Street lights INCREASE the risk of your car being broken into

[Zermelo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10667747/Street-lights-INCREASE-risk-car-broken-study-finds.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[Ags]

Nice result, but it is not clear what happens when all the street lights are switched off. The thieves prefer lighting, but if none is available, they still need to ply their trade, so wouldn't crime return to dark streets if there were no light streets to attract the criminals?

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Those findings are not surprising. We know how difficult scrambling around in the dark can be. Even CCTV is pointless unless manned 24/7. Thieves simply wear dark clothing and cover their faces. The proliferation of cheaper to run, bright LED road and street lighting is no substitute for police patrols.

Approx four years ago we suffered a targeted early hours break in for the keys of my partner's new car. Our cul de sac is very well lit, with one of the LED street lamps a stones throw from the driveway. Our back garden was much more illuminated back then too. The thief exploited a (now closed) weakness in the house security. A new BMW around the corner was stolen not long after.

After a year or so and a string of targeted car thefts, the whole gang was eventually jailed for several years. I believe by chance a passing police patrol stopped one of the kids the gang was paying to do the robbing while he was handing over a high performance car he had just stolen during the early hours to the next link in the chain. The gang was eventually rounded up. Good grassroots uniformed policing followed by decent detective work once they got a sniff won.

The same goes for the crazy LEDs lighting up the 40mph urban dual carriageway near my house. The vast majority of accidents on this stretch of road have always happened during the day time! Usually during busy periods at a particular couple of junctions where people slow down too abruptly to turn or drivers pulling out into oncoming traffic.

All the like day time night lighting does is encourage people to speed late at night on virtually empty very well lit roads. There is a notorious roundabout a mile up the road where last year two fatal crashes occured at night. Both caused by drugged up drivers speeding in high performance cars hitting the lit up like Christmas roundabout. No amount of street lighting helped because the drivers were simply irresponsible. They and their passengers paid with their lives.

Light pollution aside, with the cost of energy spiralling upward, councils really need to take another look at lighting policies. Even if just switching off or dimming every other light after a particular time or during the week when late night traffic and pedestrian activity is at its lowest.

Edited April 1, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet