Should we light every N road in the country?

orbital83 · 11-02-2008 9:44pm #1

I often thought this could be something that would help road safety, but probably quite a wacky idea that makes sense in my head and nobody else's :rolleyes:

When driving on unfamiliar N roads at night, if you need to overtake, it's sometimes difficult to see how much straight road you have ahead of you, or whether there's a bend or dip five hundred metres ahead...

Coming out of Galway around midnight on the N17 springs to mind for me... was stuck behind a tractor (yeah, at midnight)... not knowing the road at all, I thought I was clear but suddenly realised I was reaching the top of a hill, and pulled right back in!
(and no, there weren't road markings indicating no overtaking).

Does anyone think if we used street-lighting on every single-carriageway N road in the country, the improved visibility would help to reduce the number of head-ons from overtaking?
Not to mention improving safety at junctions.

Obviously such measures would be costly (and in the world we currently live, presumably the energy repercussions would be a concern).
I doubt it would cost as much as changing to driving on the right though

However, in the UK all the motorways are fully lit, whereas we obviously felt we could do without.

Just throwing the idea out there... what do people think?

corktina · 11-02-2008 10:00pm

It's not true that UK motorways are all lit....the M4 for example is unlit after junc 8/9 Maidenhead......if you cant see you shouldnt overtake....

murphaph · 11-02-2008 10:10pm

John J wrote: »

However, in the UK all the motorways are fully lit, whereas we obviously felt we could do without.

This is completely wrong. Much of the UK motorway network is unlit.

The only fully lit motorway network in the world is Belgium's and they have started turning off every second light!

It is hugely wasteful even on motorways. We have many times the mileage of N road than M road too. We most likely have more N road than the UK or Belgium has M road!

Danno · 11-02-2008 10:15pm

How about compulsory hard margins on all N routes. Fcuk those hedgerows and grass banks out of there. Force all slow driving vehicles to use hard margins when they are obstructing traffic. Paint the yellow lines to indicate where it is safe to use the hard margin for that purpose...

my €0,02 worth.

testicle · 11-02-2008 10:49pm

To my knowledge, Belgium is the only EU country (at least) with fully lit motorway system.

Chris_533976 · 11-02-2008 11:23pm

How about installing well maintained cats eyes in the middle and sides of N roads? Half of Irish roads that DO have them are covered in mud and basically nonfunctional.

Or one that they tried in the UK which basically has a stack of LEDs inside, which is bright enough and low power.

Niall1234 · 11-02-2008 11:29pm

Chris_533976 wrote: »

How about installing well maintained cats eyes in the middle and sides of N roads? Half of Irish roads that DO have them are covered in mud and basically nonfunctional.

Or one that they tried in the UK which basically has a stack of LEDs inside, which is bright enough and low power.

There are new ones which store the sun energy during the day and lets it out as light during the night. Great idea. Would def cut down on accidents if these were installed.

BrianD · 11-02-2008 11:44pm

I would be against lighting N or M routes. They only places where there should be lighting permitted is at junctions. The N3 from Pace to the M50 is fully lit and most of it should be switched off (in fact they used to in the past for budgetary reasons). There isn't evidence to support the fact that accidents would be prevented if roadways were lit. Many road deaths and injuries take place during perfect weather and lighting conditions.

Slice · 11-02-2008 11:59pm

When driving on unfamiliar N roads at night, if you need to overtake, it's sometimes difficult to see how much straight road you have ahead of you, or whether there's a bend or dip five hundred metres ahead...

Isn't the road markings in the middle of the road a sufficient indication of whether or not it's safe to overtake?

professore · 12-02-2008 12:08am

murphaph wrote: »

This is completely wrong. Much of the UK motorway network is unlit.

The only fully lit motorway network in the world is Belgium's and they have started turning off every second light!

It is hugely wasteful even on motorways. We have many times the mileage of N road than M road too. We most likely have more N road than the UK or Belgium has M road!

Actually EVERY public road in Belgium is fully lit ... crazy.

jmkennedyie · 12-02-2008 12:30am

I don't understand why we have dashed centre-lines on stretches where it is obviously unsafe to overtake. Based on formal design rules that consider sightlines, speed limits, curvature and undulations it should be possible to identify and mark truely reasonable/unreasonble places to overtake...

Run_to_da_hills · 12-02-2008 12:32am

Yes why not light up every street in the country and at the same time equip them with CCTV on the lamp posts. It used to be the case in Dublin when you were no more than 10 foot from a rat, now that can be applied to a CCTV. Welcome to the Big Brother Ireland

Gaspode · 12-02-2008 8:22am

Hell No!
What a waste of energy and money. It would be far more effective if people just used their heads when driving and didnt try to overtake when they are not sure if it is safe to do so. I think is says that somewhere in the rules of the road, and also in the unwritten book of Good Sense.

ardmacha · 12-02-2008 12:07pm

There is no need whatsoever for every road to be lit. Proper road markings with cats eyes etc is the way forward. Plus a bit of law enforcement for those who ignore these markings.

