

[Conan71]

The jogging trail lights serve a useful purpose in helping identify hazards and land features at night.  
They serve a secondary purpose by creating an inviting environment and extending public utilization of the park past sundown.
Both of those functions are greatly enhanced by the fact that those lights are shielded, and have reduced glare output.

Now I wouldn't say that there weren't specific circumstances where their presence didn't defer or obstruct the commission of a violent crime, but one would have to be very naive to believe that happens with any consistency.
If the lighting were to attract more "friendly eyes" into the area, however, you would be much more safe than if you were alone and in the spotlight.  

Many may not remember, there was a woman who was abducted, raped, and murdered while running along the trail in the mid-1970's.  I believe there were a few other assaults along the trails as well which resulted in the push for lighting.  I don't recall hearing of any assaults of significance in years along the trails.  Anyone else remember anything.

[rebound]

There was an abduction and rape of a female jogger along the West side of the trail in '90 or '91.  I lived in the Westport apartments and it was a big topic among the resident women at the time.

[Hoss]

There was an abduction and rape of a female jogger along the West side of the trail in '90 or '91.  I lived in the Westport apartments and it was a big topic among the resident women at the time.

Almost moved into those apartments in 1995 after I moved back from Houston and got a job down the street on Jackson (at Bender Direct Mail, now defunct).  Would have been awesome for festivals on the river.  I loved having parking for the 4th of July.  One year our company President invited everyone out.  Just a few of us showed, we got a ladder and some lawn chairs and adult beverages and enjoyed the show from the roof of our building.  I loved working at that place until it was bought by a Texas corporation in 2000.

[Vashta Nerada]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Woman_attacked_in_River_Parks/050310_Ne_A14_Woman12071
http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Jogger_is_attacked_on_trail_by_river/040108_Ne_A13_Jogge
http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Woman_attacked_on_River_Parks_trail/L073101040

[Conan71]

Considering the miles of trail we have as well as a high amount of users, it's amazing you don't hear of more assaults.  Perhaps it's the growing popularity of the trails and more people being around that has made it less and less of an occurrence over time.  If you notice, no mention of violent assault in 8 years in the Tulsa World.  I am aware of car break ins in parking lots (River West & the Skate Park most frequently).

[patric]

Long Island Signs Ban on "Blue-rich" Streetlights

http://www.longislandexchange.com/press/2013/10/04/county-executive-signs-schneiderman-legislation-to-limit-blue-rich-light/

(Long Island, NY) Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) announced that Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has signed legislation to further reduce light pollution from County-owned facilities.

Introductory resolution 1472-13 was unanimously approved by the legislature at the last general meeting on September 12. This local law is an amendment to previous legislation, which was sponsored by Legislator Schneiderman in 2004.

This law requires all outdoor lighting which is purchased or replaced by the County to use "warm-white" light sources. Under this legislation, the County will commit to utilizing only warmer-colored outdoor lights at its facilities to protect the health and well-being of residents and to protect the County's ecological systems. It is required that Suffolk County use lighting fixtures with a correlated color temperature no higher than 3500 Kelvin for all lamps purchased through December 31, 2015. Any new lighting fixtures bought after December 31, 2015 will have a correlated color temperature no higher than 3000 Kelvin. Correlated color temperature is the perceived color of the light emitted by a lamp, which is expressed in Kelvin (K) units. The higher the Kelvin rating, the "cooler" or more blue the light will be.

Advances in light technology over the past decade have created high-quality, energy efficient lighting in several forms, with high brightness LEDs becoming the most popular. Most LED "white" light has a substantial blue component, referred to as "blue-rich white light."

The Suffolk County Legislature has determined blue-rich white light is linked with a higher incidence of glare, particularly outdoors from dusk to dawn. This type of light is also more difficult for human eyes to process as people age. Blue-rich white light also creates higher levels of light pollution in the night sky, introducing a portion of the light spectrum which is not currently contributing substantially to such pollution. Blue-rich white light is also associated with disruption of circadian rhythms and melatonin secretion in humans and animals. Disruption of these functions can change the instinctual habits of wildlife living near such light sources.

"This amendment to my previous legislation to limit excess lighting is an important step forward in efforts to protect human health and the health of our wildlife and to insure that we save money on energy costs and reduce unnecessary light that limits our ability to enjoy the beauty of the night sky," said Legislator Schneiderman.

Earlier legislation required Suffolk County to use fully shielded outdoor lighting fixtures to reduce light pollution at County-owned facilities. Directing light more accurately onto areas intended for illumination prevents the waste of energy, reduces energy costs, and lowers emissions from fossil fuel burning facilities needed to produce this excess energy. There is increasing scientific evidence demonstrating that unshielded, misdirected, excessive or unnecessary outdoor night lighting can have detrimental effects on the environment and the human physiology.

