Jeff Hecht, a science and technology writer who lives in Auburndale, wrote about Newton’s new street light replacement program, in the Newton TAB last week.
When we returned from vacation at the end of July, the LED street lights we found in our Auburndale neighborhood were a huge disappointment. The new LED bulbs emit an extremely harsh, glaring bluish light that intrudes into our house. The lighting that reaches the ground seems several times brighter than the old street lamps, much brighter than is needed at night. The glare washes out the sky. When I went outside on a night with a few clouds, I could see only a handful of stars and the moon looked dim in comparison with the glaring streetlights.
….This is not just a problem of appearance. The body’s daily rhythm of alertness and rest depend on receptors in the eye that respond to blue light. As the sun rises higher in the sky, the fraction of blue light increases and we become more alert; as the sun sinks low, the fraction of blue light drops and we get ready for sleep. Too much blue light at the wrong time can disrupt some people’s sleeps. Animals have a similar sensory response, so bright bluish streetlights will disrupt their diurnal rhythms. Bright night lighting can also affect plants.
A good time to air such concerns might have been a year ago when the city began its pilot.
Concerns about light intensity and color, such as those expressed in Cambridge are serious business. In contrast to Newton’s orange sodium lights, however, just about anything would have to be a move toward the blue of the spectrum, and the city may have options to dim the lights or even change their color. I hope it’s not as bad as the author says.
Other communities are dealing with this, for example, Davis, CA:
http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-new-streetlight-goes-over-like-a-led-balloon/
Newton last changed our streetlights, from mercury vapor to high pressure sodium, back in 2007. A number of people complained then, saying they didn’t like the yellowish light emitted by the HPS lights. And police departments generally don’t like HPS because it makes it harder to see the actual color of vehicles at night, an important detail when trying to spot stolen cars, etc. At the time though, HPS was the most efficient technology, and we saved an amazing amount of taxpayer money. People annoyed at the change quickly moved on when they learned we were saving upwards of (brace yourself now) $700,000 per year. You read that right.
Now with LED we have been able to go back to a white light and we’re saving even more $$, but once again we see new objections. My hunch is that much like what happened with the last change out, people will adjust and move on. I do agree that LED streetlights everywhere I have seen them installed are harder on the eyes to look at directly, so I don’t look at them directly, I look at what they’re illuminating (the road, pedestrians, etc.) As for the notion that these lights are adding to light pollution, well, I have never tried to enjoy the sky while standing anywhere near a streetlight – for that I go to my back yard or better to some place like Cold Spring Park. If people are saying that our new lights have diminished the visibility of the sky even in such sheltered sites, well I need to see some actual measurements before I believe it.
There has been a large investment in the new lights, and the project is well underway. We live in a land where griping is welcomed and encouraged, but I think in this case we will learn to live with our new lights. After I read Mr. Hecht’s letter I went for a walk below the new lights on my block, and I find them quite pleasing, and from my bedroom window they are not as annoying as the mercury vapor lights of two generations ago, those used to glare in my eyes all night. Change is often like this — some object, some applaud, most I suspect hardly even notice.
I do have to agree about the intensity and brightness. The light now shines throughout my second story bedroom, across the street and several yards down from the lightpost itself. Blackout curtains aren’t really an option when cooling the house via open windows on these nice mild nights, either.
We are better off than our across-the-steet neighbors, however, as they will not really have any hours of darkness at home now.
I understand the very valid reasons for the project and the replacement; I want to speak up, though, in hopes that selecting a less intrusive and uncomfortable streetlight option (fewer lumens? different, softer tone?) might be a priority next time around.
If the light is shining in your window that can be fixed. The wonderful nature of LED’s is they are very directional, with some changes to the mounting or even the bulb itself they can prevent that issue. Same with light pollution, they should actually reduce excess light heading up because again they are very directional. I love the one outside my window (bedroom is in the back but even then not much light gets in). It also makes it so much easier for bikes and pedestrians to be seen not to mention much safer.
LED’s can also be dimmed, in some communities they dim them depending on the phase of the moon which works great. In rural Dutch communities the bike paths are only lit when a cyclist passes a sensor, and then the lights light up and turn off based on that cyclists speed.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/02/alaskas-lighting-revolution-sustainability-is-more-than-kilowatt-hours/
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/03/dynamic-cycle-path-lighting.html
The things we can do with LED’s are pretty amazing not to mention stupid savings in energy and maintenance are reasons why we need them now. Issues can be worked out and I hope the city takes the disruption of bedrooms etc seriously and works out a plan because it can be a health issue.
