What's more important.......

[Iain]

Protecting the planet and saving money or the safety of road users and pedestrians. Here in Buckingham, the local council are trialling switching off street lights to save energy, as well as £15,000 a year and are now planning on of extending the idea to other areas. They aren't urban areas, but they are bypass roads with roundabouts on them, just outside town.

Very dangerous if you ask me, the road they've been trialling on is awful without the lights, despite their claims that they have put up luminous road signs, 'intelligent' road studs and better road markings. There doesn't seem to be anything like that there, in fact a roundabout just creeps up on you suddenly, as it's partly obscured and the chevron signs are so small. :s

[Daniel]

I could be very wrong but I suspect someone got run over here on Saturday on the A5151. Single car was damaged with damage on the A pillar and windscreen and 4 police cars and an ambulance in attendance. Pretty much unlit piece of road and if you come along at dusk without your headlights on you could easily hit someone.

I think road lighting is very importand and more people will die because of a lack of lighting than will die from the 1 zillionth of a part of CO2 per zillion parts in the atmosphere that this will save. More efficient road lighting is perhaps what they need to look at.

[Mark]

I wonder how much carbon was emitted in dealing with the accident compared with running the lighting?

[Daniel]

Perhaps we could have carbon neutral accidents Mark ;)

[Dave B]

The price the Department for Transport put on a human life is very roughly £1,000,000 [source (http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/ea/pdfeconnote105), PDF]. That's how they calculate whether it's worth spending (or saving) on a safety versus the amount of lives that spend is likely to save (or cost).

If a saving of £15,000 ends up costing a life then that's way out of line with DfT guidelines. :s

[Dave B]

Perhaps we could have carbon neutral accidents Mark ;)

Crash your car, plant a tree! :idea:

[Daniel]

Crash your car, plant a tree! :idea:
Perhaps Al Gore can do a movie about it and win the Turner prize this time even though it's not art in any way, shape or form :)

[BDunnell]

This is silly. However, I believe the UK is one of the worst countries for light pollution in Europe, which is a rather different matter.

[Daniel]

This is silly. However, I believe the UK is one of the worst countries for light pollution in Europe, which is a rather different matter.
On the subject of lighting what is the point of the orange street lighting you sometimes get? It used to give me problems (oi shut up!) when I first came here as it was just so different to what I was used to. Why not just have white lighting? Or is it something to do with light pollution?

[Mark]

The older style lights were orange as that was the best technology available (on a cost per benefit basis) at the time they were introduced.

[Daniel]

http://www.markhewitt.co.uk/forumpics/transport7.jpg

Funny that this particular banner should appear for me :p

[Dave B]

They were sodium vapour lamps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_vapor_lamp), as Mark says relatively cheap and efficient.

[Daniel]

Fair enough :) Doesn't bother me now but it does fork with the colours of stuff you're looking at :p

[Kneeslider]

The orange street lighting found in the UK is merely a source of subtle psychological control being brought upon the populace by our lords and masters in the house of Westminister. It subliminally suggests that we should proceed, with caution. ;)