There are a lot of public services around us that we take for granted, especially infrastructure, most of which we couldn’t imagine living without. They’re simply a part of our lives that fade into the background. Because of this, we often don’t pay attention to the importance or effectiveness of these services. One such example is the street lights of Bangalore.
Street lights are an essential part of any city. They illuminate the city so that people can actually see where they are going and are practically the last bastion of security at night, especially in dangerous areas. However, the number of street lights in Bangalore doesn’t quite seem to be sufficient. One of the best lit cities in the world, Hong Kong, has a total of over 140,000 street lights. Bangalore’s amount, about 54,000, pales in comparison.
The average distance between adjacent street lights in Electronic City was found to be about 21 metres, with heights of about 9 metres, so it meets the recommended distance of 2.5-3 times the street light height between street lights, but this could be because Electronic City is inner city, leaving an insufficient amount of street lights in other areas of the city.
In addition to this, 166 of the street lights in Electronic City either have no data or did not expend any energy during a 10-day period in 2022. Without the street lights turned on, their existence is rendered useless, meaning a large portion of even Electronic City isn’t sufficiently lit during the night time.
The effects of these differences is clearly shown in the crime statistics of both Hong Kong and Bangalore. Bangalore had 172 homicides reported in 2022, compared to Hong Kong’s 30. In addition, Hong Kong’s current crime index is only 17.7, which is especially low compared to that of Bangalore (55.27). While Bangalore’s higher population does possibly play a part in this, the superior and impressive lighting of Hong Kong is an essential factor of its low crime rate, and is something other cities should take inspiration from.
As proven by these various statistics, a reform is needed in the Bengaluru street lights. Not enough of them are working sufficiently or at all, and there simply aren’t enough of them overall. Installing more street lights would not only most probably reduce crime, but also make the city more liveable and pleasant. Things are, however, looking up. In 2021, plans were made to replace all street lights in the city with LED lights. This is advantageous for numerous reasons: they require less maintenance, they cause less visual glare, they are better for the environment and they can reach full brightness instantly. These advantages can obviously cause a great increase in the safety, visibility and liveability of the city, and if the government continues with these plans, Bangalore can start to truly become an excellent place to live. Unfortunately, although progress has started, no new information has been released about this plan since 2022.