Lights out on sections of UK motorway network

Motorway lighting along a section of the M6 in Lancashire in the UK will be switched off between midnight and 5am in a move to reduce energy costs, carbon emissions, and light pollution, the Highways Agency has announced.
January 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Motorway lighting along a section of the M6 in Lancashire in the UK will be switched off between midnight and 5am in a move to reduce energy costs, carbon emissions, and light pollution, the 503 Highways Agency has announced. The motorway junctions and their approaches will remain lit.

This stretch of the motorway has a good safety record and a low traffic flow between midnight and 5am which is why it has been chosen as the latest site for the Highways Agency's national programme of switch-offs.

Targeted switch-offs have been successfully delivered in other parts of the country including along stretches of the motorway network in Kent, Berkshire, Hampshire, Devon and Avon and Somerset.
"This is the seventh site in England and we expect it to work as successfully as everywhere else, achieving up to a 40 per cent saving in carbon emissions and energy use as well as giving local communities reduced light pollution of the night sky,” said Andy Withington, the Highways Agency's performance manager for south Lancashire.

Timing devices at the roadside will control when the lights switch off and on again. The Highways Agency's Regional Control Centre near Junction 23 of the M6 at Newton-le-Willows, can override the mechanism if needed.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • WSDOT installs LED lights on Highway 101
    March 1, 2013
    Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has replaced the old high-pressure-sodium (HPS) lighting system along Highway 101 with the state’s first light-emitting-diode (LED) lighting system. “This is the first time we’ve used LED lights on a state highways and for most drivers, it will be quite a change,” said John Nisbet, WSDOT state traffic engineer. “LED lights appear whiter and brighter than our standard lights. And those who travel the area late at night will see some lights dimmed or shut
    Read More
  • Changing driving conditions need ongoing driver training
    January 23, 2012
    Trevor Ellis, chairman of the ITS UK Enforcement Interest Group, considers the role of ongoing driver training in increasing compliance. It is over 30 years since I passed my driving test. The world was quite a different place then, in that there were only half the vehicles there are now on the UK's roads, mobile phones did not really exist and (in the UK at least) the vast majority of us drove cars which by today's standards exhibited dreadful dynamic stability and were woefully underpowered.
    Read More
  • Australia’s NRMA welcomes road safety funding boost
    April 2, 2013
    Australia’s National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA) has praised the New South Wales (NSW) government's plan to use revenue raised by speed cameras to help boost funding for road safety programs by US$7.3 million. The new Safer Roads Program is part of the Centre for Road Safety's state-wide strategy aimed at cutting the state's road toll by thirty per cent by 2021. The additional funds will see a total of US$37.6 million a year spent on works in areas where the worst crashes are occurring, with the
    Read More
  • Travel restrictions cause ITS professionals' knowledge gap
    February 2, 2012
    Andrew Barriball once again campaigns for senior USDOT officials to see sense and lift some of the restrictions on out-of-state travel for transportation professionals. The ability to attend conferences and exhibitions is not a luxury, he says; it is a valid and cost-effective way of advancing the state of the traffic management art
    Read More

Highlighted Content