Picture at left shows floodlights fitted with additional visor to shield upwards light at one of toll gates along the Tomei express way. A success ASW made after making telephone calls and sending letter to Japan Highway.
As some specific improvements have been worked out, we come to realize poor lighting design is a social problem .No matter how one would explain and make excuses, there are energy wastes, glittering glares and light trespass everywhere.
Let us see one such example;
Unfortunately and largely because the express way was constructed more than thirty years ago, the illumination system directs lights upwards and sideways causing energy waste, glare and light trespass. At the same time it brightens night sky in the surrounding suburban and residential area. Unnoticed tragedy in modern life.
The picture below is taken at about 100 meter distance from the toll gate. Lots of light are directed sideways and upwards, creating glare, trespass and energy waste.
Next picture is taken at 500 meter distance from the same toll gate. Bright sky glow is visually evident up to more than 30 degrees above horizon.
After making several telephone calls and sending one letter to Japan Highway (JH) operator of the express way, the lighting fixtures at the tollgate were fitted with visors as shown in picture at right.
We can see how much hard works were required unnecessarily to install these visors many years after the original construction.
If only proper design had been made at the beginning, we could have saved these hard works and pain we suffered. This society needs good lighting design and its practices everywhere .
Only with such good lighting design, social problem as we saw can be avoided!