Cities Alive - Rethinking the Shades of Night

Cities Alive

Rethinking the Shades of Night

Case Study:

Intersection Signalétique, Montréal

As part of its lighting strategy, Montréal’s Quartier des Spectacles has experimented with wayfinding that goes beyond the functional aspect of getting from A to B. Realised as a pilot, Intersection Signalétique explores the potential of light projections on the pavement to create signage and express identity within the urban landscape. An interplay between projections and the traffic light system is created. Limiting illumination to crosswalks indicates safe crossing to pedestrians through rows of animated circles. When lights turn red, projections change to display directions to nearby venues and current event programmes, highlighting the quartier’s cultural activity.40,41

Strategically lit stations and illuminated connecting routes have improved public safety, use and accessibility of Bogota’s TransMilenio

Facilitating public transport, walking and cycling Beyond private personal mobility, lighting also plays a key role in the delivery of effective and safe public transport. In 2000, the TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) in Bogota, Colombia, was launched. The aim was to increase the safety of the system in a city where public transport would have not been considered the safest transport option at the time. Today, the TransMilenio is the world’s largest BRT system with 12 lines covering a distance of 112 km. The lighting strategy played a key role in increasing the attractiveness of the scheme by making sure that large parts of the network were lit at night, increasing safety for passengers and operators.43,44 In the Netherlands, a team of designers has created an innovative lighting design intervention that creates a unique cultural experience for pedestrians and cyclists. The Van Gogh Cycle Path is a collaboration between Daan Roosegaarde and Heijmans. The path incorporates ‘light stones’ that harvest sunlight during the day and emit illumination at night. Located near Vincent Van Gogh’s historical residence, stones create patterns that relate to his paintings, creating a unique cultural reference to the artist’s life and work. ProTeq is working on a similar technology called StarPath, a sprayable coating of daylight-absorbing particles that emit glow at night and can be

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Cities Alive: Rethinking the Shades of Night

applied to nearly any solid surface.45,46 Such novel lighting solutions, once perfected for robustness and glow-time, could reduce the need for electric lighting and decrease the operating costs of city lighting systems.

Recognising the opportunities of smart technology One dominant technology trend of the 21st century is the continuing revolution of information and communication technology. As processors, sensors and the analysis of data become cheaper and more efficient, lighting systems and solutions will exist as smart and connected components of the Internet of Everything. Coupled with advances in lighting technology itself, smart and responsive lighting environments are emerging, where the level, intensity and impact of light can be carefully controlled and adapted to environmental cues, behaviours or pre-programmed schedules. While these adaptive lighting environments are already an emerging trend within buildings, at the city-scale smart lighting systems are still in their infancy.

A pilot trialled in three European cities, for example, uses LED-based intelligent street lighting to create night-time illumination that responds to the natural environment. The project called Lites incorporates intelligent dimming control that combines a system of automatic and active dimming with a set of embedded sensors, responding to light, motion, temperature and current. The lamps are configured as nodes of a network that allow for comprehensive control whereas the collection of relevant output data allows for optimum regulation of luminance levels. The trial aims to understand possible reductions in energy consumption through the application of new lighting technology, while complying with European standards of security for lighting public places.47 The potential opportunities for smart lighting systems are enormous. Smart lighting could be integrated with other city systems, such as traffic management, or have the capability to gather data on user behaviour and the status of the city.

Copenhagen, for example, is planning to integrate a dynamic street system that can respond to the changing demands of traffic during the day, by 2025. LED lights in the road surface

Tvilight’s City Sense intelligent outdoor lighting control system

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“Cities of the twenty-first century may well be designed around the mobile phone in the way that cities in the twentieth century where designed around the car” —Ben Hammersley, “64 things you need to know now for then”, 2012

In Copenhagen’s Green Waves scheme cyclists benefit from traffic light solutions that intelligently respond to the number of cyclists, indicating best route options will signal which mode of transport has priority at what time, widening or reducing lane width according to the current traffic situation. Green Waves is one part of the scheme which has already been implemented. Here, traffic light systems direct cyclists to best possible route options. The number of cyclists are registered through sensors imbedded in the road surface, which can trigger traffic lights to switch to green when cyclists reach a certain volume. Both strategies aim to enable safer, more efficient and enjoyable urban cycling and will enhance traffic flows, intelligently using smart systems in combination with LED lights.48 When implementing smart systems, it is beneficial to invest in advanced systems upfront, while making sure they are adaptable and reprogrammable in the long-term.

Left: The Van Gogh Cycle Path in the Netherlands by Daan Roosegaarde & Heijmans

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