Victor · 12-02-2008 12:24pm

professore wrote: »

Actually EVERY public road in Belgium is fully lit ... crazy.

I'm not sure about this. I was in a small village and the village centre was barely lit and I suspect the surrounding area wasn't.

12-02-2008 12:54pm

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Or one that they tried in the UK which basically has a stack of LEDs inside, which is bright enough and low power.

Good idea but! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/6226285.stm

There are claims that they trigger fits, find it hard to believe myself.

seamus · 12-02-2008 1:09pm

The ideal solution would be motion-sensitive lighting which only triggered as a car approached - probably within 200m or something. The technology is old and should be fairly cheap at the volumes it'd be bought.

The main problem is the lights. I've seen standard streetlamps in Spain with motion sensors on them, but by teh time the light had blinked on and warmed up, any car or pedestrian is long gone. Perhaps LEDs would be better (less maintenance too)?

murphaph · 12-02-2008 7:59pm

seamus wrote: »

The ideal solution would be motion-sensitive lighting which only triggered as a car approached - probably within 200m or something. The technology is old and should be fairly cheap at the volumes it'd be bought.

The main problem is the lights. I've seen standard streetlamps in Spain with motion sensors on them, but by teh time the light had blinked on and warmed up, any car or pedestrian is long gone. Perhaps LEDs would be better (less maintenance too)?

I think it's all down to cost. Gas discharge lamps of various types (different gases, different pressures etc.) are all esentially quite cheap compared to leds and are extremely efficient once switched on.

Leds are possibly even more efficient, possibly have longer lifetimes, have instantaneous illumination etc. so it must be down to cost as LED lamps are available but have not been popular.

I'd say sooner or later they will become the norm as manufacturing costs fall. Like everything really.

Capt'n Midnight · 13-02-2008 2:21am

professore wrote: »

Actually EVERY public road in Belgium is fully lit ... crazy.

look at the population density and then look at the through traffic , even Holland has 5 times our population and Germany and France too.

Capt'n Midnight · 13-02-2008 2:23am

Danno wrote: »

How about compulsory hard margins on all N routes. Fcuk those hedgerows and grass banks out of there. Force all slow driving vehicles to use hard margins when they are obstructing traffic. Paint the yellow lines to indicate where it is safe to use the hard margin for that purpose...

my €0,02 worth.

REMOVE THE hard margins. Use them for driving lanes where the road is wide enough. then passing stuff is easy and safe. It would be funded by €1,000 fines for those who don't keep left unless overtaking.

people would take less risks since they'd know a good overtaking place would be coming up soon

blackbelt · 13-02-2008 4:54pm

I'd say light the roads but sparingly place the lamp-posts some distace from each other.They should use those yellow-glow lights so to maximise visibility,then the number of accidents may decrease.Something which uncle Gaybo should acknowledge and concentrate on.

13-02-2008 5:06pm

I think that on some of the new HQDC's they should investigate the idea of putting "light shades" on the centeral barrier. Frequently when driving at night I notice that many motorists leave their lights on full much longer than they would on a single carriageway road.

With "light shades" fitted then they could leave them on at all times (depending on the topology of the road of course) without risk of blinding on-coming drivers.
Lorry drivers suffer more than others from this because sometimes the concrete barrier stops the headlights from one car blinding the driver of another car, but the lorry driver is seated higher and the light go straight into the cab.

Alternativley, Improve the passive cat's eyes and road markings.

anotherlostie · 13-02-2008 8:08pm

I must say it is great to have the road lit up all the way from Naas to Dublin now, but it would probably be adequate to halve the number of lights on this stretch to Newlands.

SeanW · 13-02-2008 9:36pm

Road lights? Nah. Maybe on some of the Motorways and HQDCs but other than that, I don't really see what putting them all over the place will accomplish. For many National roads, like the N55 for example, a better priority would be actually fix the crappiness of the road itself, like straigtening it out, widening etc than fooling around with streetlights.

murphaph · 14-02-2008 12:07am

SeanW wrote: »

Road lights? Nah. Maybe on some of the Motorways and HQDCs but other than that, I don't really see what putting them all over the place will accomplish. For many National roads, like the N55 for example, a better priority would be actually fix the crappiness of the road itself, like straigtening it out, widening etc than fooling around with streetlights.

+1.

Should we light every N road in the country?

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