In message , David Hansen
writes
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 23:24:32 -0800 (PST) someone who may be terry
wrote this:-

Often wondered why street lights on all night. Wasted energy etc. Also
unnecessary pollution where electrcity is generated by coal or other
fossil fuel. Could save some small municipalities some cost?

Because electricity was too cheap and so councils generally didn't
bother, especially when they switched from time clocks to
photocells. However, there were places in the 1970s where the street
lights went off at around ISTR midnight, I suspect that at the time
they had not been converted to photocell operation.


Yep, I can certainly remember living somewhere when I was a kid where
the streetlights used to turn off around then.

Also remember living somewhere else where they didn't and there used to
be a confused blackbird who'd sit on the streetlight at in the middle of
the night singing
--
Chris French