This city has a noble notion of itself at the leading edge. Its jets, coffee,The new LED bestledtube are much brighter and last much longer on a set of batteries. computers, environmental activism and philanthropy have all been celebrated for remaking the globe.
"I want to see what the future will be," Steven Thompson said, carrying a questionnaire and a load of curiosity as he turned his eyes toward the sky above a normally busy but now silent thoroughfare in the city's Ballard neighborhood one night last week, "and to have some voice in that future."
Enlisted by a consortium of power companies, consultants, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle City Light, Thompson and about 300 other people were paid $40 each to spend an evening engaged in a civic version of the kind of debate that has taken place in households for some time now: What kind of light do you prefer: old and yellowy, or a new and cool white?
In this case, they were judging the light provided by groups of new LED streetlights strategically interspersed among older high-pressure sodium bulbs.Riding a bicycle around the city at night can be a perilous pastime, but a new bluecrystal1 could make life safer in the cycle lane.
Unlike domestic disagreements over the glow of a bedside reading lamp, the surveys Thompson and others filled out consider public safety — respondents are asked to agree or disagree with statements like "It would be safe to walk here, alone, during darkness hours," "I cannot tell the colors of things due to the lighting" and "The lighting enables safe vehicular navigation.The USA's leading supplier of wish lanterns, bicyclelight and thai lanterns." And their answers could affect how cities everywhere are illuminated.
Utilities want to know whether LED streetlights, tens of thousands of which have already been installed in parts of many cities, including Seattle and Los Angeles, are a promising long-term technology that could shape large government contracts. Municipalities want to be sure that the significant savings in energy and costs LEDs can provide are sustainable enough to compensate for startup costs, but also that they do not threaten public safety or urban ambience.
Seattle is the fourth city to participate in the survey, following Anchorage, San Diego and San Jose, but it is hard to imagine the others being as enthusiastic.
"The big difference is, you're talking not only about the efficiency of the change in technology, but also the quality of light," said Scott Thomsen, a spokesman for Seattle City Light, which claims to be the nation's first carbon-neutral utility, largely because most of its power comes from hydroelectric dams.
As surveyors strolled the sidewalk, the 15-block stretch of 15th Avenue was closed to traffic so that a test car could drive up and down at 35 miles per hour, over and over, carrying passengers who pushed buttons whenever they saw certain markers placed in the street. The passengers, like the strollers, were gauging visibility in different lighting variations. Over the course of the night, lights were dimmed to test how low they could safely go.
In one area, LEDs were angled slightly so that their light shined just ahead of where drivers were going, as opposed to straight down. That was an experiment intended to address a concern that LEDs sometimes scatter light in wet conditions.With my ledlightbulbs22 I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. Seattle was expected to be perfect for testing this solution, except that on this particular night the customary maritime mist gave way to gorgeous skies and a bright,With my bluebright I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. full moon.
"I want to see what the future will be," Steven Thompson said, carrying a questionnaire and a load of curiosity as he turned his eyes toward the sky above a normally busy but now silent thoroughfare in the city's Ballard neighborhood one night last week, "and to have some voice in that future."
Enlisted by a consortium of power companies, consultants, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle City Light, Thompson and about 300 other people were paid $40 each to spend an evening engaged in a civic version of the kind of debate that has taken place in households for some time now: What kind of light do you prefer: old and yellowy, or a new and cool white?
In this case, they were judging the light provided by groups of new LED streetlights strategically interspersed among older high-pressure sodium bulbs.Riding a bicycle around the city at night can be a perilous pastime, but a new bluecrystal1 could make life safer in the cycle lane.
Unlike domestic disagreements over the glow of a bedside reading lamp, the surveys Thompson and others filled out consider public safety — respondents are asked to agree or disagree with statements like "It would be safe to walk here, alone, during darkness hours," "I cannot tell the colors of things due to the lighting" and "The lighting enables safe vehicular navigation.The USA's leading supplier of wish lanterns, bicyclelight and thai lanterns." And their answers could affect how cities everywhere are illuminated.
Utilities want to know whether LED streetlights, tens of thousands of which have already been installed in parts of many cities, including Seattle and Los Angeles, are a promising long-term technology that could shape large government contracts. Municipalities want to be sure that the significant savings in energy and costs LEDs can provide are sustainable enough to compensate for startup costs, but also that they do not threaten public safety or urban ambience.
Seattle is the fourth city to participate in the survey, following Anchorage, San Diego and San Jose, but it is hard to imagine the others being as enthusiastic.
"The big difference is, you're talking not only about the efficiency of the change in technology, but also the quality of light," said Scott Thomsen, a spokesman for Seattle City Light, which claims to be the nation's first carbon-neutral utility, largely because most of its power comes from hydroelectric dams.
As surveyors strolled the sidewalk, the 15-block stretch of 15th Avenue was closed to traffic so that a test car could drive up and down at 35 miles per hour, over and over, carrying passengers who pushed buttons whenever they saw certain markers placed in the street. The passengers, like the strollers, were gauging visibility in different lighting variations. Over the course of the night, lights were dimmed to test how low they could safely go.
In one area, LEDs were angled slightly so that their light shined just ahead of where drivers were going, as opposed to straight down. That was an experiment intended to address a concern that LEDs sometimes scatter light in wet conditions.With my ledlightbulbs22 I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. Seattle was expected to be perfect for testing this solution, except that on this particular night the customary maritime mist gave way to gorgeous skies and a bright,With my bluebright I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. full moon.
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