Archived Why is light pollution such an issue nowdays? What prevents people from using less or weaker lights? (AskScience)
submitted ago by profanion
Posted by: profanion
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Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
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Archived Why is light pollution such an issue nowdays? What prevents people from using less or weaker lights? (AskScience)
submitted ago by profanion
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[–] dirething 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
not disagreeing that it can be an issue, but I am not sure what part of it you are referring to being "nowdays". If you just mean how obvious it is that is going to depend a lot on where you live.
As far as why not to use weaker lights, much of that comes down to practicality.
If I am putting street lights up for an expressway I want to use as few poles as possible.
If I am putting up street lights for the safety and security of people on foot I want to minimize the number of poles a bit, but I am probably more limited by being high enough to clear obstructions and keep the lights themselves out of range for junkies the metal for scrap and forward thinking criminals that would disable the lights before getting to business.
In either of those cases I am shooting to stay above a minimum amount of illumination for the target area.
If I am installing lights for property security the bigger factor is going to be where I already have electricity vs where I need to throw light.
The better question in the first two cases is why aren't more of the lights built with better reflectors to direct the light toward the intended target rather than up into the sky.