Safer Nights in Rural Halton, Thanks to Smart Streetlighting

Rural roads in rural Halton, Ontario, get dark, fast. Anyone who has driven along Halton-Erin Road after sunset knows how limited the visibility can be, especially in the long stretches without sidewalks or clear shoulders. As more people move into peri-urban areas, those roads are busier than ever. The problem is that the lighting hasn’t kept up.

Traditional LED streetlights help a bit, but they stay at full brightness all night. That wastes electricity during quieter hours and doesn’t give drivers or pedestrians targeted lighting when they actually need it. Newer smart lighting systems, like SMRT Lite, are designed to fill that gap.

Check out the research, Improving Safety in Rural Halton by implementing Smart Streetlights Systems.

What Makes Smart Lighting Different

Instead of shining at full power until morning, smart streetlights adjust to real conditions. An infrared sensor detects a vehicle or pedestrian, the light brightens for a few seconds, and then it fades back to a low baseline. Simple. Fast. Energy efficient.

A simulation on a 5 km stretch of Halton-Erin Road shows how big the difference can be. In a normal setup, the 125 LED poles along that corridor burn through 36,500 kWh a year. With SMRT Lite, that number drops to 4,088 kWh. The energy savings work out to about 89%. The annual cost falls from $4,745 to $533.

That’s a lot of money to reinvest in other services, especially across multiple rural corridors.

Smart Cities: A Survey on Data Management, Security and Enabling Technologies - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Example-of-smart-street-light-scenario-19_fig2_318975578

Why Rural Roads Need This First

Halton has already taken major steps to meet its climate goals, and many urban areas have benefited from LED upgrades. Rural areas still lag behind. Long distances, lower traffic volumes, and tight budgets make improvements harder to justify. Yet these are the very places where visibility often matters most.

Poor lighting affects:

• Nighttime drivers navigating narrow shoulders

• Cyclists who rely on drivers seeing them early

• School bus routes

• Farm equipment and delivery vehicles

• Residents who walk sections without sidewalks

  
  

Smart lighting can close the gap between urban and rural safety, and it

supports the region’s climate goals at the same time.

Options on the Table

Halton has a few paths it can take.

• Keep things as they areThis avoids upfront costs but locks the region into long-term energy waste. Safety concerns remain.

• Try a pilot projectRetrofitting one or two roads gives Halton real-world data. It keeps the budget controlled, but benefits are limited to a small area.

• Roll out smart lighting across rural corridorsThis offers the biggest impact. Higher upfront costs, yes, but strong financial returns over time and clear safety improvements.

  
  

Steps That Can Start Right Away

Several actions would help move the region toward cleaner and safer lighting.

1. Begin a pilot on Halton-Erin Road and one more rural route.

2. Apply for provincial and federal infrastructure funding.

3. Update municipal lighting policies to consider motion-sensing systems for future upgrades.

4. Track energy savings, public feedback, and safety trends.

5. Share results with the community so people know why changes are happening.

   
   

Lighting the Way Forward

Smart streetlighting gives rural Halton a practical way to improve nighttime safety while cutting costs and lowering emissions. The technology is affordable, easy to scale, and already used successfully in places like Norway. With a thoughtful rollout, Halton can build safer roads and make progress on its climate commitments at the same time.

Lark Scientific’s Role

Lark Scientific supported this research as part of its collaboration with the University of Waterloo’s EWEAL program, providing technical expertise and resources to help bridge academic insights with practical municipal applications. By contributing to evidence-based environmental solutions like green roof retrofits, Lark Scientific is helping accelerate climate adaptation strategies in communities across Canada.