Gladsaxe Municipality, located 13 kilometers north of Copenhagen, installed a new road lighting system in one of its districts at the end of 2021. This system needed to be revamped, but then they decided to do it in an unconventional way, taking into account not only the citizens but also the bats. Specifically, to a colony of this species living there.

Street lights were changed red bulbs Achieving less bright and more obtrusive lighting, but also friendlier lighting for bats and other species in the area. As the city council’s press release notes, this type of light affects their behavior less.

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Not all road lights turned red. For certain points of the route, and especially at intersections where cyclists pass, the traditional white or warm light is retained and installed on higher poles to guarantee visibility. For the remaining areas, in all to red.

According to lighting scientist Maurice Donners, the measurement was inspired by what the Dutch city of Nieuwkoop, 43 kilometers south of Amsterdam, did three years ago after a study found that this red light was barely visible to light-sensitive animals such as bats. in an interview Fast Company; white or green lights interfered with their normal lives. It’s something he takes into consideration, considering the nature reserve next to his neighborhood that includes endangered species of bats.

Streets of Nieuwkoop at night. Image: Make sense of it.

Streets of Nieuwkoop at night. Image: Make sense of it.

Short wavelength lights (blue, green, purple…) have the greatest impact on the activities of these animals; long wavy ones, such as orange or red, interfere less with the bats’ normal cycles, such as their internal compass. Conventional lights can affect both flight and nocturnal behavior, or insect prey congregating around artificial lights.

In the case of Dutch city lights, they enlisted the help of Signify (which was the lighting division of Philips until 2018) to achieve red lights that meet the same brightness requirements as regular LEDs, allowing the human eye to adapt to them faster. and as completely as possible,” Donners explained. “After two minutes you won’t even notice it’s red,” he explained Fast Company.

We can find the same principle of red light in other environments. The lighting of submarines is also in this color, and in consumer electronics we have recently seen how the Apple Watch Ultra is presented, targeting sports and extreme conditions, and incorporating a night mode using the same lighting. . It is ideal for those who use it in the dark so that it does not dazzle or alter night vision.

Apple Watch Ultra’s night mode. Image: Xataka.

This is how street and city lighting exists in Gladsaxe and Nieuwkoop, reflecting the pavements in red. It has both a direct function that will benefit the bats living in these regions and an indirect, more social function: serves as a permanent reminder for passers-by to remember that they are in a specially protected natural area, so their behavior there should be equal.

Image | Meaning

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*An earlier version of this article was published in May 2023.