Hi Neiko, I live near the street light in question, and it was shining in my house and back yard, and was very uncomfortable to be in my backyard with this monster light shining in my face; I requested it to be reduced in brightness. The light is still brighter than teh old light it replaced.

I can understand that, however, perhaps they can just point it into the street and not towards your house? It is too dark in the circle and in the street in general. It doesn't make sense why it would point towards anyone's house. It needs to point out into the street and be brighter.

The light is pointed straight down. The problem is the lights disperse light across a very wide pattern out to the sides. In order to do this, the 4 individual bulbs point out at an angle, so it's like having a high beam pointing directly in my yard. If you look up at the new lights from a certain distance, you can see a great deal of glare directly from the bulb. This was not the case with the old sodium vapor bulbs. If you want to compare, there is still 1 left on Central street, not far from us, at Wickford St. You can look directly at that bulb and not be blinded. If you look at the ground under that one, then at the end of Bryant, you can see that the one at Bryant is still much brighter and whiter than the old one. It is only in comparison to the other lights that the one near me seems dim. I am guessing your concern for the light is one of safety, but I don't think we've ever had a problem on our street due to a lack of light. Modern headlights are very effective, and are about as bright as the new lights. I believe the new lights are less safe, because they cast very bright rings of light, contrasted with dark shadows. While people in the bright rings are very visible, the dark shadow areas in between seem less safe, due to the adjacent glare, and the glare reduces your night vision. To my eyes, the more even light, without the bright ring on the ground and glare from the fixture, is more safe overall.

What doesn't make sense is that your back yard is a good distance from this street light and an odd angle away from it as well. This street light doesn't, and never did even light up my driveway, which is must closer (almost right underneath) than your backyard. So, if that is the case, there must be a way to point the light outward into the road. The road is ridiculously dark at night and yes, it is a safety issue. The cul-de-sac should not be pitch black at night. I often walk at night or even just walking out to a car that is parked in the circle and it is too dark and its scary. The other closest light is half way down the road. If they need to replace this light with something else, then they should. We shouldn't have to have a pitch black dark road. I really hope the town does something about it before something does happen that wouldn't have if there was some light!

Also, I do agree with you that with where this light is on the pole, there is no reason for it to shine on anyone's house or yard. It should shine out into the cul-de-sac. They need to do something to fix it.

OK, I do understand what you're saying now. Currently, the light pretty much shines down into the corner of the street, where there is no traffic, no pedestrians, rather than out into thc cul-de-sac, where I might be riding my bike while you're pulling into your driveway. I do know these fixtures have a series of internal rings that mount the head to the horizontal metal pole. Depending on which ring is used, the angle of the head can be adjusted. I agree it would be good idea to adjust the angle of the head to shine farther out into the cul=de=sac so you could see who's in front of your driveway from farther down the road before your headlights reach there. However, tilting the head out will also expose the bulbs more directly to cars. Now, with the light at its low setting, you can look right into it without being blinded. If turned up, the glare might reduce visibility more than it helps.

So, we agree about most of this light issue. What it comes down to is, they need to light up the cul-de-sac better than it is currently! WITHOUT shining the light into people's houses or back yards! This should not be a difficult thing and if necessary, they should change the fixture! :)

Although, the light as it currently is, is a waste of the light and electricity because it serves no purpose other than to light up the car that parks under it, and it barely even does that!

Yes, we agree about most of this issue. I went out and looked at the light last night, and spent some time walking around. The issue is that the lights are designed to mainly be used along a straight length of street, rather than a culdesac, so they project a rectangular beam of light to fill up the street over the width of the street without going too far up onto the opposite yard, while spreading light to either side to light up the space between the lights. Since the light in question is pointing out into hte street from the top of the cul-de-sac, the recttangle of light extends into teh street about the width of a standard street, which i sfar smaller than the diameter of the cul-de-sac. Originally, the light also spread out wide on either side, into my back yard, where my deck is located, and also into your driveway, which you may not have noticed due to the hilly landscaping and plantings surrounding your driveway, especially if you don't spend much time there. One thing they did was install a cutoff filter, which I believe reduced the distance the light spreads out to the sides. I think there are a number of different filters that can be installed, most commonly to block light to the rear, when it's shining in people's houses, but this one seems a bit different, maybe cutting light to the sides, making the light pattern more round rather than rectangular. It doesn't seem to cut light to the front, as I paced off the lit-up spot on the ground in front of the cul-de-sac light and paced off the next light down the street, and they were the same. The filters can only trim light, they cannot increase the area of illumination. Tilting the light out into the center of the cul-de-sac should help, as could rotating it from the horizontal position slightly to face more into the cneter of the street (andalso even further from my house, we both gain). The other thing, kind of radical, might be to have the light stick out the side of the pole (move the whole tenon to the side of the pole), hanging over your driveway, so that the wide direction of the rectangle of light is now along the length of the street, which would reach further into the cul-de-sac. This would also mean it would light up your driveway, and the driveway and possibly front windows of your next-door neighbor. I don't know how either of you would feel about that. I would hate it if it were me, but if you were both OK with it, it might be a solution. I don't know if Cree makes a one-sided light filter. I don't think so, but if they did, it could keep the light from going too far up your driveway. Hopefully the town will pass these comments on to Ameresco, and they can come up with a solution that makes everyone happy.

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