2023-06-28 06:44:08
The City of Lausanne has just announced that it will continue to turn off certain parks at night all year round. Other municipalities go much further. However, the question remains delicate, especially for security issues.
In addition to the parks, some quays and promenades in Lausanne will also be plunged into darkness at night between October and March. At the same time, the City is revising its Lighting plan.
According to the Union of Swiss Cities, a large part of the agglomerations have returned to the pre-crisis situation with regard to public lighting. But many cities are considering or have already modified their facilities. Geneva, for example, did so in 2021.
“Positive welcome”
In Neuchâtel, public lighting is now off all year round at night, except in the city center and on a few main roads. In La Matinale de la RTS, the municipal councilor Mauro Moruzzi believes that a city can afford it.
>> Read once more: The lights will remain off in Neuchâtel between midnight and 5 a.m.
“The reception that was made by people was completely positive. There was no longer any reason that kept us from systematizing it. There were still some criteria to take into account, in particular work that has been done with the cantonal police to delimit the sectors where it would be preferable to maintain the lighting. The security side turned out to be something that was not problematic during the implementation.”
Weighing of interests
However, the security argument often comes up in discussions. The City of Biel, for example, did not modify its public lighting last winter. For Heinz Binggeli, managing director of Energie Service Bienne, this is a weighing of interest.
“There are quite a few places in the city where it is still a certain risk if you turn off public lighting, for example on pedestrian paths. And the impact on energy consumption is still quite low, because a very large part of our public lighting is made up of LEDs which consume very little.”
Commercial lighting also targeted
In addition to public lighting, there are also shop window lights and other illuminated signs. In the canton of Neuchâtel, the municipality of Val-de-Travers has modified its police regulations. The authorities have thus just made permanent the extinction of shops, public establishments and businesses during the night.
For municipal councilor Benoît Simon-Vermot, it is a question of consistency. “It seemed quite logical that shop windows and illuminated signs, basically anything that might be seen at night – especially when there is no street lighting – should be turned off or limited.”
>> Benoît Simon-Vermot’s interview in La Matinale: Should we continue to turn off city streetlights at night? Interview with Benoît Simon-Vermot / La Matinale / 1 min. / today at 06:24
Cécile Hussain-Khan, a shopkeeper in Morges and president of the Vaud Retail Federation, believes that turning off the lights completely can cause problems.
“Depending on the businesses, we are not all equal, it depends on the electrical installation of each. When you close the general electricity of a business, you cut the alarms, you cut the card readers that Above all, you must not switch off. So there are many businesses that have had to make adjustments, and there are even some that have not succeeded at all.”
>> Cécile Hussain-Khan’s interview in La Matinale: Should we continue to turn off city streetlights at night? Interview with Cécile Hussain Khan / La Matinale / 1 min. / today at 06:30
Romain Bardet/ash
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