Evening star., 1939-02-05

age of ~ cents per capita. increased their
fatal accidents nearly 8 per cent at net loss
OF So cents per taxpayer.
Obviously the whole question of street
lighting SINNERS down to economics, just as
the question of night safety boils down to the
matter of being able to see 1t S easy to rant
about crazy drivers and jaywalkers. but the
fact remains that even our battiest motorists
don't run over people Intentionally. We have
high accident ratio at night simply because
driving an automobile under our present
street lighting system - just bright enough
10 nullify your headlights but not bright
enough to increase your visibility - is one of
the most nerve-racking jobs in the world.
Any illuminating engineer can tell you that
thesehorse and buggy street lights are twenty
five years behind the automobiles develop
!nerr..
He can also tell you that we retain this
1914 candle glow on our streets except
where the merchants take care of the illumi-
nation with their show WindowsI because
we are AFRAID it is going to cost something to
correct the condition.
But whatever it costs will be purely book
keeping transaction. for we are already spend
ing many times the price of good lighting for
the economic waste of poor lighting. And on
top Of the: the motorists are already paying
enough in Greet taxes and fees to provide
adequate highway illumination ii 80 to 60
per cent of those payments weren't diverted
for non-tratfic uses.
In short, you pay for good lighting whether
you get it or not hence 1t S high time you did
something about it through your numerous
civic and service organizations.
Ii you "ant 10 60 INTO the question in your
community, the National Safety Council, in
Chicago. can give you plenty of information
on what good lighting should be. II you want
to 90 further and correct the condition, the
Illuminating Engineering Society IN New
York. can probably recommend impartial
experts who could be engaged to survey the
situation and suggest Improvements.
The moot question OF cost can be answered
only by such an expert because conditions
vary so widely New Jersey found that prop
erlv lighting twelve miles of Route 26 cost
81. 800 a mile per year and saved $4,000
annually over and above the lighting cost
Another community. spending SAB year per
light for inadequate, 23O-watt illumination
raised the illumination to a standard of 600
watts for an additional $40 per lamp
As for the new sodium lamps especially
desirable in high hazard locations - Scfenec-
tady County. n. Y, recently changed more
than l8 miles of heavily-traveled road from
the former 400 candle power incandescent
units to these 1000 candle-power sodium
vapor luminaires for an initial outlay of about
$4,000 per mile.
Such figures cannot be used as rigid yard
stick. but they may serve as a rough guide
The main point at the moment is that We are
enjoying no bargain by stumbling around in
the dark - not when you stop to consider
that last year 1900 people were killed by
automobiles in the single hour from eight to
nine O'Clock at night!
Three thousand people on the way to the
movies. perhaps. or to visit Aunt Sarah, or
to go to prayer meeting, or to play bridge
with the Joneses.
Instead all three thousand of them wound
up in the morgue - and ten times that num-
Der landed in hospitals between eight and
nine O'Clock - simply because horse and
buggy lighting Is not good enough for this
automobile age