@John_on_Central, that’s an interesting article about Anchorage. They demanded LED color temperature that matched the moon, to address the blue light/circadian rhythm concern, and their lights are “full cutoff” so the light is only supposed to fall in an 80 degree wide angle. Does anyone know the specs on Newton’s? Or if our brightness will be adjustable, either on a light-by-light basis, or system-wide? Anchorage is also testing various dimming strategies, like dimming when there’s new snow on the ground because there’s more reflected light.
I’m not sure I’ve seen any of the new ones yet. Is there any kind of map of where they’ve been installed? Otherwise I’ll just check out Watertown Street.
Stand on the corner near the library at Walnut and Homer and you’ll see the LED lights from the pilot about a year ago and also the new lights. It looks like they ended up going with something different from the pilot. There’s a significant difference in the actual LED array, also the glare and color (the newer LEDs, I thought, had less glare and a slightly more yellow/less blue hue).
Another interesting factoid, IIRC, is that the lights on Route 9 put out more lumens and therefore cost much more to operate. The cost savings there alone was significant.
I take it back. Maybe those yellowish ones are the old lights? Just not as orange as the ones in my neighborhood?
The ones on my street have a color temperature of around 4000K (as measured by my digital camera). According to Wikipedia that’s pretty close to a “moonlight” color temperature.
Julia – if you’re driving down Auburndale Ave at night, take a look down Ryan Court – there’s a new one down at the end.
Oh, and BTW -they’re in the process of tearing down the house at the end of the street as we speak.
Doug L. your camera is correct, the lights are 4000K, and City officials knew this was the light of the full moon when they chose the lights. Points made here about shielding and the possibility of dimming are very good, let’s all stay in touch now with City staff about those points; shielding in particular (dimming is likely to be more controversial – some people have complained that the lights are too faint!)
i like the mellow light of the yellow sodium lights. i noticed the new ones in Chestnut hill the other light and find them way too bright -in the same way I despise the headlights of many cars these days.. I’m not looking forward to them coming to my street. There is no reason for this level of garish brightness on secondary roads. It’s just another erosion of quality of life in the name of progress.
And the concern about being able to see the color of stolen cars is about the most absurd thing i’ve heard today……..and that’s saying something given the news these days.
In our nightly evening strolls through Auburndale, West Newton and Newtonville, my husband and I have been taking particular notice of the street lights.
The new lights indeed make it easier to see (and not trip over the rather rough condition of our sidewalks with tree roots, gravel and often completely missing pavement). However, the downside of these bright lights, is that the shadowed areas are even darker in contrast and given how often there are areas shadowed by overgrown branches, it is indeed difficult to adjust back and forth between the sudden changes of brightness.
I do bring a flashlight when walking at night, but just wanted to point out another aspect of these new lights. But perhaps the benefits outweigh the downsides.
I agree that it seems like the wrong type of LED street light fixture was chosen for the project. However, I believe that it is not that these fixtures are brighter than the previous fixtures, but rather they have an improper distribution and cause a good deal of glare from the street/sidewalk due to the cutoff angle of the fixture. On my nightly walks, I’ve noticed that these fixtures have a bright area in the center of the beam followed by a dark area and then two brighter areas that seem like they are meant to cast light further in each direction. What this causes is a light that is shining directly in the driver’s/walker’s eyes making the light appear “brighter” even though the fixture is most likely outputting less overall lumens than the previous lights. It also causes poor uniformity, inconsistent illumination of the roadway. Also, I’ve seen many focus issues which causes these lights to spill into houses instead of onto the streets.
I believe there are many better LED street light fixtures on the market right now that have much better control over glare. Does anyone know specifically what fixture was chosen? Also, I’d be interested to look into if this fixture meets all of the specifications in the City’s original RFP.
When Dave Turocy gave a demonstration to some of the aldermen on Homer Street last year, he showed us how the lights looked at 100% and then dimmed them down to zero. So I have always assumed that once they were installed, the brightness would be adjusted. If I recall correctly, he also said that turning them down no would extend their useful life. I am no expert, but would that address the concerns about disrupting residents’ diurnal rhythms?