A couple of years ago I saw a documentary in which they showed the nightly power cuts in areas outside Pyongyang.
I wonder if, when they first introduced that policy, they started with the roads...
tinyurl.com/38oxket
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This is a Good Thing IMO, an easy win.
They could do with turning a few traffic lights off at night too, as we are quite grown up enough to manage our way across non-busy junctions without their help (aren't we?)
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The motorways in my area work just fine without any lights at all. Who are these wimps that need streetlights to drive at night ?
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>> This is a Good Thing IMO, an easy win.
>>
>> They could do with turning a few traffic lights off at night too, as we
>> are quite grown up enough to manage our way across non-busy junctions without their help
>> (aren't we?)
Maybe what they should do is have sections triggered by vehicles passing sensors. That way when there are no vehicles, there would be no lights (traffic lights or otherwise).
I wonder how much could be saved across the board by such sensors. You could, I suppose, even have them for streetlights. No need to illuminate the pavements if there is nobody around.
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Smokie, I can't understand why we can't use the Continental method for traffic lights... the flashing amber... seems to work ok over there... obviously its not suitable at every junction, just like switching all motorway lights off, but it should work for many junctions.
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Turning street lights off during daylight hours would be a good start.
JH
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I dont really see why we have so many lights on especialy in these energy saving times. Our local council is exploring the idea - one proposal was to turn off alternate lights so 50% still on and a 50% energy saving
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>> They could do with turning a few traffic lights off at night too, as we
>> are quite grown up enough to manage our way across non-busy junctions without their help
>> (aren't we?)
>>
Some of us are, but some of us are not, and you don't know if the other driver is!
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It's quite something to see when driving from Brussels towards the coast at 1am.
The lights go out one by one chasing you to the coast. You see darkness approach you in your rear view mirror and race off into the darkness in front of you.
Switching off traffic lights is all well and good but flashing ambers are handy for those who don't know the area.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 18 Jul 10 at 18:09
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I'm all for turning off motorway lights - after all, all cars have lights don't they. I definitely think it is more tiring driving on a lit motorway than an unlit one - I think it is the steady brightening and darkening between lamps.
Turning street lights off after a certain time is nothing new either. When I was a lad you knew when you were late home 'cos the council turned off the street lights at midnight. They only started leaving them on all night when they introduce sodium (orange) bulbs, which were cheaper to run apparently.
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>> I'm all for turning off motorway lights - after all, all cars have lights don't
>> they.
>>
Don't forget the cats eyes. Fantastic invention, I often wonder why the EU have not enforced these all over Europe. It's like Blackpool Illuminations when I get back to the UK at night.
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Switch off lights at night.
Then switch on lights (DRL) during daytime!
Surprising!
There is an advantage of using lights on motorways. With lights, it is easy to see quite far with dipped beam. Without light, one needs to use full beam to see properly.
That should not be a problem though as most cars now have night mode mirror.
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That should not be a problem though as most cars now have night mode mirror.
>
>> yes KIT had one of those
yes i did Michael............
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I'm all for it. Would like to see cats eyes eventually replaced with the LED ones (solar powered?) but find driving on an unlit motorway much more pleasant than a lit one. I don't find I need to be on full beam, either.
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Here's an interesting site if you can get your head around all the graphs (use Internet Explorer on PC):
www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm
It gives a breakdown of current UK electricity demand, prices, output by fuel type and so on.
Given that we have a concession to use coal for a while longer by the EU (as it's a "dirty" fuel) and approx 1/3 of our energy is from that, I guess we will have a problem with energy in the not so distant future.
In short, the last government failed to invest in nuclear power and the current one is obsessed with wind energy, but this needs a backup when the wind isn't blowing and it's overall green credentials are questionable.
Note from the graphs on that site that the installed wind energy is 2110 MW but we are currently producing (today) around 500MW; tomorrow is forecast at 200MW from wind. So we get around 1/5 to a 1/10 of the installed capacity on days like this.
IMHO small-scale nuclear is the way to go, but the word "nuclear" frightens most people.
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>> IMHO small-scale nuclear is the way to go, but the word "nuclear" frightens most people.
I have not heard anything about the Chinese MPBR (based on various previous reactors) recently. Have you?
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And finally the lights go out...on the motorway - smokie
