Do you use lampshades in your home? Of course you do. Why? The glare from the bulb is visually discomforting and your ability to see is diminished without them. The situation of discomfort glare is wide spread throughout Logansport, but it is not happening indoors, just look out your window.

It comes from all of those old style street lights that have been attacking our visual sense for decades. You know, the ones that have a droppish refractor which is used to distribute the light.

The basic design of these lights comes straight out of the 1940's when, like a new birthday toy, the novelty of the electric light bulb had not worn off.

The glare from these lights, including the new ones recently installed along High Street east of Spencer Park, is a safety hazard and infringes upon one's privacy through light trespass. The glare is especially bad in inclement weather. There is a better way.

Since the 1970's a type of street light known as a full cutoff (FCO) type has been on the market and is widely available from all major lighting manufactures.

The term full cutoff derives from the fact that no light escapes above the fixture, and who needs light up there anyway, it's just lighting up the undersides of birds and planes at the expense of your property taxes.

The FCO fixtures are distinctive in that they replace the refractor found in the old style street lights with a flat glass window.

The FCO fixtures rely upon reflection rather than refraction to distribute their light. Modern FCO fixtures afford greater control of the light than the old refractor style.

As a result, glare to the driver or pedestrian is reduced, thus allowing better visibility which results in a safer nighttime environment. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), the authority when it comes to lighting applications, recognizes this benefit of FCO fixtures.

Due for release later this year, the revised IESNA publication Recommended Practices (RP-8) for roadway lighting places limitations of the amount of acceptable glare.

From an aesthetic point of view, the FCO fixtures are more pleasing to the eye since the "prison yard" look of the old glaring fixtures will be a thing of the past.

FCO fixtures come in many different forms from the ubiquitous cobra head street light design to ornamental ones such as the McGraw-Edison Lexington Dayform post-top or Architectural Area Lighting's Promenade series to name a few.

I urge LMU, the county, and the city council to consider these issues when deciding upon what type of lighting to install downtown or elsewhere.

The decision is critical since we will have to live with the resultant lighting for the next 30 years (the average lifetime of a street lighting installation). We have tolerated the glary nighttime long enough. It's time to give our eyes a rest and produce a better nighttime environment for all.