Mishawaka Removes Excessive Lights

There's good news to report. Mishawaka Utilities is removing nearly half of its streetlights from Beacon Parkway, just off Exit 83 of the Indiana Toll Road. When I called the Electric Division of City of Mishawaka, an employee told me a light study had been done after the city received complaints about the brightness of the original streetlighting scheme. The study suggested every other fixture could be safely removed. Per the employee, the removed lights will be used on another city project in the future.

I have been critical of the excessively bright fixtures with prismatic lenses, stating my grievances about Beacon Parkway at https://www.nightwise.org/single-post/2015/05/15/Lighting-the-Corridors and about other Mishawaka lighting at https://www.nightwise.org/single-post/2015/07/04/Mishawaka-Fails-at-Night. The number of poles could have remained the same if they only had better night-friendly luminaires.

While it is appropriate for Mishawaka to use half as many fixtures--and save all those tax dollars and cut energy consumption and benefit the environment and reduce its carbon footprint--the high-glare characteristic of the original fixture remains. Plus I suspect the color of the light, measured as a function of temperature in degrees Kelvin, exceeds 3000K, which puts it in the territory of being a more harmful choice for humans. I gotta ask, who is next to get those harsh unshielded remnants?

Nonetheless, I thank Mishawaka for recognizing and correcting a shortcoming in its original lighting scheme.