[patric]

Kendall-Whittier's West Park project Acorn Lights:  FAIL

[PonderInc]

Ooooh...do blackout curtains come standard? 

On the bright side, folks can save on electricity.  They won't need to switch on their living room lights at night!

[heironymouspasparagus]

Kendall-Whittier's West Park project Acorn Lights:  FAIL

So that's what that mess looks like when complete...was wondering when I drove by a few months ago.  Yeah...great "growth" for Tulsa.

[Cetary]

Hi,

I am new to the forum. A city near me, Clovis, recently decided to switch to LED street lighting. Here are the lights...

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/jamesinclair/Fresno/IMG_3866.jpg

These lights are being installed all over the city in all new constructions and road widenings. The lights chosen appear to be very harsh on the eyes in person. I dislike the blue-ish white color. I tried to contact the city to express my concerns with them. Here's the email I sent and the reply.

"I have noticed the city has decided to switch a number of its cobra head streetlights to LED fixtures. I'm concerned the city and its lighting providers have not observed other options to reducing power use including the use of high pressure sodium cut-off luminaries running at reduced power. In addition, the light color chosen may be an inappropriate choice. I also would like to know if the city has minimum efficiency standards for street and municipal lighting. Who would I need to get into contact with to express these concerns?"

Here was their reply...

"The City worked with PG&E to retrofit some of the City owned lights.  PG&E recommended the selected lights based on the existing light lumens provided.  We believe the LEDs are a superior alternative to the high pressure sodium lights as they provide a more daylight type light, are efficient and provide a very long life compared to the high pressure sodium."

What would be the best way to reply to that?

[patric]

These lights are being installed all over the city in all new constructions and road widenings. The lights chosen appear to be very harsh on the eyes in person. I dislike the blue-ish white color. I tried to contact the city to express my concerns with them. Here's the email I sent and the reply.

"I have noticed the city has decided to switch a number of its cobra head streetlights to LED fixtures. I'm concerned the city and its lighting providers have not observed other options to reducing power use including the use of high pressure sodium cut-off luminaries running at reduced power. In addition, the light color chosen may be an inappropriate choice. I also would like to know if the city has minimum efficiency standards for street and municipal lighting. Who would I need to get into contact with to express these concerns?"

Here was their reply...

"The City worked with PG&E to retrofit some of the City owned lights.  PG&E recommended the selected lights based on the existing light lumens provided.  We believe the LEDs are a superior alternative to the high pressure sodium lights as they provide a more daylight type light, are efficient and provide a very long life compared to the high pressure sodium."

What would be the best way to reply to that?

My first impulse would be to remind them that the purpose of streetlighting is to light streets, and you dont do that by assaulting the eye with harsh, glarey lighting cast in every direction.  
...but if I want to endear them to using a better alternative than what the people who's primary job it is to sell electricity peddle, I need to show them that they actually have more choices than they were led to believe.

The city's response to you simply parrots sales literature, and overstates the "advantages" of blue-rich lighting.
The first mistake is assuming lumen levels for blue-rich light light need to be the same as the orange-ish Sodium light it replaces.  
Not so, because the eye is much more sensitive at night to blue light than orange, so you need much much less blue light to experience comparable visual acuity as you would Sodium.  
This is why blue-rich light appears so much brighter even when a light meter shows the same amount.
Translation:  you probably need less than what the utility company wants you to buy.

...which brings us to the second mistake:  Selling electricity doesnt make you a lighting expert, so you shouldnt give a utility company carte blanche authority to dictate what you need to buy from them.  If a streetlighting system isnt being designed with the primary goal of improving human vision, you need to look elsewhere for your expert advice.

A third and more common mistake is assuming all LED light has to be blue-rich light.  That was true for the first generation of LED streetlights, but the fact today is more LED manufacturers are perfecting "warmer" color lights that are almost indistinguishable from incandescent light.  PG&E may simply be trying to protect their investment in older technology (the blue-rich lights) but in this case, good things come to those who wait, and today cities can specify LED streetlights with color temperatures around 3000 degrees Kelvin that cast a warm, inviting color.

What Im seeing from your photo is not just bad color, but poor shielding (if any).  It wont help to get the color right if it's still trashing your vision by hitting you in the face.  Its easy to design LED fixtures that are low-glare, but manufacturers will just as easily sell LED glare bombs if they think naive municipalities will buy them.

