<p>Street-lighting is obviously linked to safety. Under the cover of darkness, crime does spread its sinister tentacles. But poorly lit footpaths are also about physical safety. A Street Quality Score (SQS 2015) prepared by ichangemycity shows that 51 per cent of Bengaluru streets have lighting levels way below the safety mark.<br /><br /></p>.<p>So, how exactly do you measure a safely-lit street? In their action plan for women’s safety on streets, the Delhi Development Authority and United Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning & Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) had defined it as one with an average Lux score greater than 10. <br /><br />Lux is a measure of the intensity as perceived by the human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface. A calibrated app was used to capture geo-tagged Lux values, at one second intervals, across the length of the street. <br /><br />Surveying 3,075 kms of streets in Bengaluru through Jana Urban Services for Transformation (JUST), ichangemycity found that the average street-lighting was only 8 Lux. Thirty-seven per cent of the City (1,151 km/3,075 km of road) was not safely lit. <br /><br />In the inner wards, 31 per cent of the road length (448/1,431 km) was not properly lit to safety standards. Forty-three per cent (703/1,644 km) of road length in the outer wards were also not adequately lit, the survey found. <br /><br />Based on these findings, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was given a set of recommendations: Survey the unlit stretch of 1,151 km; instal new streetlights where there are none and take up maintenance of those with insufficient lux. In effect, BBMP had to implement a phased plan for ensuring minimum 10 lux on the remaining 1,880 km of road in the City.<br /><br />Besides Streetlighting in Bengaluru, the Street Quality Score 2015 is also a measure of the quality of Footpaths, Pedestrian Crossing, Bus-Stops and Air Pollution at the street-level. The data was secured through simple Android Apps, covering a total of 3,500 km of roads. The survey was conducted by JUST over a period of three months, from September to November 2015.</p>
<p>Street-lighting is obviously linked to safety. Under the cover of darkness, crime does spread its sinister tentacles. But poorly lit footpaths are also about physical safety. A Street Quality Score (SQS 2015) prepared by ichangemycity shows that 51 per cent of Bengaluru streets have lighting levels way below the safety mark.<br /><br /></p>.<p>So, how exactly do you measure a safely-lit street? In their action plan for women’s safety on streets, the Delhi Development Authority and United Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning & Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) had defined it as one with an average Lux score greater than 10. <br /><br />Lux is a measure of the intensity as perceived by the human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface. A calibrated app was used to capture geo-tagged Lux values, at one second intervals, across the length of the street. <br /><br />Surveying 3,075 kms of streets in Bengaluru through Jana Urban Services for Transformation (JUST), ichangemycity found that the average street-lighting was only 8 Lux. Thirty-seven per cent of the City (1,151 km/3,075 km of road) was not safely lit. <br /><br />In the inner wards, 31 per cent of the road length (448/1,431 km) was not properly lit to safety standards. Forty-three per cent (703/1,644 km) of road length in the outer wards were also not adequately lit, the survey found. <br /><br />Based on these findings, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was given a set of recommendations: Survey the unlit stretch of 1,151 km; instal new streetlights where there are none and take up maintenance of those with insufficient lux. In effect, BBMP had to implement a phased plan for ensuring minimum 10 lux on the remaining 1,880 km of road in the City.<br /><br />Besides Streetlighting in Bengaluru, the Street Quality Score 2015 is also a measure of the quality of Footpaths, Pedestrian Crossing, Bus-Stops and Air Pollution at the street-level. The data was secured through simple Android Apps, covering a total of 3,500 km of roads. The survey was conducted by JUST over a period of three months, from September to November 2015.</p>
