Traffic lights

Technological development runs fast and anticipates the future. In the lighting sector, innovation is giving a huge contribution to the solution of one of the problems that are greatly affecting our times. Set aside the problem of energy saving, put in a drawer that of pollution, the one which production is mainly concerned with now is the problem of problems: getting more and more colorful and dynamic light.

The industry has shown great attention to the stimuli coming from the market and has met the pressing requests from various population strata, discomforted and depressed by sadly monochrome streets and historic centers. Led by the progress of electronics, we have now available devices capable of generating powerful and colorful light shafts and of changing their intensity and coloring thanks to sophisticated electronic circuits, creating firework chromatic stunts. Changing lights, in a continuous chromatic evolution, satisfy the aesthetic sense of the undecided who – as it happens at every election – struggle to stick to a single color. Forecasts say that in the near future we’ll be able to instantly adapt the color of street lighting to that of the vehicles in transit, getting a more harmonic perception of urban spaces.

Professionals don’t have any more excuses and can command all the necessary tools to get quality lightings. Research is now focused on finding new solutions for traffic lights, to prevent their poorly harmonic colors from spoiling the cities’ new images.

(Published in the column “Il corsivo di Oscuro”, in Luce e Design, n. 6/2006)

In 2006, when this text was written, the industry was aggressively pressing to promote LEDs, insisting very much on the commercial potentialities of color management. From this, a sort of “trend” has emanated in architectural lighting projects, which still holds on with often pernicious results.