This happens in many towns and cities in the UK too.
For the UK, important streetlight (motorways, junctions, etc) are kept on. But the quieter streets and away from junctions are shut off.
It’s done for “climate” reasons but I’m pretty use the root cause is actually just another cost cutting measure.
"many towns and cities in the UK" is definitely over-selling this. I've never seen this once, so it must be very rare.
Definitely not rare: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mzkgxr22po
My county isn’t listed there so there plenty more councils which also do this and arent mentioned.
“Many” is subjective though. So your experience could be valid and my statement still true.
It's good that financial and environmental incentives are aligned in this case.
Yeah definitely. It’s not all that often that happens.
Climate, not light pollution?
Personally I’d argue that light pollution is a climate issue. I’m not a scientist though so maybe there’s a more precise definition here that I’m overlooking?
But regardless, energy savings was also one of the cited reasons. So to answer your question: both.
Why would you say it's a climate issue?
Because light is an environmental property to a region and one that can affect the habitat of organisms which live there.
It’s not really any difference to other traditional climate concerns like wind nor rain aside from light being a non-tactile property. But then neither is heat.
I will concede that my interpretation of the term “climate” here might not be correct. I’m not an expert in this field so it’s entirely possible I’ve stretched the definition
Climate is long-term weather patterns.
Ahhh thank you. That explains the puzzled responses to my comments