new approach to outdoor lighting, the group asks: What if streetlights could respond to ambient moonlight, dimming and brightening each month as the moon cycles through its phases? On clear nights when the moon is full, streetlights might even turn off completely. The scheme, which they call “lunar-resonant streetlights,” could save as much as 80–90 percent of the energy used in streetlighting while bringing back the experience of moonlight and stargazing to urban areas.
Civil Twilight’s research indicates that streetlights account for 38 percent of the electricity used for lighting in the United States—that’s close to 300 million tons of carbon emissions a year. They’re also the top source of light pollution, preventing two-thirds of Americans from seeing stars at night. The collective estimates that switching to dimmable LEDs and more responsive sensor cells could save the majority of that energy and bring the night sky back into the lives of urban dwellers.
Perhaps the most fascinating fact that the collective’s research revealed, however, is a little-known detail about the history of electricity: in the 1930s, with the spread of electrification and the consolidation of utilities, streetlights became a convenient way to off-load excess energy from the grid at night, when power demands dropped significantly. This intentionally inefficient system determined the norm for nighttime outdoor lighting levels, a standard that has not been revised since, even though the need for off-loading ended in the 1970s. What we now assume is a safety measure is in fact the forgotten remnant of an obsolete energy practice.
So what are the current standards based on? Comfort levels and perceptions regarding nighttime safety. Since the off-loading days of the 1930s, we’ve become accustomed to the feel of brightly lit streets and parking lots. But ironically, studies have shown no link between outdoor lighting intensity and crime or accident rates. What’s more dangerous, Willis says, is the drastic variation in light levels within an urban area. As you drive, for example, from a well-lit major thoroughfare to a darkened residential street, your eye does not have time to adjust, and your vision is impaired.

Anarchogeek: The ascendancy of Hacker News & the gentrification of geek news communities

Tags: hackers, online, culture, forum, gentrification, urbanism on 2008-07-08 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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Franklin Avenue Planning

Tags: minnesota, minneapolis, development, urbanism on 2008-07-05 -All Annotations (0) -About

The Digital Library of the Commons - Commons in Urban Industrialized Society

This paper focuses on a quite different situation: the role of common forests in an industrialized country. The Swedish common forests have survived for more than one hundred years; no deforestation has been observed and the total amount of biomass is increasing.

Tags: commons, history, urbanism, sweden on 2008-06-25 -All Annotations (0) -About

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OnTheCommons.org » Fewer Traffic Signs, Better Safety?

Tags: commons, self-regulation, traffic, urbanism on 2008-06-13 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Urban Prankster

Urban Prankster covers pranks, hacks, participatory art, flash mobs, and other creative endeavors that take place in public places in cities across the world. It is edited by Charlie Todd.

Tags: art, urbanism, prank, humor on 2008-06-11 and saved by7 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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Congress for the New Urbanism

Tags: urbanism, activism, policies on 2008-04-09 and saved by6 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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19.20.21.

19 cities in the world with 20 million people in the 21st century

Tags: population, future, urbanism, import-delicious on 2008-03-17 and saved by30 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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The Goodspeed Update » Blog Archive » The Urbanists’ Panacea: Parking Reform

Tags: environment, urbanism, import-delicious on 2008-02-27 -All Annotations (0) -About

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WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: My Other Car is a Bright Green City

why I believe building compact communities should be one of America's highest environmental priorities, and why..our obsession with building greener cars may be obscuring.. the problem and some of the benefits of using land-use change as a primary sustain

Tags: urbanism, environment, transportation, design, future, import-delicious on 2008-02-21 -All Annotations (0) -About

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THE CITY FIX: Exploring Sustainable Solutions To The Problems of Urban Mobility

This blog is produced by EMBARQ - The WRI Center for Sustainable Transport at the World Resources Institute.

Tags: weblog-group, transportation, urbanism, architecture, import-delicious on 2008-02-08 -All Annotations (0) -About

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'The city is mine' | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

At night it's as though the city's history comes alive, bubbling up from where it lies dormant beneath the tarmac: when the crowds are gone, modernity slips away, and the city feels ancient and unruly.

Tags: urbanism, night, culture, import-delicious on 2008-01-27 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Walk Score - How walkable is your house?

Tags: architecture, community, design, development, environment, maps, reference, local, urbanism, import-delicious on 2007-08-03 and saved by12 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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Lights! Water! Motion!

The world’s urban infrastructure needs a $40 trillion makeover. Here’s how to reinvigorate our electricity, water, and transportation systems by integrating finance, governance, technology, and design.

Tags: infrastructure, engineering, urbanism, future, import-delicious on 2007-06-26 -All Annotations (0) -About

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