So I went on a trip especially to collect some images for a light pollution talk I'll be giving soon. I started at a new shopping mall that was recently built on the edge of town, and then drove out to my home in the country, stopping to photograph whatever notable lights I saw. In practice it didn't quite work out - I saw some pretty shocking examples that I could not photograph because there was no safe place to stop the car (often, the lights themselves were part of the safety problem).
So the two good examples are from a recently built shopping mall. Although their signage out front is very brightly lit so that it can be seen from far away by fast moving traffic on a nearby freeway (not pictured), they put a lot of thought into their parking lots. Good full cut-off fittings that illuminate the ground beneath very well, and they're well placed so that there are no shadows in doorways, stairwells, behind walls, etc.
 |
| Example of good lighting (closeup) by Allen Versfeld is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
 |
| Example of good lighting by Allen Versfeld is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
Only a kilometer away, I found street lights with bad glare - The photo shows how evenly the road is lit, but the glare is so bad from the lights that potholes and other defects on the road surface become hard to see when moving. Further down the same road is a small shop serving a rural community. In the name of security they have put up a number of floodlights in their parking lot. Unfortunately, every one of these lights shines towards the road and into the eyes of oncoming traffic. Very dangerous. (Bonus point: see if you can find the Stop sign in that image, hidden by the glare!)
 |
| Glaring street lights by Allen Versfeld is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
 |
| Glaring security floodlights by Allen Versfeld is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
Finally, even further out from the city, in a bend on a particularly dangerous and badly maintained road, is somebody's home. There is a crime problem in the area, so the owners have obviously gone for the Easy option here: A single enormous floodlight to illuminate the yard. As with the shopping centre above, this means that every passing motorist gets blinded at the worst possible time. And of course, every feature in the garden now casts deep shadows where the bad guys can hide.
 |
| Glaring home floodlight by Allen Versfeld is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
No comments:
Post a Comment