To dim or not to dim?

Innovating Street-Lighting Practices in A Newly Politicized Arena

Presented by Dr Rob Shaw

25th September 2014

∂

Street-Lighting – A newly

controversial arena

∂

Outline

• Background

• Introduction to Research Project

• Knowing the Impact: Uncertainty and Trials

• Innovating Practices

• Street-Lighting beyond Infrastructure

• Pace of Change

• Conclusions

∂

Rising Energy Prices

Newly Developed

Lighting Technology

(Esp. LEDs) Move

towards ‘Smart

Urbanism’

Policy Opportunity

Window

Background

Rising Energy Prices Local

Responsibility for Climate

Change Mitigation

Policy Opportunity

Window

Policy Opportunity

Window

Local Authority Budget

Cuts

∂

Background

• Social science interest in street-lighting – beyond the question of fear of

crime – is recent

• Part of a wider emergence of interest in energy, and urban

infrastructure, and viewing human settlements as open complex

systems: as such, studying how cities are ‘assembled’ through a

mixture of human and non-human elements

• Durham context – Durham Energy Institute founded in 2009 to support

interdisciplinary research

∂

Research Project

Key questions:

1. How do local authority lighting engineers decide how and when to

introduce new technologies or change lighting practices

2. How do local authority lighting engineers gather evidence and trial

products, in order to decide or make a case for the introduction of street

lighting

3. What is the outcome of the competing demands of climate change,

austerity policies and local well-being?

∂

Research Project

Name Type Character PFI? Participant?

County Durham Unitary Authority Rural No Yes

Darlington Unitary Authority Urban Town No Yes

Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Urban City No No

Hartlepool Unitary Authority Urban Town No No

Middlesbrough Unitary Authority Urban City No No

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Metropolitan Borough Urban City Yes Yes

North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Sub-Urban Yes Yes

Northumberland Unitary Authority Rural No Yes

Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Authority Sub-Urban Yes No

South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Sub-Urban Yes Yes

Stockton-On-Tees Unitary Authority Sub-Urban No No

Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Urban City Yes No

∂

Knowing the Impact:

Uncertainty and Trials

∂

Knowing the Impact: Uncertainty

and Trials

“There’s an awful lot of companies out there making

claims as to what their equipment can and can’t do”

“there’s a new LED lantern every

week”

While LEDs were understood as offering a variety of benefits, the

rapid technological change has lead to a hesitation, particularly

when spending public money.

∂

Trials and experiments have emerged as a way of dealing with uncertainty

(as elsewhere in climate change mitigation)

Three approaches:

1. Public Consultation

2. Stealth Trials

3. Relying on Others

Possibility for better sharing of trial data and/or cross-local authority trials?

Knowing the Impact: Uncertainty

and Trials

∂Innovating Practices

∂

Innovating Practices

“We’ve had fixed dimming in for 15 years so… it was

tried and nobody noticed a difference on x up to x, that

dims at midnight and nobody’s ever commented on it”

“Propagation and diffusion are fully a

part of the line of innovation (Deleuze

and Guattari, 1987 pp405)

New lighting practices - ‘dimming’ and ‘switching off’ street lights – that

have created public controversy in street-lighting, rather than new

technologies themselves

∂

Innovating Practices

Pre-Programmed Dimming

In place for several years, and the most straight forward. But limited

flexibility and use

Smart Dimming

Controlled by CMS. Strong possibility for future but installation and

running cost implications. Questions too about where we place

control?

Switching Off

Limited take up in region to date: “The idea of turning them off at

midnight was not very well received. Dimming was maybe a little bit

more amenable to people”. However, broader consensus that it will

become more likely in future

∂

Street-Lighting beyond

Infrastructure

∂

Street-Lighting beyond

Infrastructure

Throughout my interviews, participants were

concerned about the role of street lighting in

wider society, but did not have much

knowledge of what this was, or how to

develop further understanding on it.

∂

Aim Comment

Reduction of number

and severity night

time road traffic

accidents.

LAs seemed keenly aware of the importance of maintaining road

traffic safety.

“We would look at the whole road layout, how do you do the lighting

and it would be passed across to the various traffic engineers”

Reduction of crime,

and fear of crime

"I: Where does crime or fear of crime come into anything at all? Any

decision making or any fear of crime or high crime areas where you

have different lights?

P:We just follow the British Standards like BS 5489“

Such comments were common among participants. They suggest a

danger in which a belief that crime is 'built into' standards and

processes means that it is not sufficiently studied.

To encourage well-

being.

LAs were aware of the importance of lighting for general well-being.

Interventions and changes in practice in residential areas are much

more cautious than in non-residential streets. However, again

there’s no connection to specific research.

The expansion of the

night time economy.

"I can’t think of… night-time economy, I don’t think… I think that was

something that happened when the economy was booming... that’s

definitely gone way… from way down the agenda now, the sort of

night-time economy that’s not a player"

∂Pace of Change

∂

Pace of Change

“It’s funny, but since we spoke to

you we’ve now completely

changed our view on LEDs”

Participant at ILP North-East

Event, February 2014

• Views and

technology are

quickly evolving

together!

• The politicization of

street-lighting means

that change is likely

to remain fast

∂

Conclusions

1. Lighting engineers have a healthy scepticism towards overly confident

claims – this is good but might help slow down change

2. The quality of evidence gathering is mixed: it is strong where engineers

have the skill-set (eg road safety) but weaker where outside of the

comfort zone (eg well-being). Trials are used to prove business cases

but data could be better shared and practices of analysis are unclear.

3. Financial concerns ultimately dominate; other agendas are reduced to

meeting legal requirements if necessary

∂

Conclusions• Multiple features have created a policy opportunity window, politicizing

street-lighting

• Knowledge becomes a crucial problem, as practices innovate and new

issues emerge. Trials and experiments help, but there is still an

overwhelming series of new developments

• As such, innovations and new practices are probably being held back by

an understandably risk-averse strategy, which identifies a series of

benefits to CMS/LEDs, but which is also concerned about various

issues

• There is a danger of certain areas being overlooked eg fear of crime

• Importance of cooperation and collaboration: strong local networks, but

does this feed into everyday practice?

∂

See Also

∂

See Also

Shaw, R. Forthcoming. Street-Lighting in England and Wales: New Technologies and

Uncertainty in the Assemblage of Street-Lighting Infrastructure. Environment and Planning

A. A free copy will be made available at Durham Research Online

Shaw, R. 2013. Keeping the Lights On. Durham Energy Institute Review Magazine 3, p9

(http://issuu.com/communicationsoffice/docs/10075_dei_newsletter_winter_final)

Shaw, R. 2013 Street-Lighting Policy in North-East England: Current Practice and Future

Questions, Stakeholders Report. Personal Website

(http://robshawgeog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/street-lighting-policy-in-north-east-england-

current-practice-and-future-questions-stakeholders-report.pdf)