M1 Motorway Lights Switched Off To Cut Energy Bills
Lights on the M1 are set to be switched off by the Highways Agency in a bid to reduce business energy bills and help with the Government’s austerity programme.
Lights on the M1 between Junction 10 at Luton and Junction 13 at Milton Keynes are set to be switched off to help cut energy costs and improve energy efficiency. However, motoring organisations are not happy about the move and argue that lives could be at risk.
The AA is concerned that switching off the lights on this stretch of motorway is dangerous because it’s a stretch which will be subject to variable speed limits and drivers will soon be able to use the hard shoulder at busy times.
However, the lights will be turned off between midnight and 5.00 a.m. when it’s unlikely that variable speed limits will be used.
The head of road safety at the AA, Andrew Howard, said “We think there will be a number of operational issues. Where you can and can’t be is defined by signals and without lights there is a greater chance that people will make a mistake”.
Concern has also been raised by Brake, a road safety charity. A spokesman said “Although there are fewer crashes on our motorways per mile travelled due to the way these roads are engineered, when crashes do happen on these roads they are much more likely to involve multiple deaths and serious injuries because of the high speeds involved”.
He added “Road casualties are not only catastrophic for the families involved, but a huge economic burden, so if there is a safety implication of turning lights off it could turn out to be a false economy as well as a desperately inhumane experiment”.
When the Government asked for cost cutting ideas from the public last year, the idea of switching lights off on motorways was one of the first to emerge. Since then business electricity prices have risen and the cost of keeping motorway lights on all night has increased.
So far lights have been turned off on sections of the M2, M4, M5 and M27 and the move has proved successful. Not only does it help to cut business energy costs but it also helps to cut carbon emissions.
However, the Highways Agency director, Derek Turner, said drivers would not be at risk from the move to switch off lights on the M1. He said “Since 2009 we’ve switched lighting off between the hours of midnight and 5am on 14 carefully-selected stretches of motorways and evidence so far indicates that switching off the lights hasn’t had an impact on safety. In March this year we also began permanently switching off motorway lights at three sites”.
He said they were not out to turn off all motorway lights. The move would just apply to stretches which had been carefully identified. He added “The money saved could then be used for other measures on the strategic road network where it would have a more significant safety benefit and potentially save more lives”.
If business electricity prices continue to increase then more agencies and businesses may consider turning off equipment such as lights at times when it’s not deemed necessary. Maybe some of the businesses which leave lights on all night in cities may think about switching off to cut down on business energy costs.