Street lights along two main roads in East Riding of Yorkshire will be switched off tonight as part of a groundbreaking national pilot, under ADEPT's Live Labs 2 project, that could set a new British Standard in road lighting.
Lights will be switched off along:
- the A164 from the Humber Bridge to Willerby and from Cottingham to Skidby,
- the A1079 from Dunswell Roundabout to Ennerdale Bridge.
The section of road along the A1079 will retain some lighting as the council will be switching over from standard street lighting to a new system of pedestrian-only lighting in the village of Hayton, near Pocklington, to light the active travel route on both sides of the road.
The trial will run for 12 months and the behaviour of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians will be closely monitored. Street lights in residential areas are not included in the project and will not be affected.
To carry out the trial, the council was awarded £3.3m from the ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK programme. This is a three-year, UK-wide project funded with £30m by the Department for Transport that aims to make the local highway network greener.
East Riding is studying more environmentally friendly ways of lighting main roads in the future, 'as more efficient car headlights will make some lampposts redundant', it said.
The council added that 'if the trial is proved successful, it could lead to more than a million street lights being switched off in out-of-town areas across the country, saving tonnes of carbon and millions of pounds of public money'.
It is leading a group of nine other authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the project. Each authority is carrying out its own studies to feed into the scheme, all with the aim of setting a new British Standard in road lighting, which has remained the same for years.
The scheme is one of seven under the Live Labs programme, each led by different local authorities working alongside groups of councils, and commercial and academic partners, looking at different aspects of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
To support the switch-off, East Riding has installed more than 80km of new highly reflective white lines, more than 5,000 solar-powered illuminated road studs and more than 140 square metres of new, highly reflective signs on the A1079 and A164.
Karl Rourke, the council’s service manager for street lighting, who is leading the project, said: 'We are now at a stage where we can turn off the now not-needed streetlights along two routes, knowing that we can do it safely. To make sure the move is being done as safely as possible, we have created and tested a world-first artificial intelligence system that monitors driver behaviour and safety at key points along these two roads.
'The system uses thermal imaging cameras to collect data and tells us how safely drivers are behaving under daylight and nighttime or poor visibility conditions.
'This AI-powered system is now active on both routes, and together with physical monitoring, is collecting data and is continuously checking safety for all road users as we switch away from street lighting to the new replacement technologies.'
The council is also working with Sheffield University and the Institute of Lighting Professionals as part of the trial to discover new, alternative products and test their effectiveness.
Lighting the way: fact file
- There are around 600 street lights in the East Riding trial areas.
- Each light uses 100 tonnes of CO2 during its lifetime.
- 20 street lights use the equivalent amount of carbon to drive a family car to the moon.
- Currently 80% of road accidents happen during daytime hours.
