I think people would be much healthier if we allowed the night to be dark. Personally I sleep much better in darkness. I don’t really understand why everything needs to be lit up at night.
* https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/lighting-crime-and-s...
Proper lighting does seem to help reduce crime:
* https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/projects/crime-lights-study
* https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/5/9/how-something-a...
Study is ongoing:
* https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-street-lights-wha...
I'm curious to know if motion sensors can be used to turn off lights when people aren't around, but switch things on as they're in the area, and a few lights down the street as well so they can see what's up ahead. I doubt there's many folks around between (say) midnight and 5, and so some energy could be saved.
Whether it's a fast on-off or gradual would also probably determine how disruptive it would be.
This would also be done mostly in low-traffic areas, and that'd be relatively easy to determine because you'd have motion sensors to measure things. Heuristics could be determined to see traffic patterns: more people are likely to be out late on Friday and Saturday nights than on a random Tuesday at 0300.
One experiment found an 80% reduction in electrical use:
* https://newatlas.com/motion-sensing-streetlight-system/19199...
At the very least a system like this could perhaps be done for parking lots, which generally see little activity in the middle of the night. There's a lot of empty asphalt being lit up now.
Anecdote: My old Mazda was the top-of-the-line when it was made, the nicest road car you could get from Mazda no matter how much money you had. And the headlights were terrible. Well-lit streets were always noticeably easier to drive at night. I could have replaced them with a HID or LED for less than a thousand dollars, and been much happier and safer, for a week. Then I'd be pulled over, given a defect canary (a fine, a huge sticker on your windshield labelling you to other police to harass, as well a requirement to prove you've "remedied" the situation). Get a few defect notices, and the police can have your car crushed into a cube with no recourse under "anti hoon" laws.
damn, those trade offs!