Street light

A street light, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or

lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a
road or walkway, which is used to provide light when it is
needed. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive
photocells that activate automatically when light is or is
not needed: dusk, dawn, or the onset of dark weather. This
function in older lighting systems could have been
performed with the aid of a solar dial. Many street light systems are being connected
underground instead of wiring from one utility post to another.

History
Preindustrial era
Early lamps were used by Greek and Roman civilizations, where light primarily served the
purpose of security, both to protect the wanderer from tripping on the path over something
or keeping the potential robbers at bay. At that time oil lamps were used predominantly as
they provided a long-lasting and moderate flame. The Romans had a word 'laternarius',
which was a term for a slave responsible for lighting the oil lamps in front of their villas.
This task remained the responsibility of a designated person up to the Middle Ages where
the so-called 'link boys' escorted people from one place to another through the murky
winding streets of medieval towns.

Before incandescent lamps, candle lighting was employed in cities. The earliest lamps
required that a lamplighter tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lamps, but later
designs employed ignition devices that would automatically strike the flame when the gas
supply was activated. The earliest of such street lamps were built in the Arab Empire,
especially in Crdoba, Spain, Cairo, Egypt, and Baghdad, Iraq ( around 1000 AD ).
It is generally accepted that public illumination was ordered in London in 1417 by Sir
Henry Barton, Mayor of London though there is no firm evidence of this. Paris was first lit
by an order issued in 1524, and, in the beginning of the 16th century, the inhabitants were
ordered to keep lights burning in the windows of all houses that faced the streets. By an Act
of the Common Council in 1716, all housekeepers, whose houses faced any street, lane, or
passage, were required to hang out, every dark night, one or more lights, to burn from six
to eleven o'clock, under threat of a penalty of one shilling as a fine for failing to do so.

Gas lighting
The first widespread system of street lighting
used piped coal gas as fuel. Stephen Hales was
the first person who procured a flammable
fluid from the actual distillation of coal in
1726 and John Clayton, in 1735, called gas
the "spirit" of coal and discovered its
flammability by an accident.

William Murdoch (sometimes spelled "Murdock") was the first to use the flammability of
gas for the practical application of lighting. In the early 1790s, while overseeing the use of
his company's steam engines in tin mining in Cornwall, Murdoch began experimenting
with various types of gas, finally settling on coal-gas as the most effective. He first lit his
own house in Redruth, Cornwall in 1792. In 1798, he used gas to light the main building
of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting, the
lights astonishing the local population.
The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on January
28, 1807 by Frederick Albert Winsor. In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to the London
and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, and the first gas company in the world
came into being. Less than two years later, on December 31, 1813, the Westminster Bridge
was lit by gas.
Following this success, gas lighting spread to other countries. The use of gas lights in
Rembrandt Peale's Museum in Baltimore in 1816 was a great success. Baltimore was the
first American city with gas streetlights, provided by Peale's Gas Light Company of
Baltimore.
The first place outside of London in England to have gas lighting, was Preston, Lancashire
in 1825, this was due to the Preston Gaslight Company run by revolutionary Joseph Dunn,
who found the most improved way of brighter gas lighting.

Oil-gas appeared in the field as a rival of coal-gas. In 1815, John Taylor patented an
apparatus for the decomposition of "oil" and other animal substances. Public attention was
attracted to "oil-gas" by the display of the patent apparatus at Apothecary's Hall, by Taylor
& Martineau.
The first modern street lamps to use kerosene were introduced in Lviv in what was then the
Austrian Empire in 1853. In Brest, street lights with kerosene lamps reappeared in 2009 in
the shopping street as a tourist attraction.

Modern lights
Today, street lighting commonly uses high-intensity
discharge lamps, often HPS high pressure sodium
lamps. Such lamps provide the greatest amount of
photopic illumination for the least consumption of
electricity. However, when scotopic/photopic light
calculations are used, it can be seen how
inappropriate HPS lamps are for night lighting. White light sources have been shown to
double driver peripheral vision and improve driver brake reaction time by at least 25%; to
enable pedestrians to better detect pavement trip hazards and to facilitate visual appraisals
of other people associated with interpersonal judgements. Studies comparing metal halide
and high-pressure sodium lamps have shown that at equal photopic light levels, a street
scene illuminated at night by a metal halide lighting system was reliably seen as brighter
and safer than the same scene illuminated by a high pressure sodium system.

