Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

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Chris5156
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Chris5156 »

Johnathan404 wrote:I would suggest that's because of the bends. The outside of a bend is longer than the inside of a bend so more lighting is required on that side, whereas on a straight road you can light from any side.

Although last time I used that part of the A1 it seemed pretty messy anyway, so messy lighting would fit in.
Yes, the lights are around the outside of each bend, and when the road begins to turn the other way the lights switch sides.

What I find really messy about it is that half the lights on the scheme are behind guard rail and are a different design to the other half that are exposed to the road. I understand that passively safe ones have been installed where there's no guard rail but it looks really messy to have a random mix and match of two column styles depending on whether each one is protected or not.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Stesee »

Blackpool Road Preston IN Ashton has one side lighting.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Norfolktolancashire »

Stesee wrote:Blackpool Road Preston IN Ashton has one side lighting.
If it is here you're talking about, these columns were concrete ones over the bridge which where always on one side.

http://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.770184 ... 312!8i6656
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Divine »

I hope they aren't LED. They only cover a spot and would fail to adequately light the opposite side of the road!
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by trencheel303 »

A lot of modern LED lanterns are very very good. They’re no longer like spotlights, as can be seen in various places on the m60 where they’ve put LED (probably speedstars) at each side and left the dying 180W sox in the middle. The white light spreads across the carriageway adequately.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Bryn666 »

trencheel303 wrote:A lot of modern LED lanterns are very very good. They’re no longer like spotlights, as can be seen in various places on the m60 where they’ve put LED (probably speedstars) at each side and left the dying 180W sox in the middle. The white light spreads across the carriageway adequately.
Luma 3s. They're good lanterns.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Bryn666 »

Looks almost French there.

Pity that bit of the M77 is now a colossal bottleneck.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

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The latest in this occasional series: the new A57 at Port Salford.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Euan »

Beardy5632 wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 19:36 I forgot about the top of the M77.
It's very bizarre that the dual streetlights in the middle of the motorway were replaced by lights just along one side, based on searching through earlier Google streetview images of the road. The southbound carriageway has effectively been deprived of light whereas the northbound carriageway receives the lion's share of it.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Chris5156 »

After a two-year hiatus, here's an example on the A69 west of Newcastle that came to light on this thread.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Jonathan24 »

This stretch of dual carriageway has recently had the same treatment and I've no idea why, as a further stretch had the lights replaced only months before and they replaced both sides.

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6377329 ... 384!8i8192

This has the old imagery, showing that the lights were originally on both sides, but they've been replaced with LEDs on the left hand side only. It doesn't seem like this would be sufficient to me but I'll try and see what it looks like at night.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

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Jonathan24 wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 14:50This has the old imagery, showing that the lights were originally on both sides, but they've been replaced with LEDs on the left hand side only. It doesn't seem like this would be sufficient to me but I'll try and see what it looks like at night.
It depends on the lights and the road. Some of the examples upthread (like the one in Croydon) is where the dual carriageway is relatively compact, and if it was just a wide single carriageway road you'd think nothing of it having a light on only one side that would cover the whole roadway. Some of the others are, er, more ambitious in hoping that a light at one side would carry all the way across to the other side of the road.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Jonathan24 »

Chris5156 wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 22:50
Jonathan24 wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 14:50This has the old imagery, showing that the lights were originally on both sides, but they've been replaced with LEDs on the left hand side only. It doesn't seem like this would be sufficient to me but I'll try and see what it looks like at night.
It depends on the lights and the road. Some of the examples upthread (like the one in Croydon) is where the dual carriageway is relatively compact, and if it was just a wide single carriageway road you'd think nothing of it having a light on only one side that would cover the whole roadway. Some of the others are, er, more ambitious in hoping that a light at one side would carry all the way across to the other side of the road.
To me, this seems like a case of the latter! It's effectively 6 lanes (including a hard shoulder on each side) with a pretty wide central reservation - I'd estimate that it's the equivalent of 8 lanes the one set of lights is trying to cover!
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by AlexBr967 »

They've done it on the Pleasley bypass here: https://goo.gl/maps/HERrTqHpvKKifgD17 . Pretty decent spread when I've been down there at night. Weird thing is that they've used the same lanterns on the roundabout which is a bit redundant since smaller lanterns would do the same job.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by A303Chris »

Also been done on the A329 Berkshire Way in Bracknell.

Although from personal experience the columns are not tall enough and lane one westbound hardly gets any light.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Bryn666 »

A303Chris wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 15:09 Also been done on the A329 Berkshire Way in Bracknell.

Although from personal experience the columns are not tall enough and lane one westbound hardly gets any light.
That's a pure cost cutting exercise, reusing old columns and cutting down the other side. I'd love to see a lighting analysis diagram for that.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Jonathan24 »

A303Chris wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 15:09 Also been done on the A329 Berkshire Way in Bracknell.

Although from personal experience the columns are not tall enough and lane one westbound hardly gets any light.
I've started to see something similar with brand new lighting schemes at junctions (roundabouts) on dual carriageways. In the past, both sides of the road would have been lit but now, it seems like only the side of the road in the direction of the roundabout will be lit. It must be based on more than just cost because as part of upgrading the lighting at this roundabout, these columns have been ripped out (there were only installed about 15 years ago) and new columns were installed on the other side of the road, leading towards the roundabout.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by L.J.D »

Not a dual carriageway but a before and after in Sheffield one this really wide road always struck me as odd when they replaced the lighting and only installed one side. Those columns don't look at all tall enough to throw light on the other side.
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Re: Lighting one side of a dual carriageway

Post by Truvelo »

L.J.D wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 14:51 Not a dual carriageway but a before and after in Sheffield one this really wide road always struck me as odd when they replaced the lighting and only installed one side. Those columns don't look at all tall enough to throw light on the other side.
I suspect the SOX lanterns would give off a wider spread of light than LED.
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