You sound like you have done some homework, so these links may be old hat (but Ill throw them out just for good measure):

http://www.southamptontownny.gov/filestorage/596/598/4245/5194/IDA_Seeing_Blue_Nightscape.pdf

For the harder science folks, a "blue-rich light" white paper is here:
http://www.southamptontownny.gov/filestorage/596/598/4245/5194/IDA_blue_light_white_paper.pdf

[Cetary]

I think I found an LED street light that looks promising.

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2013/06/04/led-street-lights-a-hit-clarke

I don't know of the relative performance of the optics of that light at cutting down glare. I don't even know what company makes it, but the light looks fairly close to the 3000 k warm white light you mentioned. The casing to the light looks clean, balanced, and refined as well.

I'll get into contact with the city, and I'll be sure to include the warm white alternative as well as the negative effects of the blue-rich light on human vision.

Clovis seems to be on a blue-rich LED lighting kick. They actually converted their school bus depot parking lot form HPS to LEDs, but unfortunately they only changed the light source. The retained the grossly inefficient un-shielded floodlight setup that now shines harsh light into your face whenever you travel down the busy high speed thoroughfare next to it. I may want to address that to.

[patric]

I think I found an LED street light that looks promising.
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2013/06/04/led-street-lights-a-hit-clarke

"Clarke said the lights cut down on light pollution and save on energy costs."
Well, yes and no.

The file photo used to illustrate the story appears to show a Full-Cutoff fixture, in which the optics are "shielded" from projecting light along the horizon or at shallow angles that create glare.
...but if it's blue-rich, it's 3-4 times more likely to scatter waste light in the atmosphere than the Sodium light it replaces (Rayleigh Effect), and that's what people usually think of as "light pollution," or more specifically, "skyglow."  http://www.resodance.com/ali/bluskies.html

The fixture looks to be a good choice, but I'd follow up on the light source color and see if the manufacturer can supply the light in something less blue.
Someone may scoff that the "warmer" color sources arent as bright, but they may not need to be, once you take into account all of the fixture's output is actually going where it needs to go instead of being indiscriminately broadcast.   

Look at the recent lighting along Cherry (15th) street, between Peoria and Utica.  They are also Full-Cutoff Cobra Head fixtures (like the one above) which is very good.  They are also a lot bluer than I would have liked to have seen, but the city had the good sense to reduce the intensity to soften the blow (and take advantage of the night eye's increased sensitivity to blue).  Not perfect, but definitely a big step in the right direction.

[Cetary]

I will probably have to follow up on the lights in Peterburough. Here is my response to the city...

"I want to remind the city that the purpose of street lighting is to light streets. That cannot be properly achieved by assaulting the eye with harsh glary lighting cast in every direction. For good perspective compare the LED lights the city has chosen with the blue-rich lights in source 1.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/jamesinclair/Fresno/IMG_3866.jpg

http://www.southamptontownny.gov/filestorage/596/598/4245/5194/IDA_Seeing_Blue_Nightscape.pdf


    Glare reduction is a key component of a successful lighting system.  Research done as early as 1955 indicates that blue rich white lighting causes more glare with later studies confirming a light wavelength of 420 nm to be most closely linked with discomfort glare. A light source with an spectral output below 500 nm will increase the perception of glare.(Source 1) Most  white LEDs have peak emissions of around 460nm. (Source 2) 

    Blue rich light increases the time it takes for the eye to adapt to darkness or low level lighting. (Source 1) This trait is particularly detrimental to a growing city with a mix of un-developed and highly developed streets. The blue-rich LED street lighting light makes seeing one's surroundings more difficult then with light with lower spectral power output such as HPS. (Source 1)
    There are better alternatives to the chosen LED streetlights available to the City of Clovis. Today LED manufacturers are perfecting warmer color lights that are almost indistinguishable from incandescent light.

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2013/06/04/led-street-lights-a-hit-clarke

""Coun. Henry Clarke took time during Monday night's city council meeting to rave about the new LED street lights retrofitted on a select few streets in his ward as part of a pilot project.

"It's like driving in moonlight," he said. "It's a soft, gentle, white light. You can see clearly. It is just so relaxing and it really enhances the neighbourhood."
    It should be noted that most residents in source 1 preferred the 'warm' white LEDs over the HPS lamp and the 'cool' LED light. I ask the city to realize the superiority of available alternatives to the chosen lights.

Sources

http://www.southamptontownny.gov/filestorage/596/598/4245/5194/IDA_Seeing_Blue_Nightscape.pdf

http://www.illinoislighting.org/lightcolor.html"

Thoughts? I should hear back from them in less then 20 days.

[Cetary]

I've got a reply.

"Thanks, we will look into this when we do the next group of lights."

At least they know of the alternatives now.