STREET LIGHTING

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 146, 22 June 1928, Page 7

STREET LIGHTING

. AMERICAN EXAMPLE QUESTION OF FINANCE "One of the first things that strikes a New Zealand traveller in North America, is the high quality of the street illumination. Even in the average small town, the illumination is far bettor than in towns of a similar size or larger in Now Zealand. Not only is the intensity and uniformity of. light much higher, but the lamps are installed in artistic fittings, showing that as far as street lighting is eowcerne.d the. people have a. high degree of civic pride. In some cities, more care is taken with street illumination than is done in New Zealand with the interior illumination of some public buildings. In some places this problem has been studied scientifically, and the illumination throughout the city is graded to meet the varying traffic conditions." These remarks prefaced a very interesting paper iead by Mr. J. E. Templiii to the Conference of the Electric Supply Authority Engineers' Association. "Undoubtedly most engineers in-this country," he went on to say, "have seen illustrations of street lighting as carried out in North America, and immediately think it impossible for' us to do similar work here as the cost would bo prohibitive. It is .admitted that the cost of artistic standards such as are used abroad may be high, but at the same time the same quality of illumination can be obtained by using utilitarian brackets, which are fairly inexpensive. However, quite frequently where ornamental standards were used, the additional cost of these was borne by the ratepayers who were benefited by tho same, and in some cases by donations of public-spirited individuals. Business men recognised that good illumination ig a good investment, and in some cases financed the additional street lighting by special levy." Probably the oldest branch of elec-trical-science was the lighting of streets and open places, but it had been one of the last to show the advancement to which its importance entitled it. Eesidential and industrial lighting had advanced very rapidly from' what it was in the early days. '' Street lighting, on the other hand, has been looked upon as a necessary evil, and in order, to keep down expenses, the intensity and uniformity of illumination has been very poor. However, to-day, due to higher speed motor traffic, intensities of lighting which.were satisfactory twenty years ago when horse-drawn vehicles were used, are found to be entirely in: adequate for our present needs. Where the silhouette effect, was recognised as being satisfactory for street lighting, present needs require better illumination sc that objects can be distinguished quickly and readily by direct light upon them. Certain ai'eas require different intensities of lighting, the highest intensity being needed in main business streets and areas congested with traffic. Lighting in these streets should be of such a character that mo-tor-cars can be run with their lights dimmed, and the drivers will still be able to pick up. objects clearly by means of direct illumination. With a high uniform intensity of lighting, accidents are reduced, and this factor alone should commend itself to public bodies concerned with street illumination. "The question of finance is tho one which appears to be holding up good street lighting in New Zealand to-day. It is evident from figures obtained abroad that .the ratepayers there are awake to the benefits to be derived from good street illumination. Figures taken from the Ontario Commissions report show that the people pay far more per head, of population for street illumination than we do in this country. Some figures, were taken out covering .eighteen towns with an average population of under COOO. There were 70 street lamps per 1000 population, - and the cost per head was approximately 3s lOd per year for this service. A good comparison between street lighting in New Zealand and some towns in Ontario can be judged by tho following figures:—/ "One town with approximately 53,----000 averaged 15.7 candle power per head of population. Another town with approximately 17,000 population had 16 candle power per inhabitant. Comparing the above with one of New Zealand's leading' cities with a population of approximately 100,000 which has 4.4 candle power per person, the cost is under 2s per head of population." If was very obvious to those who had made a study of the incident of load, Mr. Templin pointed out, that the street lighting load was one which could be made-profitable to the supply authorities, .offering splendid possibilities for revenue. It required very little or no additional staff, and, further, good street illuminaion was an excellent ad-, vertisemont for the supply authority as well. Modern practice recommended the use of refractors to increase the intensity of light on the places where it was most needed. It was essential to have the fittings dust-proof and smooth on the' outside so that dust and dirt could not collect and destroy Che ofliciency of the lamp. Continuing his remarks, Mr. Templin saidi "The introduction of modern street lighting in North America has been due primarily to the efficient sales organisation of the manufacturing oinpanies working in conjunction with the local distributing authority and municipalities. Some of the companies expend large sums of money on research work, the results of which are made available for those considering better illumination. In some cases tho cost of better illumination has been borne by donations of public-spirited individuals. Some cities have loan issues for street lighting improvement, the charges of which are borno by rates and taxes. It has been demonstrated that the best manner to approach street lighting for a city is to lay out a comprehensive scheme covering the whole area and decide upon certain types of fittings which are best suitable for their work. If this is done there is uniformity of type of fittings throughout the whole city, which is much bettor than tackling the job piece-meal and having different designs of fittings in different parts of the area supplied. If we expect to obtain better street lighting throughout New Zealand, it is important that fdcts and figuro3 showing tho advantage of good illumination are placed before the local authorities, business communities, and probably certain residential sections. It was suggested that supply authorities could correctly illuminate, say, one block of a business area to show the benefit of modern street lighting, and let the municipality and business people judge for themselves. This means a large amount of propaganda work,-which will take some time to accomplish, but with an increasing civic pride, tho accomplishment of tho end wo have in view may bo nearer than is thought possible at the present time."