Disappearing Street Lights

[the cheesecake man]

There does definitely seem to have been a trend towards removing the lighting on stretches of rural motorway when they have been upgraded to smart/managed motorways - I think this has been the case with ... parts of the .. M1...

Lighting was removed from J40-41 when smartified but was retained from J41-42

[KILLER KNIGHT]

One section of motorway which seems to have had lighting added in recent years would be a short segment of the M6 at J15 - these didn't used to be there. Ironically the older SON lighting slightly to the north around Keele services has been switched off the last few times I've been driven along there in the dark. They were still there this April but weren't in use.

I know that the M6 used to have a couple of very short lit sections on the Cumbria portion of the road. I think both were besides footbridges, and both segments seem to have been removed in recent years.

These are some stretches of motorway (both already listed and unlisted in this thread) that I'm aware of which have either had lighting removed or permanently turned off in recent years:

*M5 between north of Worcester and roughly the M42 (the stretch nearer Birmingham and around Worcester does still have lighting)
*M4 between Almondsbury and the start of the Second Severn Crossing/Prince of Wales Bridge
*M6 at Keele (lights permanently switched off)
*Two short footbridge segments of the M6 in Cumbria
*M4 at Reading
*Managed stretches of the M25 and M1
*M32 approaching Bristol
*High mast lighting on the M48 at J1 (the ones at J2 remain)

I used to be a little puzzled as to why the M4 had lighting at Reading but not at Swindon, when the Reading stretch didn't feel significantly more urban than the Swindon stretch. Much of the M6 between Warrington and Preston feels quite rural, as does much of the M62, which I believe is/was lit.

There does definitely seem to have been a trend towards removing the lighting on stretches of rural motorway when they have been upgraded to smart/managed motorways - I think this has been the case with the M4 at Reading, parts of the M25 and M1, and the M5 between Worcester and the M42. I find this quite ironic given that even during daytime, smart motorways have been proven to be less safe for breakdowns due to the lack of hard shoulder and too few emergency laybys (this has only had widespread coverage in recent years but I had exactly the same doubts about the safety of them about 10 years ago). The lack of streetlighting on these stretches would likely make it more difficult for a driver to spot a car that has broken down and hasn't had time to make it to one of the emergency laybys.

They also added new lighting at Junction 14. Plus, there have been lights that used to be switch off but back on again at Junction 11A. They switch them off again now.

[MotorwayGuy]

the section of the A2 between M25 and A2018 had the lighting switched off in around 2016 and the columns removed in 2019.
A section of the A296 had its lighting removed in 2016.
The M2 between junctions 3 and 4 had the lighting switched off with warning signs for years but it's now partially functional again.
M4 junction 7 to 8 had been upgraded to LED but was removed during the upgrade to ALR.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

One section of motorway which seems to have had lighting added in recent years would be a short segment of the M6 at J15 - these didn't used to be there. Ironically the older SON lighting slightly to the north around Keele services has been switched off the last few times I've been driven along there in the dark. They were still there this April but weren't in use.

I know that the M6 used to have a couple of very short lit sections on the Cumbria portion of the road. I think both were besides footbridges, and both segments seem to have been removed in recent years.

These are some stretches of motorway (both already listed and unlisted in this thread) that I'm aware of which have either had lighting removed or permanently turned off in recent years:

*M5 between north of Worcester and roughly the M42 (the stretch nearer Birmingham and around Worcester does still have lighting)
*M4 between Almondsbury and the start of the Second Severn Crossing/Prince of Wales Bridge
*M6 at Keele (lights permanently switched off)
*Two short footbridge segments of the M6 in Cumbria
*M4 at Reading
*Managed stretches of the M25 and M1
*M32 approaching Bristol
*High mast lighting on the M48 at J1 (the ones at J2 remain)

I used to be a little puzzled as to why the M4 had lighting at Reading but not at Swindon, when the Reading stretch didn't feel significantly more urban than the Swindon stretch. Much of the M6 between Warrington and Preston feels quite rural, as does much of the M62, which I believe is/was lit.

There does definitely seem to have been a trend towards removing the lighting on stretches of rural motorway when they have been upgraded to smart/managed motorways - I think this has been the case with the M4 at Reading, parts of the M25 and M1, and the M5 between Worcester and the M42. I find this quite ironic given that even during daytime, smart motorways have been proven to be less safe for breakdowns due to the lack of hard shoulder and too few emergency laybys (this has only had widespread coverage in recent years but I had exactly the same doubts about the safety of them about 10 years ago). The lack of streetlighting on these stretches would likely make it more difficult for a driver to spot a car that has broken down and hasn't had time to make it to one of the emergency laybys.

Emergency refuge areas should still have their mini lighting. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do that any more.

[ManomayLR]

One section of motorway which seems to have had lighting added in recent years would be a short segment of the M6 at J15 - these didn't used to be there. Ironically the older SON lighting slightly to the north around Keele services has been switched off the last few times I've been driven along there in the dark. They were still there this April but weren't in use.

I know that the M6 used to have a couple of very short lit sections on the Cumbria portion of the road. I think both were besides footbridges, and both segments seem to have been removed in recent years.

These are some stretches of motorway (both already listed and unlisted in this thread) that I'm aware of which have either had lighting removed or permanently turned off in recent years:

*M5 between north of Worcester and roughly the M42 (the stretch nearer Birmingham and around Worcester does still have lighting)
*M4 between Almondsbury and the start of the Second Severn Crossing/Prince of Wales Bridge
*M6 at Keele (lights permanently switched off)
*Two short footbridge segments of the M6 in Cumbria
*M4 at Reading
*Managed stretches of the M25 and M1
*M32 approaching Bristol
*High mast lighting on the M48 at J1 (the ones at J2 remain)

I used to be a little puzzled as to why the M4 had lighting at Reading but not at Swindon, when the Reading stretch didn't feel significantly more urban than the Swindon stretch. Much of the M6 between Warrington and Preston feels quite rural, as does much of the M62, which I believe is/was lit.

There does definitely seem to have been a trend towards removing the lighting on stretches of rural motorway when they have been upgraded to smart/managed motorways - I think this has been the case with the M4 at Reading, parts of the M25 and M1, and the M5 between Worcester and the M42. I find this quite ironic given that even during daytime, smart motorways have been proven to be less safe for breakdowns due to the lack of hard shoulder and too few emergency laybys (this has only had widespread coverage in recent years but I had exactly the same doubts about the safety of them about 10 years ago). The lack of streetlighting on these stretches would likely make it more difficult for a driver to spot a car that has broken down and hasn't had time to make it to one of the emergency laybys.

Emergency refuge areas should still have their mini lighting. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do that any more.

I still think all ALR motorways should have continuous lighting.
LED makes this affordable.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Emergency refuge areas should still have their mini lighting. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do that any more.

I still think all ALR motorways should have continuous lighting.
LED makes this affordable.

But at least on ERAs and near footbridges.

[KILLER KNIGHT]

Emergency refuge areas should still have their mini lighting. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do that any more.

I still think all ALR motorways should have continuous lighting.
LED makes this affordable.

They should put lighting on single carriageways first.