Mobility minister wants to switch on more street lights as darkest months approach
Flemish Mobility minister Lydia Peeters (Open VLD) has called on local authorities to switch on their street lights again. "Sufficient visibility is essential for all road users and especially for active road users," she said in a press release on Thursday.
Flanders has 1.3 million lamp post, most of which are switched on at night. However, financial and climate-related reasons led many cities to switch off street lighting last year. Now, Peeters is asking them to turn on more lights in places with lots of buildings, areas with conspicuous corners, tunnels and metros, and during roadworks.
"We are approaching the months when the days are at their shortest. The dark morning rush hour and early sunset reduce visibility," she said.
For regional roads, which are managed by the Flemish Roads and Transport Agency, Peeters applies the principle of "dimming where possible, lighting where necessary", meaning there is standard lighting at roundabouts and traffic lights, at slip roads or flyovers and where traffic has to manoeuvre a lot.
At the same time, she wants to invest in converting to LED lighting for financial and climate reasons. could switch entirely to LED street lighting by 2028, two years earlier than planned. This would reduce cities and towns' annual CO2 emissions by 44,000 tonnes.
© PHOTO BELPRESS
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