Installing LED Lighting at the Back Lane

MBPJ launched the Program for Installing LED Lighting at the Back Lane recently. The Program is a partnership initiative in which the local authority will bear the cost of installation and equipment while the house owners will pay for the monthly electricity bill. RM100,000 has been allocated in which approximately 400 houses will be benefited from this scheme. This is part of the Safe City and Low Carbon Green City Program of Petaling Jaya.

Under the 23 steps of Safe City Programme, Step 21 suggested that lighting should be installed at the lane, frontage of houses or any dark spot. It is believed that a bright place will reduce the possibility of crime incidence. Hence, relationship between lighting and crime is established. This is logical as many of us do not want to reach out to dark place with the fear of untoward things happen. We perceive that places not visible by ourselves or others is not safe to visit. We tend to walk on the street with full lighting and with huge crowd rather than venturing ourselves to the quiet place. However, from the web search of 120,000 sites found that no concrete studies or definite conclusions have been made on the correlation between more lighting will reduce crime incidence.

Having said this, general public still believe that lighting up their house compound and passage way will reduce the possibility of crime from happen. They believe that even though thief might still want to break in unnoticed by them during wee hour, the light will hopefully bright enough for the neighbours to alert what happening next door. I think rightly so.

Using LED Lighting on the other hand will help reduce the emission of carbon dioxside with electricity saving. LED light with same intensity of brightness is consuming 60% less of eletricity compared to the conventional bulb. The use of LED lighting for combating crime is a project killing two birds with one stone. It is a project for sustainable development, with the integration of environment, economy and social components. It is a showcase of environmentally friendly can be profitable.