The major user of electricity for cities and counties are their street lights. There are several approaches to reduce the cost of the electricity. Some cities have turned off all or a portion of their streetlights. Some utilities have adopted tariffs that allow the street lights to be turned off at midnight. Calgary sitched its street lights to a more efficient type of light and at the same time, switched to lower wattages and Full Cutoff lighting. The before and after can be seen below.
A money-saving decision to turn off thousands of Des Moines street- lights met with dire predictions from critics who warned that darkened streets would created a haven for crime. Statistics tell a different story.The first four months of 2004 saw a 3.5 percent drop in vandalism, burglary and robbery, and "we've observed no significant increase in crime in the areas where the lights have been turned off," Police Maj. Dale Patch said
Santa Rosa, Calif., started a two-year effort to remove 6,000 of the city's 15,000 streetlights. An additional 3,000 will be placed on a timer that shuts lights off from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Savings: $400,000 a year
Dennis, Mass., on Cape Cod is considering shutting off 832 lights to save $50,000 a year.
Montgomery, Pa., had its police department choose which lights would go. The town turned off 31 lights, one-third of the total, to save $6,000.
South Portland, Maine, joined several other Maine towns when the City Council voted to turn off 112 lights, saving $20,000 a year.
Northfield, Minn., a city of 19,000 will decide next month whether to add a $2.25 streetlight fee to monthly water and sewer bills. More than 30 Minnesota towns have added the fee.
Fulton County, Georgia – most populous county in Georgia adopted strict street lights standards requiring all new and replaced street lights to be full cutoff.
If your city, county or state has turned off lights, i will list it here. Send me the info at: mailto:darkskygeorgia@earthlink.net
States
Connecticut, Maine, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas all have statutes that require full cutoff luminaires. Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa, New York, Wyoming, and New Hampshire are considering such a statute. For more ordinances, see: www.skykeepers.org/ordguide.htm
And in Europe and the rest of the World
In March 2007, the Walloon Government of Belgium approved a plan to combat global warming. One of the most important components of this plan was the extinction of luminaires along 750 km of highways between 12:30 and 5 a.m. This initiative will allow a savings of 1.75 million Euros per year.
A 70-km section of the A16 highway in northern France has been extinguished. This was followed by a significant decrease in the number of accidents.
Since November 2006, over 40 municipalities in Loir et Cher have been extinguishing luminaires after 11:30 p.m.
Cirencester’s (England) streetlights are due to be switched off between midnight and 5.30am this month in a bid to save carbon emissions. Police and the town council have made no objections to switching off 40 percent of road side lighting. We have also taken advice from the police, who are fully in support of the initiative.
For the Walloon region (French speaking part of Belgium) they did research and concluded that from the moment the traffic is low, lighting had an opposite effect on traffic safety. The explanation to that was that drivers will drive a lot faster when there is not enough traffic and plenty of light. Just because the darkness is something most people feel as unsafe or unknown, will result that they automatically slow down and concentrate more.
Coventry, England is refitting 28,000 street lights to put them all on a dimmer switch, to cut carbon emissions and costs.
GUANGZHOU - The provincial capital of South China's Guangdong province is expected to take the lead in collecting light pollution fees in the country.
Sources with the Guangzhou municipal price bureau said they are studying the feasibility of collecting light pollution fees and are working to prepare the first phase of such a program
Seoul City, Korea became the first local government to legislate ordinances to regulate light pollution caused by excessive or obtrusive artificial light.