A Voss and Pike Casefile: The Early Days
Section 7: The Lamp Log
The council's lighting schedule was one page. ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMME: alternate lamps on all quays switched off 22:00 to 06:00, effective March. Beside it Marian had pinned the abstract of a study she'd clearly used in teaching: Painter and Farrington, street lighting and crime. Better-lit areas, less crime. In the margin: And fewer broken ankles. And fewer drownings. The study didn't have a column for those.
"The one lamp that's working," said Jonah slowly, "lights the exact stretch where the railing's missing."
"Somebody turned off alternate lamps to save money," you said. "Somebody took out a railing to build a stage. Neither of them is a person. Both of them are decisions."
The council switched off alternate quay lamps from 22:00 as an energy saving, leaving a single working lamp over the unfenced stretch - the very pattern Marian's research example, Painter and Farrington's lighting study, shows to be a policy choice with consequences.