Tilting at lampposts
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.21.06
photo Richard Perry New York Times
Light pollution is a problem for astronomers, a waste of energy and indirectly a source of CO2 to make the energy. We don't usually think of it as an urban problem, given that we demand streetlighting for safety and accept outdoor advertising. In fact, according to Susan Harder of New York City, “One day,” she said on a recent evening, “we’ll look back at light pollution in the same way we do the recycling or ecology movements, and wonder how we ever could have thought otherwise." She particularly dislikes the ones [pictured]on Broadway: “It’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s swords!” Ms. Harder said with a giggle. “Seriously, lighting designers love this stuff. Their creed is ‘Glare is Good.’ And there’s no light hitting the ground, see? It all hits these beautiful old buildings and washes them out. You can’t see a thing.” ::New York Times
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A pet peeve of mine as well. Architectural wash lighting, and the leaving on of all room lights in vacant office buildings as an advertisement for prospective tenants are next on my list.
I have yet to see a scientific study that correlates street crime with long term lighting levels. It just relieves us of our fear of the dark and makes us easier targets for the muggers.
As a lighting designer, who’s graduate thesis happened to be on the correlation between lighting and reduced crime levels (or rather, the lack thereof) I can say that this is only some designers aesthetic, and that light pollution, floodlighting, and other gratuitous lighting of architecture is something many of us fight every day. One of the main barriers to reasonable design however is the requirement for minimum maintained light levels on the sidewalk by many city agencies who commission jobs, not only designers persona taste.