Brighter car headlights may see millions of street lights axed
Wed, 06 Nov 2024
Around 1.5 million of Britain’s 7.2 million street lights could be axed to save money because modern car headlights are so effective.
The plan is being hatched by the Department for Transport, reports The Times, which is reviewing the £3.5 billion it spends each year on street lights. £1bn of that goes on the energy bill, with the rest on maintaining and replacing street lights.
Typically, the average street light lasts 40 years. The street lights could instead be replaced by smaller, more efficient lighting that would be safer for pedestrians.
Today’s rules have no requirement to light pavements for pedestrians – they are only lit by light that spills over from lampposts, which were installed to make roads safer for motorists. They can measure up to 10 metres tall.
However, today’s cars have such bright and sometimes dazzling headlights, there is less need to focus on the driver. It means lighting can instead be designed around pedestrians and cyclists.
Several projects are already underway, including a project in Hayton, Yorkshire, where 30 street lights will be switched off and later removed.
Pavements will instead be fitted with dedicated footway lights, including illuminated bollards and 3-metre-high lighting columns. As for the roads, new solar-powered red and green reflective road studs will be installed.
Councillors in trial areas anticipate the project could help areas secure ‘dark skies status’ – which would help boost house prices.
The trials are being closely monitored, with safety risk assessments and even the use of thermal imaging cameras to monitor activity.
The move comes as the energy savings from installing low-energy LED lighting across the UK have now been almost fully realised.
"Over the last 15 years or so there has been a real push to replace sodium lights, which are orange-looking, to new energy-efficient lights," says Perry Hazell, president of the Institution of Lighting Professionals.
"Historically we’ve always been always focused on the driver and the highway. Because headlights have now improved in cars we need to think about cycle users, and pedestrians and maybe light for them only," she told The Times.
Should DRLs switch off when you switch to headlights?
