Today I will make that case that it is possible
for ordinary citizens to have a huge positive impact on the lighting of
their communities, simply by speaking up, which I hope to convince some
of you to do. But I would like to start with two caveats that put things
in proper perspective.
One is that light is not a panacea. It cannot alone create comfortable and safe cities and streets. It has long been seen as an easy answer to some pretty serious problems, which it is not. Secondly, good light -- light that makes us feel comfortable and want to go out at night -- may not be what you think it is, especially if you believe, as seems so logical, that brighter is better.
The real solution, as with so much, is not more light, but more enlightenment.
And here, as simply and graphically
as I can present it, is the biggest problem: in the last few decades virtually
every large city in North America has been re-lighted. With some notable
exceptions, this has been accomplished with street light under which colour
is distorted, vision impaired, and -- a growing body of research suggests
-- under which our psyches and sensibilities are offended.