A Look at Missoula's Street Lighting
At WGM Group, we continue to believe that street lighting is one of the most important public infrastructure needs in Missoula to make our streets complete. WGM Group is in the process of analyzing the City of Missoula's street lighting system to determine whether or not the City's residents are receiving value from the current system, or if there is a better way to light the streets and sidewalks of Missoula.
We are currently evaluating both the existing lighting infrastructure and lighting
alternatives to determine if Missoula residents are receiving maximum benefit for their investment.
Below are links to some of the information that we have discovered in our on-going review.
City of
A Glance at Historical Lights Used in
City Street Light, circa 1925.
3 Comments
Current Projects
Grants.Gov Applications
Planning Documents
Like the LED idea. Also have heard of lights going on when motion is detected instead of shining all the time.
Have had lights from Sentinal HS shining in my windows which are up on the hill. It may be fixed now, or I may just be used to them. There is much light pollution in the valley. Just go up on any of the hills at night. I can even see the airport lights at night, and I am not that high up!
Thanks for the opportunity. Wish I was more educated on this topic.
Paula
To me, the most important upgrade to existing streetlights would be eliminating glare. Virtually all the street lights in Missoula have unshielded lenses. When driving down a street, by far the brightest thing in one's field of vision is the street lamps. This unfortunately means that anything supposedly illuminated by the lamp is hard to see, because the street lamp itself is so bright that everything else looks dim in contrast. If we could just get some shielding on those street lights, our streets would be so much safer - the light falling on objects below would actually do some good!
Of course, installing the most energy efficient street lamps available would be common sense for new installations. Buying the cheapest liminaires that provide the appropriate amount of light is a false economy, because the energy costs far more than the luminaire over the life of the street light.
Finally, there are some neighborhoods without street lights. My understanding is that most of these neighborhoods have intentionally chosen not to have street lights. I don't think street lights should be forced on neighborhoods that don't want them. Just as in rural areas, headlights seem to work fine in these neighborhoods. Frankly, I think my neighborhood is overlit by about twice, and the next door neighborhood is underlit by half. However, neither neighborhood seems to have a crime problem, so I suppose both are acceptable.
Quote:
"Like the LED idea. Also have heard of lights going on when motion is detected instead of shining all the time."
I feel that the erratic on/off of these lights would pose a safety hazard because of their surprise factor to motorist
Quote:
"Finally, there are some neighborhoods without street lights. My understanding is that most of these neighborhoods have intentionally chosen not to have street lights. I don't think street lights should be forced on neighborhoods that don't want them. Just as in rural areas, headlights seem to work fine in these neighborhoods. Frankly, I think my neighborhood is overlit by about twice."
I too agree that lighting shouldn’t be imposed on neighborhoods that don’t want them. My neighborhood—developed in the late 60’s—is also overlit and a definite contributor to light pollution. Between the glare and the 25% energy use, the existing lighting puts “Big Sky Country†Missoula on par with much less scenic environs in the lower 48