As he struggled to fall asleep one night a few months ago, Dylan Elias noticed something odd in the second-floor bedroom where he has slept since he was a boy. The lights were off, but it remained bright in his room, as if the sun were shining through his windows.
“It was like my eyes were busted,” said Elias, 20, who has since covered the windows with large furniture and heavy shades to reduce the new glow from Jamaica Plain’s Centre Street.
Comments
Mumbles Menino must feel just sooooooo good about himself for ordering the installation of bottomless LED lights.... More Mumbles' nannification of those who live under his rule... Just hope some oldster in a 1949 Studebaker doesn't smack into Mumbles' armored SUV while Mumbles is watching a gas ship come up Boston Harbor towards its Everett terminal...
Good thinking, Boston.
"Be careful what you ask for, you might get it", says the old fairy tale. Cannot the wizards who produced the miraculous LED find a way to dim its harsh glare? Should be a no-brainer.
LED lights were installed on my street in Dorchester over a year ago. I noticed the switch immediately because the streetlight glare no longer reached my bed. I think the light spill from the LEDs is significantly reduced. I also like the color and look of the lights much better. A huge improvement over the old shoebox fixture.
Room darkening window shades? Please.
Making the fixtures slightly less powerful and putting a diffuser on them should be relatively simple..... It's too bad people feel the need to light up the night as if it were still the day time. By the way, there have been very few studies that have ever conclusively shown bright night time lighting to have a crime reducing effect. However, studies *have* shown a correlation between infants and toddlers sleeping in rooms that aren't dark at night and later vision problems in life. Parents....get those heavy curtains and room darkening shades and blinds in place!
One of the benefits of living out in the country is that we don't have street lights. It is actually dark out at night. We have headlights on our cars out here so we can find our way home in the dark. I cannot understand why streetlights have to be on all night in residential areas of the city. I don't think that having lights on all night reduces crime. They should shut the lights off at midnight - or maybe 1 am on weekends. It is supposed to be dark at night.
For some people any change is a cause of complaints. And if you look hard enough you can find an "expert" or "study" that will support any conclusion you want. (There are still people who can make a case for a flat Earth.) Can't sleep because the bedroom is too bright? You poor thing. How about blinds, shades, or curtains? Or a sleeping mask?
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High marks to officials starting this project to reduce not only our tax burden but good for the earth and a securer neighborhood. Don't like the light in your room, get window treatments!
Surprise! I agree with you wholeheartedly.
I think your total dependence on a car for even the most minor trips makes up for our LED lamps being on all night.
I don't know about the toddlers, but a large number of studies, in the US and abroad, indicate that street lighting reduces crime, although the amount of reduction varies from 6-7 percent to 30 percent. It seems to be more effective against street crime such as muggings and assault, but less so on burglary.
In fact, the lights come in a variety of sizes and power. What's best for a particular location should be determined by those properly trained to make such decisions.