Since the first confinement, mayors have been testing the extinction of public lighting at night

Since the first confinement introduced in March as part of the fight against the coronavirus, its municipality of 16.000 inhabitants, located south of Paris, has been experimenting with the extinction of public lighting from midnight to 5 a.m. Only the area around the hospital remains lit all night.

"We took advantage of the fact that there was no one in the streets to proceed with the extinction", explains the elected Socialist, whose program contained this measure which, after the concern of some, is rather "globally well accepted and understood ".

Since its inception, "between 15 and 20.000 euros" savings have been made and will "modernize the lighting so that we can add sensors and gradually have intelligent lighting."

Switching off the light to preserve biodiversity and nocturnal fauna, reduce the ecological impact and the energy bill: the fight against light pollution at night is not new, but the arguments of its supporters have found a new echo with the streets deserted by confinement and the economic crisis which threatens to strain local finances.

"Bat"

Some mayors already had "a preliminary reflection on the question" and the confinement gave them "a pretext to act", confirms Anne-Marie Ducroux, president of the national association for the protection of the sky and the night environment (ANPCEN ).

Others, who were not necessarily aware of the issue, "asked themselves new questions and may extend this one-off experience beyond confinement," she hopes.

Temporarily converted, these cities could swell the ranks of the 12.000 out of 35.000 municipalities that have been turning off the switch overnight for several years.

Located in the suburbs of Dijon (Côte-d'Or), the village of Magny-sur-Tille, is one of the precursors: its 900 inhabitants live without public lighting from midnight to 5 am since a referendum in 30, where the "yes "won two-thirds.

Beyond the savings - "from 30 to 40%, or about 4.000 euros" per year, extinction has above all made it possible to "respect the natural cycle and animal life", reports the unlabeled mayor Nicolas Bourny. "It's good for biodiversity, for bats for example, which eat mosquitoes, but it's also good for people because the darkness, which prevents endocrine disruption, is part of good living."

As for the security argument, brandished by some mayors who are reluctant to take the plunge, the elected official indicates that he has "seen neither an increase nor a decrease in the number of burglaries" and assures to have "gained in public peace".

"The gatherings of young people, which lasted until 2-3am have disappeared: now, as soon as it goes out, they disappear", he notes, while conceding that this measure is not necessarily applicable to larger cities where the "security issues are completely different".

"Not Ayatollahs"

In Bordeaux precisely, the new municipal team led by the ecologist Pierre Hurmic "would like to propose switching off the lights from 1:00 am to 5:00 am in areas with little traffic, not used".

The city center will not be affected nor the areas "said sensitive" from a security point of view, specifies AFP Laurent Guillemin, deputy mayor in charge of "sobriety in the management of natural resources".

"We will not have any qualms about switching off a major axis if it is very little frequented" but "it is out of the question to switch off the lighting for the principle of switching off , we are not ayatollahs ".

For Anne-Marie Ducroux, the objective is "obviously not to switch off everywhere" but "to change the lens" starting "from the real needs of people: is this floor lamp really useful? could it be deleted or be turned off sooner? "

In "only twenty years", the amount of light emitted at night has increased by 94%, it is "absolutely colossal", she insists. It is therefore time "in the 2018st century to ask questions on this subject", like the French who according to a survey published in 79 are now 48% in favor of reducing public lighting at night, against 2012 % in XNUMX.