Streetlight LED Conversion

[GtwoK]

Hell, I hope they don't turn the brightness down. With this more focused light, my mature tree-lined street has ALREADY become significantly dimmer, because of the amount of "spilled" light being blocked by the trees. I can't even walk from my front door to my car at night anymore without having to use my phone as a light - the cast light just doesn't reach 5 or 6 meters into my yard anymore, like the old ones did.

[Canard]

I think the biggest problem with super-bright streetlights is that when you go to an area that is NOT lit, it's super dark, now.

Every situation is different - I bet some people are getting way more light, and some are getting way less, into their homes.  We noticed the change immediately on our street the first evening they had switched over.  The atmosphere is forever changed.  I don't mind it (I like it, even) but the guest bedroom on the front of our house is now basically unusable.

Why can't we have super-futuristic indirectly-lit ribbons along the curbs or something?? Driving into Terminal 2 at night at Pearson was a dream!

[Bob_McBob]

Hell, I hope they don't turn the brightness down. With this more focused light, my mature tree-lined street has ALREADY become significantly dimmer, because of the amount of "spilled" light being blocked by the trees. I can't even walk from my front door to my car at night anymore without having to use my phone as a light - the cast light just doesn't reach 5 or 6 meters into my yard anymore, like the old ones did.

I've been wondering if you can ask for a tree to be trimmed. Most of my (also mature) street is fine, but my neighbour has the largest tree of all and the canopy envelops the light on my side. It completely blocks the light and makes the driveway and road in front of my house extremely dark.

[danbrotherston]

Hell, I hope they don't turn the brightness down. With this more focused light, my mature tree-lined street has ALREADY become significantly dimmer, because of the amount of "spilled" light being blocked by the trees. I can't even walk from my front door to my car at night anymore without having to use my phone as a light - the cast light just doesn't reach 5 or 6 meters into my yard anymore, like the old ones did.

I've been wondering if you can ask for a tree to be trimmed. Most of my (also mature) street is fine, but my neighbour has the largest tree of all and the canopy envelops the light on my side. It completely blocks the light and makes the driveway and road in front of my house extremely dark.

In addition to asking for lights to be dimmed, you can probably ask for them to be brightened.

I also have little light spillage onto my property even with the old streetlights, so I put a light stand in my yard, very quaint looking.

[creative]

I really liked the new lights until late last week. I was driving below the speed limit, turning left onto a street where I have done so many times before. I scanned the intersection before starting my turn then looked into the street where I was turning. When I glanced back there was a pedestrian 3 steps into the intersection. He came out a totally dark section of the sidewalk that was previously lit by spill lighting from the old streetlights. As a pedestrian at night I will need to be extra carefull and not assume that drivers can see me just because I can see them.

[Bob_McBob]

I've had success getting in touch with the City of Waterloo about streetlight issues in the past. There was a corner nearby where the orientation of the light meant pedestrians stepped straight into the road out of a totally unlit area of sidewalk. I'm pretty sure the only reason nobody was ever hit there was because it was an isolated corner that didn't get used much at night. I was fully aware of the lighting issue and still came close to hitting pedestrians on multiple occasions despite taking the turn slowly and being extremely vigilant. The city eventually repositioned the streetlight, and the corner is now extremely well lit with the new LED lights.

[JoeKW]

My street just got the new lights, big difference!

Before:

After:


Take note of the tree on the right and the houses on the left.

[Canard]

Wow! That’s about the best comparison shot I’ve ever seen. Good on you for taking a “before” picture!

[Pheidippides]

Anyone come across a night-time satellite image of the region for a before/during/soon-to-be-after comparison?

[Viewfromthe42]

That's an incredible comparison. The roadway is *much* easier to see, and yet the homes are *much* more shaded to light, contrary to almost everyone's assertions about LED lights on the anti-LED side.

[Bob_McBob]

I took a couple photos before and after partial installation, with a daylight white balance. There are still plenty of spots left in the region for proper comparison photos.

[danbrotherston]

That's an incredible comparison. The roadway is *much* easier to see, and yet the homes are *much* more shaded to light, contrary to almost everyone's assertions about LED lights on the anti-LED side.

Indeed!

[neonjoe]

My street just got the new lights, big difference!

Before:

After:


Take note of the tree on the right and the houses on the left.

We got ours on the same day. We have a light standard on our front lawn and it definitely doesn’t dump nearly as much light into our house. Also it looks like you live very close to us. We are on Cotton Grass St.

[KevinL]

For some reason certain intersections have not had their lights replaces even when all directions of the surrounding streets have. Is there a difference in hardware, or power configuration?

[The85]

For some reason certain intersections have not had their lights replaces even when all directions of the surrounding streets have. Is there a difference in hardware, or power configuration?

I believe the issue here is the Region just brought on new standards a few years ago to add additional illumination to new and upgraded signalized intersections right on the metal traffic light poles, which are owned by the Region and not the hydro utilities. I would assume it's an administrative matter between having the hydro companies own the standard street light and hydro poles, and the Region owning the metal traffic light poles. In this process, some of these street lights on the new metal traffic light poles did not get picked up in the GIS tracker (which the contractor is likely using and strictly going off as per the contract) because the street light location data for the GIS were provided by the hydro utilities, not the Region. That's my guess.