Parking Under a Street Light Can Increase Risk of Car Theft
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and UCL with funding from NIHR, began a study to survey the change in car theft in the circumstantial parking spaces under the spotlight from April 2000 to September 2013. The study showed that the amount of cars stolen was halved when part-night lighting was affixed compared to when the normal streetlights were activated. Vehicle break-ins and damage to vehicles decreased from a vast 12 cars stolen under streetlights a month to only 6 car break-ins a month once part time lighting was introduced, reducing the need fir people to buy replacement car parts.
Coincidentally, violent crime increased by 1.5x on a nearby street that kept the street lights on, this suggests the criminals decided the light would help them in committing their crimes. Research has also found that neighbouring streets that kept their lights on have seen an increase in car theft throughout the night as the thief can see when somebody has accidentally left their laptop on the passenger seat or the expensive parts of vehicles are visible for them to steal.
As a response to lengthening environmental issues due to the amount of energy used, because of this Europe and the UK have endorsed the new part-night lighting which reduces the carbon footprint by automatically turning off between midnight and 6am. This is even more reason for the part-night lighting to be used as it doesn’t only decrease crime but it decreases the environmental issues.
The researchers have analysed nearly 10 years of data about the correlation between part-night lighting and car theft or violent crimes. However, the study just further implied the past results and showed basically no relationship between lighting and violent crimes. Dr Edwards later stated “It is clear from other studies that people like street lighting, it makes them feel safer. But studies like ours are showing that actually the effects of street lighting aren’t that clear.”
