If only they would invent some sort of forward facing light that could be installed on the front of vehicles...
Or some kind of flashing device on cars for when they have trouble.
Ahhh, An oasis of common sense (if not dry wit...)
My letter to the council, seen here first:
The city council is under pressure from people expressing their unfounded fears that unlit expressways are dangerous, but stop and think...
The lights on this part of the road were turned off in August of last year, and it took till now, almost a year later, for someone to be able to cite an accident they
think might be related to the lights out.
To make the evidence fit their case, the alarmists had to ignore the fact that the victim's vehicle was being pushed along the expressway with out any headlights or emergency flashers that would have made the vehicle visible.
They also had to ignore the scores of similar incidents (many of which were fatal) where pedestrians were struck on expressways with the lights still on, or in broad daylight.
http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=7753.0http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=4110.0Dont get me wrong, Im strongly in favor of lighting interchanges, ramps and underpasses (that call for extra attention and visual acuity), but to say that lighting every inch of expressway is necessary to prevent the type of accidents that routinely take place in broad daylight, is just beyond absurd.
Just turning on his 4-way flashers would have improved his safety much
more than having a streetlight on overhead. Dimming the glare from a nearby LED billboard (visible in KOTV's photos) might have also eliminated a deadly distraction.
God help these fear-mongers when they have to drive outside the city limits at night, and discover most of America's highways dont have streetlights...
To the council: I sympathize that you must endure often passionate calls to act on people's unfounded perceptions and fears, but in this case, before we rob Peter to pay for Paul's paranoia, it would be wise to investigate whether or not this is even a wise financial and safety move.
There is not a credible body of evidence that proves expressway lighting make expressways "safe". Not in Tulsa, or the U.S., or the rest of the motoring world.
Even FOX23 reported a few months after the lights were turned off that expressway crashes went down slightly, perhaps as a result of people slowing down and paying more attention to their surroundings.
A little research around the world shows similar results, as communities cut back on unnecessary lights to meet their budgets.
Paris saw as much as a 30% drop in crashes after cutting back on unnecessary "continuous lighting", and saved money in the process.
So before we commit to an expense that may actually be a waste of money, the city has the obligation to prove that expressway lights actually provide the safety people claim, and that spending the money on them is a justifiable priority. Otherwise, simply re-activating an unproven system of mostly cosmetic lighting with the unqualified perception that it will make expressways "safe" would be fiscally irresponsible, and deprive funding for items that truly provide safety.