We just returned from a trip to San Diego -- my first to the West Coast. Wow! I loved it. The weather was great -- so bright and sunny. One thing that my husband and I noticed, however, was the lack of street lighting. Once it got dark, we were very nervous about driving. We ate most of our evening meals at the beach and when driving back to downtown SD, we were struck by how poorly we could see. There were no street lights to speak of, and what lighting there was, was on short poles and consisted of very dim yellow lights. Also, it seemed that the street signs are made of non-reflective materials, and they are quite small. And, around the beach neighborhoods, it seems that people often walk into the street suddenly from between parked cars.

A clerk in a store started explaining to me why the area has minimal lighting, and it involved something about "the observatory on the West Coast", but he got distracted and he never got back to me.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks!
Vicki

I live in San Diego and really it's quite well lit. We have yellow lights and low density lighting so that the observatory on Mt.Palomar can see the sky. The street signs have all been replaced over the last year or so and are quite large, about twice the size of the old ones.

Yes, in the beach areas people do occasionally walk out from between parked cars. Drivers need to be careful and not drive too fast, but this standard for driving in any city.

<<Once it got dark, we were very nervous about driving.>> Vicky, did you turn your headlights on? That would help to see when driving

Those metal halide lights help the observatories see better, further. I live somewhat near an observatory and can attest, after visiting the observatory on a special visit night.

You will find this same thing ~ same yellow lights when you go to the Big Island of Hawaii.

Vicky, did you turn your headlights on? That would help to see when driving<<


OMG ! *smacking forehead with palm* That explains it, then!

: )

City of San Diego is considering bankruptcy due to pension problems. They probably turned off the street lights for economy.

London did something similar in the early 1940's. San Diego doesn't want Japanesse subs to find the city. Looks like it has worked quite well for sixty years.

Nothing brightens your travel better than a sense of humor and it looks as you have it, Vicki/Vicky

Our lights are dim and yellow here because of the sea turtles.

vicki, you should look up the web site for SD and email your question to them. Then let us know the answer.

I just decided to look it up myself. Here is what I found at...
nctimes.com/articles/2004/03/21/.../3_20_0418_09_03.txt


"Palomar Mountain was chosen in the 1930s as a prime location for the 200-inch Hale Telescope precisely because of its distance from civilization.

Over time, however, suburban growth exploded around the telescope, prompting observatory officials to launch a campaign in the early 1980s asking cities, including San Diego, to change the type of lighting they used, Kardel said. The observatory had a lawyer and full-time spokesman to champion what became known as the dark-skies movement, he said.

Observatory officials said they prefer that cities use low-pressure sodium lights, which emit a pumpkin-orange glow. Astronomers, he said, can filter out this light."