The lighting will not be turned off this winter on the metropolitan part of the tangential. Turning off the lights on the Orleans ring road was one of the Loiret Department’s lines of thought as part of its energy sobriety plan
. On October 17, a life-size experiment same been carried out for part of the night. But the results were not conclusive in terms of safety.
Difficulties with tangential entries and exits
During the test, the tangential had been plunged into darkness, from 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., on the 13km of this section. Roads officers from the Department carried out the route thus blacked out and analyzed the traffic and safety conditions – it was then in the pouring rain. And the verdict is final: the conditions are too poor for motorists and truck drivers.
“The results reveal difficulties especially at the level of the entries and exits of the tangentialExplain Herve Gauratthe vice-president of the Loiret Department in charge of mobility. Signaling and markings should be modified or reinforced, for example with reflective strips. In the current state, it would not be relevant to switch to a total extinction of lighting this winter, because it would create a kind of potentially dangerous black hole for users.“
Lower the intensity of the lighting if you don’t turn everything off
However, the Department does not renounce to act on the subject. “An alternative would simply be to reduce the intensity of the lighting, without going to extinctionindicates the chosen one. Another track, use only LED lighting, but it will be necessary to invest to replace the bulbs, we are in the process of identifying all the light points concerned.“
A decision should be made by the end of the year. But nothing will be done without consultation with the municipalities of the metropolis of Orleans borrowed or bordered by the tangential. “Some parts of the road do not belong to the Department but to the municipalitiesrecalls Hervé Gaurat, we therefore need to harmonize our ways of doing things. Everyone wants to save energy, but it is also and above all necessary to ensure the safety of users.“