Parking On a Dark Street Could…Be Safer

You might have chosen to park at a spot under a street lamp thinking that it’s safer, but a new study from UK is telling us that assumption is wrong.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at crime stats from the Thames Valley Police in Oxfordshire, Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham between April 2004 and September 2013, and compared it with street lighting data during the same period. They found that there were more vehicle break-ins on streets where the street lamps were switched on throughout the night compared to streets where the lights were switched off after midnight.

The research, published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, found that when street lighting was turned off between 12am to 5am (aka part-night lighting or PNL), incidents of vehicle theft fell by a significant 44%. 

It makes sense now that we think about it. Thieves that steal from vehicles are often opportunists, looking out for forgotten valuables on the car seat or an unlocked car, which is easier to do when the surroundings are well lit. They would not risk using a torchlight on a dark street which would, of course, attract attention and arouse suspicion. 

The study also found that when lighting in certain streets were switched off, there was a rise in vehicle thefts in neighbouring roads that were lit, suggesting that if the offender finds it challenging to see, they simply move elsewhere to commit the offense. 

The local council might adopt different lighting adaptations—whether white light, dimming, PNL or switched off—to reduce cost or adopt better environmental practices. In an earlier study, the same research team found that there was no link between these different adaptations to the level of violence or residential burglary in the area. 

They are, however, not suggesting that turning off the lights is the solution to solving crimes on the streets at night. After all, the lack of lighting could discourage people, especially vulnerable members of society such as the elderly, from leaving their homes at night and that’s not how we want to live. 

One academic peer did suggest that perhaps the answer is to find a level of lighting that still allowed the community to move about freely yet still discouraged criminal activities – a lighting “sweet spot”, if you will.