Why are you calling parking lights, sidelights? There are no such things as side lights fitted to most cars, some HGV have what could be called sidelights but its no relevant as HGVs can't park without parking lights even if there are street lights.
It would not. as anyone who has actually driven around at that time of night can tell you.
You have the roads and streets to yourself.
Post midnight all activity tails off to a low at about 3-4 a.m before the first of the early risers get going around 5 a.m.
However this will only make the load variation on the grid worse, as there is oodles of spare capacity that has to be ready for the rush hour spinning away overnight anyway.
Since I have been monitoring the grid, two things seem reasonable propositions.
British summer time immediately increase electricity demand.
If everybody worked from home, we would save 20% of the nations electricity.
Which leads back to my "if it *really* mattered" argument. Is there
*any* government push for homeworking (tax breaks for companies, etc) ? Bear in mind that taking just a small %age of cars off the road in rush-hour has a remarkable effect on congestion. The fact nothing is done, reinforces my suspicion, that we are nowhere near the end of the world that some would have us believe.
more efficient lamps that don't waste light illuminating the sky.
They have a complex set of prisms built into the glass that distribute the light evenly over a wide area. Instead of bright spots with dark areas in between, the roads and footpaths are now very evenly illuminated but at a much lower level.
The prisms seem to be designed to throw some light back to the footpath as well as covering the footpath opposite without shining into the windows on either side of the road, so it doesn't matter if several posts are on the same side of the road rather than the usual alternating pattern.
Too many people walking or cycling wearing dark clothing, they don't realise the danger they are in, when driving I can't see them until I'm dangerously close. I always wear a hi-vis vest when walking to and from work in the dark, and a light-coloured coat or scarf at other times.
What are parking lights, does my car have them and how do I turn them on if so?
Sidelights is what my car displays if I don't have the headlights on. It includes lights for the number plates, the dashboard, and lighting up the radio controls etc, as well as one light at each corner of the car.
What I might be inclined to call parking lights would be *only* a light front/back on the side nearest the road (drivers side if I understand all the stuff from the HC, posted here), controllable by e.g. the indicator stalk, and *no* other lights.
I just checked my car (2008 C4). Sidelights but no parking lights AFAICT.
Nearest permenant set to us are about 15 miles away on Britains oldest "temporary" road bridge errected in 1968. After that set the next nearest are about 20 miles away.
Too many people walking or cycling wearing dark clothing, they don't realise the danger they are in, when driving I can't see them until I'm dangerously close. I always wear a hi-vis vest when walking to and from work in the dark, and a light-coloured coat or scarf at other times.
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Whenever anyone mentions poor visibility of pedestrians it reminds me of my own experience a few years ago on a country lane. It was daylight, but a mile or so of the road is tree-lined. I spotted a lone jogger in a high vis jacket and I moved over to the right side of the road (nothing coming) to pass him. Only as I passed him, I realised he was the 'back marker' for a group of soldiers on a training run - in full camoflage, in leafy-shadowy conditions, against a backdrop of bushes. There must have been about 30 of them, but I simply hadn't seen them - the camoflage worked!
No sadly it reinforces my suspicion that the system of government is totally staffed by political common purpose idiots with chips on their shoulders and axes to grind that the last thing they consider doing, or have the ability to do, is to change the country for the better.
Remember political survival consists not on doing the right thing, but in *appearing* to do the right thing, up to the point where the whole thing implodes.
I give it about 2 years.
Let's face it, switching off street lamps, even if it leads to accidents and crime, is easily and cheaply countered by saying that if they are that scared people should stay at home after dark.
In the same way you might say 'here is a lake. If you cant swim, don't go in'
but many have not. In particular, I am thinking of the idiotic junctions where the pedestrian lights manage to stop traffic entering into the road, meaning you have to watch, helplessly, as your green- phase goes red without having let a single car through.
I can't prove it, but I swear such designs are deliberate - as I said previously, there's a culture in government of not being seen to do anything to help the motorist, with the dogma of "public transport" not far behind.
This makes interesting reading, considering the pros and cons of reduced street lighting levels.
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savings measures, such as fitting more efficient designs of lamp, which use a lower wattage to achieve the same lighting levels, and turning off things like traffic bollard lighting during the day are also discussed.
For some reason, ever since I saw the first post on the subject this morning all the streetlights on my street have been on! Probably the sunniest day we have had this year.
It depends where you are. In some areas pubs and clubs close at various times between 23:20 and 4:20, so there can be a lot of tired, drunk people roaming the streets right through the night!
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