Light pollution: why Toulouse decided not to turn off public lighting at night
Through Anthony Assemat
Published on
It has been a few years since the word public lighting at night, between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., no longer part of the vocabulary of the inhabitants of Gagnac-Sur-Garonne (Haute-Garonne), north-west of Toulouse. This town of just over 3,000 inhabitants even decided, in October 2021, to go further by extending this cutoff from midnight to 6 a.m.
Objective of Michel Simon, the mayor: to save 10% more energy and fight against light pollution.
Initiatives in Colomiers and Blagnac
On the side of Colomiers, the second city of Haute-Garonne, the decision was taken in 2015 to temporarily switch off public lighting, from 1 am to 5:30 am, “except in the city center, areas with a majority of vertical housing and those close to the RN 124 interchanges”, indicates the town hall of Colomiers on his website.
According to the City, “50% of the public lighting park is affected by the extinction and triggered 115,000 euros in savings per year”.
Friday, October 29, is Blagnac, another strategic city of the metropolis, which started by experimenting with the extinction of public lighting between 1 and 5 a.m. in three sectors of the city: a sector of craft activities, a residential district and another close to a preserved natural environment near the banks of the Garonne and the Quinze Sols. The Blagnac municipality thus intends to “control energy consumption, preserve biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and light pollution”.
This test will last one year, until October 30, 2022.
Official publication of the national light pollution indicator.
đź’ˇ 85% of the territory is exposed to a high level of light pollution.https://t.co/NUT7vIYz0h pic.twitter.com/tPMa2LlqMz– SĂ©bastien Vauclair (@SebVauclair) November 2, 2021
In Toulouse, the “smart lighting” policy
A Toulouse, turning off street lights at night was not the option that was taken. “This is part of the solutions but we believe that others are more concrete and more interesting”, replies Jean-Baptiste de Scorraille, deputy mayor in charge, in particular, of public lighting. If some bridges or municipal buildings turn off the light from midnight or 1 a.m. depending on the season, the Capitol has taken another path: that of “Smart lighting”.
“In recent years, and under the leadership of Emilion Esnault during the previous mandate, we have installed street lights all over the territory, which light up automatically as soon as they detect the passage of people. intermediate and virtuous solution, both for safety and ecology.
1,800 devices installed in town
These devices remain on standby when the streets are empty and increase the power of the light when there is traffic. Currently, 1,800 candelabra have been installed since 2017 and the start of the Smart City process. And it’s a Toulouse company, Kawantech, which equips the city with this solution with the Kara sensor. “The principle is to be able to be only at 10 Watts instead of an old yellow street lamp at 150 Watts … And when someone is moving, we are around 90/100 Watts as we normally do with a street lamp. at Led in town, ”explained Yves LehĂ©naff, president of Kawentech at the time. “The deployment continues according to requests and needs, as in Saint-Martin-du-Touch recently. But always in the streets or the districts where the traffic is less important ”, continues Jean-Baptiste de Scorraille.
Up to 70% energy savings
This “smart lighting” policy should, in the long term, concern 20% of Toulouse’s public lighting stock, ie the installation of some 15,000 devices. Cost of the measure: 200,000 euros per year, with an estimated energy saving of 65 to 70%.
What about the store lights?
Light pollution is also these stores, often in the city center, which stay on at night to attract the gaze of passers-by in the street in the hope that they will come back to buy the object spotted in the window. The stores are on fire which, in recent years, have given rise to punch-down actions while the association France Nature Environment (FNE) had identified in September 2017, no less than 92 outlaw brands on the subject.
Jean-Baptiste de Scorraille admits that efforts remain to be made and in this sense are preparing a major meeting with traders and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIT) for knowledge. “In this sector, it is important to have an open ecological mind and to not to make a decision-making decision“, Conclusion the elected.
Black frame and awareness day
Thursday, December 9, 2021, in Villefranche-de-Lauragais (Haute-Garonne), the Nature en Occitanie association is organizing a special day for elected representatives of local officials to raise awareness of the phenomenon of light pollution, and highlight the advantages of ‘better energy sobriety.
For its part, the Occitanie Region launched, in 2021, launched a reflection to identify the “black web” in the region and precisely map light pollution. The Region indicates that it wants to “raise awareness and mobilize local actors in taking into account the impacts of public lighting both on biodiversity and on human health”. To do this, it has surrounded itself with two design offices, La Telescop and DarkSkyLab.
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