Shedding Some New Light on Things

Have you ever thought about streetlight design?

The city of Los Angeles held a competition not too long ago, with the winner announced last September. A design studio called Project Room won for its concept, which met the challenge of including not just new technologies (like LEDs and allowing for 5G), but also space for banners and signs and ways of creating shade as the climate crisis accelerates.

Los Angeles will use the design to gradually replaces its 180,000 standard streetlights (not ones that are considered historic) — which they do at a rate of one to two thousand a year. 

As the linked story says,

Project Room's winning design reimagines the traditional lamp post as a bundle of tubes where each service -- roadway light, pedestrian light, and telecommunications equipment -- is assigned a dedicated tube fabricated of steel or aluminum, according to a city statement. The design allows for additional features, such as 5G equipment, shade fixtures, and even a bench, to be added as needed.

I'm particularly excited that each of those lights could have a bench built into it. What an obvious thing to do, and a simple thing that will make the city better even if the lighting wasn't also better.