Tom Polakis wrote:

Martin Brown wrote:

You need to express it clearly in terms of wasted tax dollars lighting
up the sky. You can save money and have the same amount of light on the
ground by using the right fixtures. That might interest the general
populus. Everyone knows astronomers are wierd scary people of the night.

But be sure to have a handle on how many tax dollars are actually being
wasted on steetlights before pursuing that argument.

It is still the only one that stands a cat in hells chance of working.
Most people these days are quite literally scared of the dark!

So lighting represents roughly 20% of the city's electric bill, and
0.3% of the total budget. Most of the lights are already full-cutoff
in Tempe, so perhaps it's a couple tenths of a percent higher for other
cities without lighting ordinances. You can see why it's a tough sell

It only makes economic sense replacing them at end of life. The cost to
change a streetlamp bulb is so amazingly high that swapping the fixture
at the same time would not be all that much more. And when they are
being replaced far better to use the right fixtures than the wrong ones!

Regards,
Martin Brown