Two national standards now allow for variation in illuminance when using lamps of
different spectra. In Australia, HPS lamp performance
needs to be reduced by a minimum value of 75%. In the
UK, illuminances are reduced with higher values S/P ratio
New street lighting technologies, such as LED or induction lights, emit a white light that
provides high levels of scotopic lumens allowing street lights with lower wattages and
lower photopic lumens to replace existing street lights. However, there have been no
formal specifications written around Photopic/Scotopic adjustments for different types of
light sources, causing many municipalities and street departments to hold back on
implementation of these new technologies until the standards are updated. Eastbourne in
East Sussex UK is currently undergoing a project to see 6000 of its street lights converted to
LED and will be closely followed by Hastings in early 2014.
Photovoltaic-powered LED luminaires are gaining wider acceptance. Preliminary field tests
show that some LED luminaires are energy-efficient and perform well in testing
environments.
In 2007, the Civil Twilight Collective created a variant of the conventional LED streetlight,
namely the Lunar-resonant streetlight. These lights increase or decrease the intensity of the
streetlight according to the lunar light. This streetlight design thus reduces energy
consumption as well as light pollution.

Measurement
Two very similar measurement systems were created to bridge the scotopic and photopic
luminous efficiency functions, creating a Unified System of Photometry. This new
measurement has been well-received because the reliance on V() alone for characterizing
night-time light illuminations requires more electric energy. The cost-savings potential of
using a new way to measure mesopic lighting scenarios is tremendous.
Outdoor Site-Lighting Performance (OSP) is a method for predicting and measuring three
different aspects of light pollution: glow, trespass and glare. Using this method, lighting
specifiers can quantify the performance of existing and planned lighting designs and
applications to minimize excessive or obtrusive light leaving the boundaries of a property.

Advantages
Major advantages of street lighting includes: prevention of accidents and increase in safety.
Studies have shown that darkness results in a large number of crashes and fatalities,
especially those involving pedestrians; pedestrian fatalities are 3 to 6.75 times more likely
in the dark than in daylight. Street lighting has been found to reduce pedestrian crashes by
approximately 50%.
Furthermore, lighted intersections and highway interchanges tend to have fewer crashes
than unlighted intersections and interchanges.
Towns, cities, and villages use the unique locations provided by lampposts to hang
decorative or commemorative banners.

Many communities in the U.S. use lampposts as a tool for fund raising via lamppost banner
sponsorship programs first designed by a U.S. based lamppost banner manufacturer.

Disadvantages
The major criticisms of street lighting are that it can actually cause accidents if misused,
and cause light pollution.
Dangers

There are two optical phenomena that need to be recognized in street light installations.

The loss of night vision because of the accommodation reflex of drivers' eyes is the
greatest danger. As drivers emerge from an unlighted area into a pool of light from a
street light their pupils quickly constrict to adjust to the brighter light, but as they
leave the pool of light the dilation of their pupils to adjust to the dimmer light is
much slower, so they are driving with impaired vision. As a person gets older the
eye's recovery speed gets slower, so driving time and distance under impaired vision
increases.

Oncoming headlights are more visible against a black background than a grey one.
The contrast creates greater awareness of the oncoming vehicle.

Stray voltage is also a concern in many cities. Stray voltage can accidentally electrify
lampposts and has the potential to injure or kill anyone who comes into contact with
the post. Some cities have employed the Electrified Cover Safeguard technology

which sounds an alarm and flashes a light, to warn the public, when a lamppost
becomes dangerously electrified.

There are also physical dangers other than children climbing them for recreational
purposes. Street light stanchions (lampposts) pose a collision risk to motorists and
pedestrians, particularly those affected by poor eyesight or under the influence of alcohol.
This can be reduced by designing them to break away when hit (frangible or collapsible
supports), protecting them by guardrails, or marking the lower portions to increase their
visibility. High winds or accumulated metal fatigue also occasionally topple street lights.

Light pollution
In urban areas light pollution can hide the stars and interfere
with astronomy and the migration of many bird species. In
settings near astronomical telescopes and observatories, low
pressure sodium lamps may be used. These lamps are
advantageous over other lamps such as mercury and metal
halide lamps because low pressure sodium lamps emit lower
intensity, monochromatic light. Observatories can filter the
sodium wavelength out of their observations and virtually eliminate the interference from
nearby urban lighting. Full cutoff streetlights also reduce light pollution by reducing the
amount of light that is directed at the sky which also improves the luminous efficiency of
the light.

Purpose
There are three distinct main uses of street lights, each requiring different types of lights
and placement. Misuse of the different types of lights can make the situation worse by
compromising visibility or safety.

Beacon lights
A modest steady light at the intersection of two roads is an aid to navigation because it
helps a driver see the location of a side road as they come closer to it and they can adjust
their braking and know exactly where to turn if they intend to leave the main road or see
vehicles or pedestrians. A beacon light's function is to say "here I am" and even a dim light
provides enough contrast against the dark night to serve the purpose. To prevent the
dangers caused by a car driving through a pool of light, a beacon light must never shine
onto the main road, and not brightly onto the side road. In residential areas, this is usually
the only appropriate lighting, and it has the bonus side effect of providing spill lighting
onto any sidewalk there for the benefit of pedestrians. On Interstate highways this purpose
is commonly served by placing reflectors at the sides of the road.

Roadway lights
Street lights are not normally intended to illuminate the driving route (headlights are
preferred), but to reveal signs and hazards outside of the headlights' beam. Because of the
dangers discussed above, roadway lights are properly used sparingly and only when a
particular situation justifies increasing the risk. This usually involves an intersection with
several turning movements and much signage, situations where drivers must take in much

information quickly that is not in the

headlights' beam. In these situations (A
freeway junction or exit ramp) the
intersection may be lit so that drivers can
quickly see all hazards, and a well designed
plan will have gradually increasing lighting
for approximately a quarter of a minute before the intersection and gradually decreasing
lighting after it. The main stretches of highways remain unlighted to preserve the driver's
night vision and increase the visibility of oncoming headlights. If there is a sharp curve
where headlights will not illuminate the road, a light on the outside of the curve is often
justified.
If it is desired to light a roadway (perhaps due to heavy and fast multi-lane traffic), to
avoid the dangers of casual placement of street lights it should not be lit intermittently, as
this requires repeated eye readjustment which implies eyestrain and temporary blindness
when entering and leaving light pools. In this case the system is designed to eliminate the
need for headlights. This is usually achieved with bright lights placed on high poles at close
regular intervals so that there is consistent light along the route. The lighting goes from
curb to curb.

Street light control systems

A number of street light control systems
have been developed to control and reduce
energy consumption of a town's public
lighting system. These range from
controlling a circuit of street lights and/or
individual lights with specific ballasts and
network operating protocols. These may include sending and receiving instructions via
separate data networks,at high frequency over the top of the low voltage supply or
wireless.
Image-based street light control

A number of companies are now manufacturing Intelligent street lighting that adjust light
output based on usage and occupancy, i.e. automating classification of pedestrian versus
cyclist, versus automotive, sensing also velocity of movement and illuminating a certain
number of streetlights ahead and fewer behind, depending on velocity of movement. Also
the lights adjust depending on road conditions, for example, snow produces more
reflectance therefore reduced light is required.

Maintenance
Street lighting systems require ongoing maintenance, which can be classified as either
reactive or preventative. Reactive maintenance is a direct response to a lighting failure,
such as replacing a discharge lamp after it has failed, or replacing an entire lighting unit

after it has been hit by a vehicle. Preventative

maintenance is scheduled replacement of lighting
components, for example replacing all of the
discharge lamps in an area of the city when they
have reached 85% of their expected life. In the
United Kingdom the Roads Liaison Group has
issued a Code of Practice recommending specific reactive and preventative maintenance
procedures.
Some street lights have a light status. An example is in New York City where street light
lamps are equipped with sensors. When the red indicator on top of the light flashes, it
indicates that the light needs to have a repair.