Austinist: Turn Off the Bright Lights

ConanTheLibrarian

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:25:03 -0600

One of the more interesting films I saw at SXSW was Alice Sees The Light by Director: Ariana Gerstein in the Experimental Shorts screening. When there was a power blackout in LA a few years back, Police were deluged with people calling in with reports of strange lights in the sky. They were seeing stars, thousands of stars. At the McDonald Observatory in West Texas, my wife and I saw something we had never seen before, despite many ventures into wilderness before. The Zodiacal Belt. The Davis Mountains are one of the few places in the US dark enough to see it. Check out the NASA site and photo of city lights at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Lights/

shilli

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:46:12 -0600

I doubt it. Jane Jacobs cared about eyes on the street, not lights on the street. Full-cut-off lights make the street more pleasant to walk on and easier to view, which means more eyes on the street. In any case, she'd be no fan of contantly lit parking lots and highways, where people aren't walking or watching anyway.

guest

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:27:27 -0600

Jane Jacobs would disagree.

guest

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:26:58 -0600

I think people know about light pollution and how annoying it is. It's like sound pollution - we all know it exists, it's in our backyard, but there are more pressing concerns for most folks. More than replacing street lights, the city ought to give incentives to places like malls and HEBs and Wal Marts to cut off their parking lot lights at night.

shilli

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:22:05 -0600

Also, I couldn't find an objective comparison of Austin's light pollution against that of other cities. Regardless of the situation in Houston, I think there is substantial light pollution in Austin, there are reasonably clear ways to reduce it that benefit everyone involved, and we would be handling it better if people had more awareness of the issue.

shilli

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:57:38 -0600

The idea is not simply to get rid of street lights. The idea is that lights like the one above, which shine in every direction, should be replaced with "full cut off" lights that only shine onto the street surface. That actually makes it easier to see the road, because you don't have light shining in your eyes and blinding you.

ladylivewire

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:53:46 -0600

I don't believe that Austin's light pollution is as bad as other cities. From my Hyde Park house, I could see lots of stars. My in-laws live an hour outside of Houston, and you can't see a single star from their yard at night.

guest

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:30:39 -0600

It's really difficult to ride your bike in areas without good street lights. I have the strongest headlamp I could find, but I still feel nervous on the darkest roads. Getting rid of street lights definitely involves trade offs.

guest

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:21:08 -0600

yeah i'd rahter people be driving around in the dark anyway. headlights are good enough!

heyzeus

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:39:27 -0600

Pretty sure federal standards apply to lighting on interstates.

pd

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:07:27 -0600

they are, but from 7ish to 10ish they are very present..

guest

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:40:41 -0600

UT turns off the intermural lights at night after the fields close right? I used to live right by there and I could have sworn they were always off at 10:00.

guest

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:11:28 -0600

it's so true i live right by there :(

pd

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:17:48 -0600

talk about light pollution...look at the intramural fields of UT. Anywhere in town, if you look towards Hyde Park there is a nasty orange glow.