For years, Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe, at the southern end of a commercial strip on San Bruno Avenue, was a destination in darkness. “Really dark and gloomy” was how Queen’s owner, Danielle Reese, described nighttime in that stretch of San Francisco’s Portola neighborhood. [...] a clear, white light from a new streetlamp illuminates the front of Reese’s restaurant after dark, a sign of things to come as San Francisco prepares to replace 18,500 old, high-pressure sodium streetlights with more efficient ones that use light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The $11 million upgrade program, which covers less than half of the streetlights across the city, isn’t designed just to improve lighting, conserve energy and reduce maintenance costs. The new streetlights are supposed to consume about half as much energy as the ones they replace, last four to five times longer and cut the amount of glare radiating into the night sky, reducing light pollution. Beyond cost savings, the new lights will be connected wirelessly to a computer network, allowing them to be monitored and controlled remotely. Most of the rest are owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a private utility, with still others owned by the Port of San Francisco and the state transportation department, Caltrans. Testimony at the hearing also indicated that PG&E, which is responsible for about 19,000 San Francisco streetlights, took longer to replace burned-out bulbs and accounted for a majority of complaints. [...] the utility has made progress, with 93 percent of its streetlight outages repaired within five days in 2014, PG&E spokesman Jason King said. The city put up some of the new streetlights in select areas starting with parts of the Tenderloin in 2009 to try and increase public safety in a neighborhood where drug dealing and street crime are common. The agency ran a five-month pilot project in April to test wireless control systems for the lights. In Chattanooga, Tenn., that city’s LED streetlight network allows for lights to be turned on, dimmed or flashed in patterns to signal an emergency or the location of a 911 call. Police can use laptop computers in their patrol cars to control individual lights or groups of them. Copenhagen envisions incorporating even more sensors into its sophisticated system to alert authorities to suspicious activity on street corners, raising concerns from privacy advocates. In San Francisco, streetlight poles are now used for mounting devices such as ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system; automated water meter routers; antennae for the city’s “smart” parking meter system, SFPark; and other devices. “They should light it up more,” said Edward Sanchez, 56, a resident of a Tenderloin single-room occupancy hotel, as he stood on the corner of Leavenworth Street and Golden Gate Avenue, where one side of the intersection has LED streetlights and the other has the older, yellowish orbs. Reese, the sandwich shop owner, said she was “extremely happy” with the new fixtures.
S.f. Replacing Old Streetlights With Cheaper, Better Led Bulbs
By John Coté, San Francisco Chronicle: Local
Tue, 01/27/2015 - 4:30pm
Topics: queen's louisiana po-boy cafe san bruno avenue really queen s danielle reese san francisco s portola reese s leds pacific gas electric co caltrans testimony jason king april in chattanooga tenn police copenhagen in san francisco sfpark they edward sanchez leavenworth street golden gate avenue reese san francisco port reese led pg&e tenderloin s.f streetlights bulbs city system replace network neighborhood owner longer utility dark meter devices owned energy control
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