Street light

[9] King Louis XIV authorized sweeping reforms in Paris in 1667, which included the installation and maintenance of lights on streets and at intersections, as well as stiff penalties for vandalizing or stealing the fixtures.

'[12] In London, public street lighting was implemented around the end of the 17th century; a diarist wrote in 1712 that 'All the way, quite through Hyde Park to the Queen's Palace at Kensington, lanterns were placed for illuminating the roads on dark nights.

In the early 1790s, while overseeing the use of his company's steam engines in tin mining in Cornwall, Murdoch began experimenting with various types of gas, finally settling on coal-gas as the most effective.

The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on 4 June 1807 by Frederick Albert Winsor.

The standard base is cast metal with an escutcheon bearing two intertwined letters 'F', the Royal cypher of King Ferdinand VII of Spain[21] and commemorates the date of the birth of his daughter, the Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier.

The United States was quick in adopting arc lighting, and by 1890 over 130,000 were in operation in the US, commonly installed in exceptionally tall moonlight towers.

[28][29] Wabash, Indiana, lit 4 Brush arc lamps with 3,000 candlepower each, suspended over their courthouse on 2 February 1880, making the town square "as light as midday".

In Central America, San Jose, Costa Rica, lit 25 lamps powered by a hydroelectric plant on 9 August 1884.

Temesvár (Timișoara in present-day Romania) was the first city in the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy to have electric public lighting, on 12 November 1884; 731 lamps were used.

[34] On 9 December 1882, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia was introduced to electricity by having a demonstration of 8 arc lights, erected along Queen Street Mall.

To avoid having the entire system go dark if a single lamp burned out, each streetlamp was equipped with a device that ensured that the circuit would remain intact.

Low-pressure sodium (LPS) lamps became commonplace after World War II for their low power consumption and long life.

However, this practice fails to provide the context needed to apply laboratory-based visual performance testing to the real world.

[44][45] Additionally, there have been no formal specifications written around Photopic/Scotopic adjustments for different types of light sources, causing many municipalities and street departments to hold back on implementation of these new technologies until the standards are updated.

Eastbourne in East Sussex, UK is currently undergoing a project to see 6000 of its streetlights converted to LED and will be closely followed by Hastings in early 2014.

[48][49] In the United States, the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan was the first metropolitan area to fully implement LED street lighting in 2006.

The current understanding of visual adaptation and rod cell mechanics suggests that any benefits from rod-mediated scotopic vision are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in real world conditions under the presence of high luminance light sources.

[45][44][59] Outdoor Site-Lighting Performance (OSP) is a method for predicting and measuring three different aspects of light pollution: glow, trespass and glare.

Streetlight stanchions (lampposts) pose a collision risk to motorists and pedestrians, particularly those affected by poor eyesight or under the influence of alcohol.

This can be reduced by designing them to break away when hit (known as frangible, collapsible, or passively safe supports), protecting them by guardrails, or marking the lower portions to increase their visibility.

[81][82] A study published in Science Advances reported that streetlights in southern England had detrimental impacts on local insect populations.

Typical collector road lighting in New York State costs $6,400/mile/year for high pressure sodium at 8.5 kW/mile or $4,000 for light-emitting diode luminaires at 5.4 kW/mile.

These may include sending and receiving instructions via separate data networks, at high frequency over the top of the low voltage supply or wireless.

Many street light controllers come with an astronomical clock for a particular location or a Global Positioning System (GPS) connection to give the best ON-OFF time and energy saving.

Some intelligent street light controllers also come with Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Radio frequency (RF) or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) communication, user adjusted according to latitude and longitude (low cost type), for better street light management and maintenance.

A number of companies are now manufacturing intelligent street lighting that adjust light output based on usage and occupancy, i.e. automating classification of pedestrian versus cyclist, versus automobile, sensing also velocity of movement and illuminating a certain number of streetlights ahead and fewer behind, depending on velocity of movement.

This usually involves an intersection with several turning movements and much signage, situations where drivers must take in much information quickly that is not in the headlights' beam.

The main stretches of highways remain unlighted to preserve the driver's night vision and increase the visibility of oncoming headlights.

Policies that encourage utility cycling have been proposed and implemented, including lighting bike paths to increase safety at night.

In the United Kingdom, the Roads Liaison Group has issued a Code of Practice recommending specific reactive and preventative maintenance procedures.