Barcelona will invest 7 million to improve lighting and reduce dark spots

BarcelonaDistributing light better or lowering streetlights below the treetops to better illuminate the sidewalks are some of the actions included in the new lighting plan of the Barcelona City Council, which will allocate 7 million euros to correct 82 dark spots in the city this 2021. a, Eloi Badia, to improve the lighting sensation on the street, but also to make a "qualitative leap" in lighting technologies. The City Council also plans to introduce more LED lighting - white and with lower consumption - with the intention that by the end of the year it will go from 26% of lighting to 36%, and will allow for improved energy efficiency.

Another of the axes of the planned improvements is related to the gender perspective. "We know that the perception of men and women is very different and we have a clear gender bias that we must reverse," said Badia. The councillor explained that before any action is carried out, routes will be carried out through the city's districts, with this gender perspective, to detect the areas where work needs to be done. Finally, with these actions the council also wants to make progress in remote management, which is currently present in just over half of the command centres, 54%.

Where will lighting be improved?

The investment will be made in three ways: 1.9 million will be allocated to the renovation of the lighting, 2 million to maintenance modifications and 3.2 million to new urban developments. These amounts were agreed with ERC in the approval of the municipal budget. With this money, some eighty actions will be carried out, in addition to the 136 already carried out by the City Council in recent years. Some of the areas where lighting needs to be improved are the following:

• Gran Vía Carlos III (between Avenida Diagonal and Plaza Prat de la Riba) (Les Corts)
• Aragó Street (Eixample)
• Ramon Trias Fargas Street (Sant Martí)
• Vallespir Street (Sants-Montjuïc)
• Villarroel Street (Eixample)
• Glòries Park (Sant Martí)
• Romero People's Square (Gracia)
• Marquesa de Villalonga Street (Sarrià)
• Commerce Square (Sant Andreu)
• Ribelles Street (Nou Barris)

Barcelona has 151,000 public electricity points, which represents 20% of the total energy consumption of the City Council. This is a much lower consumption percentage than the average for municipalities, which is around 50%.