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Nuisance street lights on Halloween

3K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  Deadview 
#1 ·
Has anyone ever tried contacting the city regarding shutting off a street light for Halloween or any other occasion with any luck? It absolutely drowns out my lighting, strobes etc.

Need to know if there is a legal way to do this before............I strangle it with black plastic trash bags.

Thanks all
 
#2 ·
There are many threads over the years discussing street lights.

The consensus is to leave them alone. No municipality will alter the lights (even if you ask) since they are there for safety. Blocking them out on a night where there are even more small children out and about is going to cause major issues. The last thing anyone needs is to be the cause of a small child getting hit by a car or stumbling and falling on your property due to disabling or obscuring the lights that are specifically there to provide visibility and safety to those walking at night.

If you can't work with the ambient light, then figure out a way to block it from coming into your yard. There are one way baffles/blocks you could rig up to shade your yard area while still allowing the streelight to shine in the street/sidewalk - I've seen cardboard "caps" that are open on two sides, but block the light towards the displays that work well. But most of the lights are now the orange kind and that can look pretty eerie shining into a graveyard setup as is. I have one in my yard - literally 10 feet from my display - and I just work with the light. I have my props that would be lit up closer and the ones that work better with a bit of darkness as far back in the yard as possible.
 
#4 ·
Up until a few weeks ago we had a massive tree in the yard that made lighting a real challenge - no matter what, you just could not see my yard until you were right up on it and only then if I used a ton of different lights. We had the tree removed, due to disease and rapid decay, and now I get a nice amber glow from the street light across from our house. I love how much easier my graveyard is to see now and I can easily add color and creepiness with a few blue and green LED bulbs throughout the display. I know it's not popular around here but I am loving our street light! :)
Seriously, no city would disable a street light just to make a yard darker ESPECIALLY on Halloween. I say learn to live with it and make it work for you.
 
#5 ·
We had a street light right next to our property that annoyed me for the same reason as you Blood Stripes. Last year they replaced it with LED which I thought was going to be worse since LEDs are so bright, but the LED street light actually makes our yards much darker. They seem really really bright when they first started installing them on the major streets in our area first before moving to the residential streets. If you look at the lights themselves they are very bright but the light is directed pretty much downward only and doesn't spread out to the sides much.

I'm thinking you'd be better off campaigning for them to switch to LED before getting them to turn off the current one for you once a year. I do have to say I love the yard darkness for halloween (and even sleeping in the front bedroom) but now everyone should really add more security lighting to their yards. It really makes that much of a difference.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Here's a comparison of some screen grabs I took from our street camera before the LED street lighting and after:

Night Light Lighting Mode of transport Road
Green Black Night Darkness Light


Very different light coloring and illumination spread. Taken with same camera and software. You can see in the first photo the street light pole just after the little half fence and see the shadow cast by it. Street light is still there in same place in the second photo but the yard stays dark. Love it.
 
#10 ·
Our light is so bright it covers our entire front yard. We cast shadows even when there's no moon. If you have a streetlight that's the type that comes on when it gets dark you could try shining a spotlight on the sensor.

I think about doing this every year but I've never tried it.

We also have the new super bright lights from parking lot at the elementary school next door to contend with so I've pretty much given up on doing the front yard right now.
 
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