Flagstaff Gas Stations Cutting Glare

Revised City and County lighting ordinances are requiring new and re-built service stations to eliminate extreme lighting

Varsity Gasser on Milton Road in Flagstaff is egregiously overlit, causing increased glare and reduced visibility.

Everyone notices it — and almost everyone realizes something is out of whack. Lighting at service stations in recent years has escalated to almost fantastic levels. All across the country, new fixtures are not only brighter than ever, but tend to spread light everywhere, especially to the side and into peoples' eyes.

Service station owners, responding to stiff competitive pressures, are seeking to convince potential customers that their stations are "safer" or "more attractive" than the one across the street. Industry representatives selling the newer fixtures often describe the effect they are after as "sparkle."

The Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition regularly receives complaints about service station glare. Glare interferes with the ability of motorists to safely see the nearby roadways, and may cause drivers to squint in attempts to detect pedestrians or hazards on the roadway. For older drivers this problem is especially severe.

Even for customers who actually visit the businesses, these extreme lighting levels can hamper visibility, particularly when leaving the brightly illuminated areas and re-ntering the more moderately illuminated roadway with eyes that have become accustomed to the high lighting level.

A study by the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that the percentage of drivers turning in to a service station and the mean number of gallons of gasoline sold daily increased immediately following the change of lighting from glaring drop-lens, non-cutoff luminaires to less glaring full and partial cutoff luminaires. The study suggests that better lighting encourages drivers to use a gas station.

Despite strict lighting codes in Flagstaff and Coconino County, many over-lit stations have appeared even here. In 1999, the City of Flagstaff amended its code to address this problem. Coconino County followed suit in December of 2001.

These new standards limit the amount of light under the canopy and require fixtures that do not shine light sideways. [See Section 10-08-002-0005.M of the Flagstaff Lighting Code (on-line at www.darksky.org/infoshts/is094.html)]

Three service stations, new or re-built in recent months following these new standards, show that reasonable levels can provide good visibility and safety without causing glare to passersby.

The first to turn on their new canopy, in February 2002, was the Express Stop across from the Flagstaff Mall. This station has a lighting level about of about four footcandles, about one-twentieth of the level of the typically overlit station. A footcandle is the lighting level you would see one foot away from a typical candle. Roadways and parking lots are typically illuminated to 1-2 footcandles.

Two other eastside stations with canopies are now lit to the new standards. The new Safeway station located in the Savers parking lot is lit to about 10 footcandles. The lighting level under the canopy of the rebuilt Maverick station just north on U.S. 89 is about 9 footcandles. These lighting levels are consistent with levels recommended by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), a national association of lighting professionals.

"Night lighting, to be most effective, must be done with care and balance." Says Christian Luginbuhl, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff and member of the IESNA. "To provide good visibility, lighting levels must be moderate, and compatible with lighting levels used, for example, on roadways or provided by headlights. The human eye can see well in both sunlight and moonlight," he says, "but not both at the same time."

For more information, contact Chris Luginbuhl at 779-5132 ext.235, or e-mail the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition at info@flagstaffdarkskies.org.

Original JPEG image files of of the three service stations shown above are available copyright free below.

Express Stop across from the Flagstaff Mall. Download
Safeway Gas on North Highway 89A - Flagstaff. Download
Maverick Gas on North Highway 89A - Flagstaff. Download