STREET LIGHTING

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 75, 26 September 1927, Page 10

STREET LIGHTING

IMPROVEMENT COMING

KENT TERRACE BRIGHTER

NON-DAZZLE LAMPS

"Wellington's "street lighting is not all that.it might be," by quite a long way, but an improvement is on the way, for the lighting of streets carrying tramway .tracks.' The position in.suali streets is unusual, in that there is sometimes?dual lighting, partly by the Electricity Department, for which' -lighting service ratepayers pay a special rate, and partly much by tho Tramways Department. In other tram track streets, as in Broadway, Miramar, tho lights are tramway lights and the maintenance cost is shared between the two departments Whether this 'dual system will bo altered 'is for the council to' decide, and is not so.important a matter, to the pub- , lie, as the Jong promised improvement in lighting. -■ If only the pedestiian and the occasional horse-driver had to be con-' sidered, improved street lighting would be chiefly a mattor. of just plenty more light, high up, low Sown, o» either side, I or overhead, but.car traffic.complicates ' things badjy. Tlfe bare ideal, reached nowhere iii "Wellington except in some i shopping streets, is, presumably, sufficient lighting to show the motorist everybody and- everything upon the road surface without need for strong ' headlights, but how is that amount of light to be thrown upomthe road without bringing on more.trouble.? Enough light to give the pedestrian a sense of security may be plenty also to seriously interfere with the driver's lookout, unless some happy system can be found which floods the street surface and yet gives no dazzle. , • There are certaTn types of lamp which, if they live up to tho high claims mitdo for them, do not dazzle, but'they cost a lot of money. Kent and Cambridge. terraces, for instance" were illuminated during the recent Royal,visit by a special system of nonfflare floodlight. It was a great' success, but the cost of applying su'eh a system to"" a city's streets generally would probably be quite out 1 of the question. > . FRONT GARDEN LIGHTING. „ The plain g'lobo and' circular disc reilector, generally Convex, is probably as wasteful a means forlighting a roadway and footpath as .one could 'wish for. very few exception's, and these in tlfo city proper, .these lights arc tarried .oh poles on) the edge of the footpaths." Half the light that goes downwards (a ' whole . lot of it goes upward, , to ,' nowhere at :ill) f.ills on the 'roadway may be a qrarter of what is left upon the footpath, and the rest lights up someone's front garden quite-nicelv, -which may or may not'be- convenient to the owner of the garden—not if he wants to hose withouta met*,, for'instance. Centre-way flighting',',as .over Kent, and Cambridg'S; terraces, in lower Lambton quay, "or 1 in Petone or Lower Hu'tt, keeps the-4ight more where it is wanted and also ensures' that both' sides of the roadway and footpath/are evenlylighted up. Brilliant' centre-way lighting would" scarcely 'be popular with motorists, as being more dangerous than tho present Wellington style of farapait pole lamps, but a larger number of moderately-' powerful centre-way globes may bring about the improvement wanted. "Especially ..powerful ccntro lights of 1000-candlb power, are,,.'-' installed at ;Jx»hn street and. the / crossing-/' ,of Cuba and Manners "street, and no" 1 one seems ■\ ' ...

to run into' particularly serious trouble because they arc there, but motorists are by no means agreed that they are altogether a good thing, except that they do light-up the officer on point duty. A special and rather icxpensive type of reflector is used oft the lights on Broadway andjilong the Hutt road as far as Kaiwarra, its object being to keep the light where it is wanted, on the roadway, and to minimise glare. The Miramar man wijl generally agree that they are good lights, but ho will not agree that they are close enough together, YOU PAY TOR LOOKS. If expense was no objection, the problem could probably be solved most satisfactorily to everyone by such a piilar "light system, as dignifies Oriental Bay at might, or which. has now been applied in the reserves between^ Kent and Cambridge terraces, where the glare is stopped by ornamental globes of white or opal glpfis. Wellington's streets would present an admirable appearance under such a system, and the "fifty per cent, absorption of light by black roads" mentioned recently by the president of the North island Motor Union would be more than, made good, but ■what would the ratepayers say if tho councillors took the risk of suggesting brightening up the town in that way? The street lighting rate at present "is 1 l-16d on annual value, but it might be more like 6s lid if standard lamp lighting was adopted generally. Even American cities which particularly pride themselves upon good lighting as a means of advertising that they are there restrict such lighting to their show streets, to their particular Oriental Bays and Kent and Cambridge terraces, and there they are well worth while. / peWbr poles,'more beauty. Eeplying to" a suggestion that thn new standard lights in Kent terrace I were a, waste of • money, the Mayor | said that he did not regard them as such.■, "The amenities.of city life are ' less considered in "Wellington than"" in any other part of New Zealand." said Mr. Troup, who-went on to say that he looked at the matter:from the aesthetic point of view, and alluded to the vast number of unsightly poles and wires -which marred the beauty of the city in every direction. He thought the lamp columns would be far more sightly than the ugly wooden posts which were aH over the place. "I look forward to the day," he said, "when all telegraph, telephone, lighting, and other Wires will be laid underground, and poles will disappear from our streets. It is'being done all over the world. It'has been done in :the principal cities and towns in England and America, and it will have to be done in ■ New Zealand. Wellington is the worst city in this respect in the Dominion, and the Government is the ■worst offender." v