Five or six years ago, Sheffield City Council began to remove sodium streetlighting, opting instead for LED lighting. Now it is pretty much citywide. This project was undertaken for two main reasons. Firstly, LED lighting is kinder to the planet as LED bulbs use significantly less electricity than sodium lamps. Secondly, the quality of light produced by LED bulbs is more natural, closer to daylight, reducing accidents on urban roads and pavements (American: "sidewalks").
Last night, just before bedtime, I noticed a blooming cherry tree near our house captured in the white LED street light and made a mental note to remember to go out and photograph it tonight. Of course, this is also the night when we greet April's full moon but at the time I took these pictures, it had still not appeared above the rooftops.
Wow, what a great photo of the tree!
ReplyDeleteStrange to see it at night isn't it?
DeleteDunno if this qualifies as a genuine comment, but understood that pavements (Brit) = sidewalks (Amer.). What do you call what we call pavement? That is, the paved surface of the road? Not important and not beautiful like the trees, but I just always wonder.
ReplyDeleteWe just call it road Lynn Marie. For quite a while I have been having a jousting match about "sidewalk" with an American blogger based in London... Steve from "Shadows & Light"
DeleteStunning.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's my natural modesty but I would not describe myself that way Oddball.
DeleteLOL!
DeleteIt is like a floodlight purpose made for the tree. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteOne side of our street has LED and the other side sodium. The difference in lighting is remarkable, with the LED vastly superior.
Some of we senior fellows enjoy moaning about change and modernity but when it comes to LED street-lighting neither of us are moaning.
DeleteIt's like the blossoms are the lights. Very pretty.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean.
DeleteThat's what I thought too. It's as if the tree itself is alight.
DeleteLight pollution. Satellite photos show some very bright night areas. I'm sure many people have no idea what total darkness is like.
ReplyDeleteI bet you knew what it was like in Esk and up in The Arctic. I guess you have seen some awesome night skies Red.
Deletethe LED lights provide great lighting for your nighttime photos of the trees. I use to belong to a group called the International Dark-Sky Association. They recommend LED streetlights, so well done Sheffield City Council.
ReplyDeleteAll cities should be going LED.
DeleteI love trees in bloom and never tire of looking at them. During the full moon night, I looked out of my kitchen window across my neighbours' gardens, bathed in silvery moonlight, with the trees and shrubs in bloom like fluffy white clouds.
ReplyDeleteSome communities here have begun to change their street lights to systems reacting to movement so that the lamps come on only when needed.
Also there's some dimming happening in the middle of the night in some places.
DeleteIs that a fruiting cherry tree or an ornamental one?
ReplyDeleteI have LED globes in my house and they are great at first, but over time, not as bright and they take a little "warming up time" I'm not happy with them, but that's what we are told to have and they do last at least a bit longer than the old incandescent ones, but that's a new thing too. Years ago incandescent globes lasted for YEARS but more recently I found I had to be changing them every year. Built-in obsolescence, dammit!
I have never seen any cherries on that tree so I guess it must be purely ornamental.
DeleteIt is sometimes said that manufacturers knew how to make everlasting incandescent bulbs but there would be no profit in that so they did not bother.
Pavements and sidewalks are called footpaths in Australia.
ReplyDeleteFor urban pavements we also use the term "footpath" but never "sidewalk".
DeleteI have street light envy. Living in the countryside next to the sea we have no street lights but the towns, villages and cities do. We pay the same property taxes but have nothing like street lights or even a bottle bank. Great photo of the cherry tree YP.
ReplyDeleteYou should be paying an extra tax for getting great views of the night sky.
DeleteBeautiful photos YP. The blossom appears to be floating in mid-air.
ReplyDeleteNo street lighting around here in the sticks, apart from a single motion controlled solar powered light at every road junction. Few people use their outdoor lights, and at least a third of the houses are empty, so it can be very dark.
I have begun changing my outdoor lights for solar powered ones, some of which will stay on all night, and others which are motion controlled. By the time the changeover is complete my house will be visible from outer space!
I don't know why but I had imagined you living in a nice apartment - maybe ground floor. Now I picture you on a farm in the middle of nowhere. If you had your own blog you could tell us about your life both now and in the past. I have already thought of a good name for your blog - "Carolling".
DeleteNo, sorry to burst the bubble YP, but I live in a modern house on an urbanisation, built into the hillside of a valley. It's about 10 mins, down hill all the way by car, from the nearest beach.
DeleteTo get to the beach you could save petrol by using a skateboard.
DeleteOooh - now that's an idea - why didn't I think of that?
DeleteI refuse to answer.
DeleteThe departure of those sodium lamps couldn't happen quickly enough for me. I couldn't drive at night on motorways lit with those light and even worse if it was raining and the drops on the windscreen fractured the light. Your LED street lighting looks amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt is very sharp white light that points down, not up into the sky above.
DeleteOurs are mostly replaced now. When an old one fails they replace it with a new type (in addition to the planned programme of replacement). Long gone are the days when the Island had not lights outside Stornoway. We can still see the Aurora Borealis clearly though.
ReplyDeleteI have no desire to see your Aurora Borealis Graham. Leave that to the medics I say.
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteWe still have the old type here, and it's stunning to see how different the LED lights are. Wishing you, Shirley and your gorgeous family a wonderful Easter weekend; no doubt it will be especially lovely with little Phoebe appreciating more of the delights of celebration treats.
ReplyDeleteI bounce identical sentiments right back your way Elizabeth. Phoebe returned from The Lake District this afternoon.
DeleteThat is a very dramatic tree in the streetlights!
ReplyDelete