This presentation reports from interviews carried out with lighting-engineers at several North-East local authorities, as well as representatives of local PFI lighting organisations and Thorn Lighting. In particular he explores how lighting-engineers seek to use trials and experiments to develop their knowledge and understanding about the capacities of different lighting-technologies and practices, while at the same time dealing with (acknowledged) gaps in understanding about areas in which street-lighting impacts eg fear of crime, night-time economy. He argues that in light of the new controversies and politicization that has been created about changing lighting-technologies, lighting professionals would benefit from developing new ways of exploring and assessing the broader impact of street-lighting. Talk by Dr Robert Shaw, Durham University

1. To dim or not to dim?
Innovating Street-Lighting Practices in A Newly Politicized Arena
Presented by Dr Rob Shaw
25th September 2014

2. ∂
Street-Lighting – A newly
controversial arena

3. ∂
Outline
• Background
• Introduction to Research Project
• Knowing the Impact: Uncertainty and Trials
• Innovating Practices
• Street-Lighting beyond Infrastructure
• Pace of Change
• Conclusions

4. ∂
Rising
Energy
Prices
Newly
Developed
Lighting
Technology
(Esp.
LEDs) Move
towards
‘Smart
Urbanism’
Policy
Opportunity
Window
Background
Local
Responsibility
for Climate
Change
Mitigation
Policy
Opportunity
Window
Local
Authority
Budget
Cuts

5. ∂
Background
• Social science interest in street-lighting – beyond the question of fear of
crime – is recent
• Part of a wider emergence of interest in energy, and urban
infrastructure, and viewing human settlements as open complex
systems: as such, studying how cities are ‘assembled’ through a
mixture of human and non-human elements
• Durham context – Durham Energy Institute founded in 2009 to support
interdisciplinary research

6. Research Project
∂
Key questions:
1. How do local authority lighting engineers decide how and when to
introduce new technologies or change lighting practices
2. How do local authority lighting engineers gather evidence and trial
products, in order to decide or make a case for the introduction of street
lighting
3. What is the outcome of the competing demands of climate change,
austerity policies and local well-being?

7. ∂
Research Project
Name Type Character PFI? Participant?
County Durham Unitary Authority Rural No Yes
Darlington Unitary Authority Urban Town No Yes
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Urban City No No
Hartlepool Unitary Authority Urban Town No No
Middlesbrough Unitary Authority Urban City No No
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Metropolitan Borough Urban City Yes Yes
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Sub-Urban Yes Yes
Northumberland Unitary Authority Rural No Yes
Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Authority Sub-Urban Yes No
South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Sub-Urban Yes Yes
Stockton-On-Tees Unitary Authority Sub-Urban No No
Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Urban City Yes No

8. Knowing the Impact:
Uncertainty and ∂
Trials

9. Knowing the Impact: Uncertainty
and Trials
“There’s an awful lot of companies out there making
claims as to what their equipment can and can’t do”
“there’s a new LED lantern every
week”
∂
While LEDs were understood as offering a variety of benefits, the
rapid technological change has lead to a hesitation, particularly
when spending public money.

10. Knowing the Impact: Uncertainty
and Trials
Trials and experiments have emerged as a way of dealing with uncertainty
(as elsewhere in climate change mitigation)
∂
Three approaches:
1. Public Consultation
2. Stealth Trials
3. Relying on Others
Possibility for better sharing of trial data and/or cross-local authority trials?

11. Innovating Practices
∂

12. Innovating Practices
“We’ve had fixed dimming in for 15 years so… it was
tried and nobody noticed a difference on x up to x, that
dims at midnight and nobody’s ever commented on it”
“Propagation and diffusion are fully a
part of ∂
the line of innovation (Deleuze
and Guattari, 1987 pp405)
New lighting practices - ‘dimming’ and ‘switching off’ street lights – that
have created public controversy in street-lighting, rather than new
technologies themselves

13. Innovating Practices
Pre-Programmed Dimming
In place for several years, and the most straight forward. But limited
flexibility and use
Smart Dimming
Controlled by CMS. Strong possibility for future but installation and
running cost implications. Questions ∂
too about where we place
control?
Switching Off
Limited take up in region to date: “The idea of turning them off at
midnight was not very well received. Dimming was maybe a little bit
more amenable to people”. However, broader consensus that it will
become more likely in future

14. Street-Lighting beyond
Infrastructure
∂

15. Street-Lighting beyond
Infrastructure
Throughout my interviews, participants were
concerned about the role of street lighting in
wider society, but did not have much
knowledge of what this ∂
was, or how to
develop further understanding on it.

16. ∂
Aim Comment
Reduction of number
and severity night
time road traffic
accidents.
LAs seemed keenly aware of the importance of maintaining road
traffic safety.
“We would look at the whole road layout, how do you do the lighting
and it would be passed across to the various traffic engineers”
Reduction of crime,
and fear of crime
"I: Where does crime or fear of crime come into anything at all? Any
decision making or any fear of crime or high crime areas where you
have different lights?
P:We just follow the British Standards like BS 5489“
Such comments were common among participants. They suggest a
danger in which a belief that crime is 'built into' standards and
processes means that it is not sufficiently studied.
To encourage well-being.
LAs were aware of the importance of lighting for general well-being.
Interventions and changes in practice in residential areas are much
more cautious than in non-residential streets. However, again
there’s no connection to specific research.
The expansion of the
night time economy.
"I can’t think of… night-time economy, I don’t think… I think that was
something that happened when the economy was booming... that’s
definitely gone way… from way down the agenda now, the sort of
night-time economy that’s not a player"

17. ∂
Pace of Change

18. ∂
Pace of Change
“It’s funny, but since we spoke to
you we’ve now completely
changed our view on LEDs”
Participant at ILP North-East
Event, February 2014
• Views and
technology are
quickly evolving
together!
• The politicization of
street-lighting means
that change is likely
to remain fast

19. ∂
Conclusions
1. Lighting engineers have a healthy scepticism towards overly confident
claims – this is good but might help slow down change
2. The quality of evidence gathering is mixed: it is strong where engineers
have the skill-set (eg road safety) but weaker where outside of the
comfort zone (eg well-being). Trials are used to prove business cases
but data could be better shared and practices of analysis are unclear.
3. Financial concerns ultimately dominate; other agendas are reduced to
meeting legal requirements if necessary

20. Conclusions
• Multiple features have created a policy opportunity window, politicizing
∂
street-lighting
• Knowledge becomes a crucial problem, as practices innovate and new
issues emerge. Trials and experiments help, but there is still an
overwhelming series of new developments
• As such, innovations and new practices are probably being held back by
an understandably risk-averse strategy, which identifies a series of
benefits to CMS/LEDs, but which is also concerned about various
issues
• There is a danger of certain areas being overlooked eg fear of crime
• Importance of cooperation and collaboration: strong local networks, but
does this feed into everyday practice?

21. ∂
See Also

22. ∂
See Also
Shaw, R. Forthcoming. Street-Lighting in England and Wales: New Technologies and
Uncertainty in the Assemblage of Street-Lighting Infrastructure. Environment and Planning
A. A free copy will be made available at Durham Research Online
Shaw, R. 2013. Keeping the Lights On. Durham Energy Institute Review Magazine 3, p9
(http://issuu.com/communicationsoffice/docs/10075_dei_newsletter_winter_final)
Shaw, R. 2013 Street-Lighting Policy in North-East England: Current Practice and Future
Questions, Stakeholders Report. Personal Website
(http://robshawgeog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/street-lighting-policy-in-north-east-england-current-
practice-and-future-questions-stakeholders-report.pdf)