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Umbrella Street Lights

Street lights have umbrella tops that allow for small dry places during storms.
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In many countries, there are hefty architectural feats that ensure dry spots around the city. For example, an entire city in Italy, Bologna, is covered with brick awnings to help with their rainy climate. Well..., people used to throw their literal shit out of the windows back in the day and that might have had a small role to play. Anyways!

This idea is for less fortunate places. Places that lack any real cover from the rain, but they still have street lights. Why don't we make giant umbrella attachments on these lights, and when there is a storm you can walk up to one of the lights, press a button, and a giant umbrella unfolds over the top for you and any other passers-by.

daseva, Jun 10 2010

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       The umbrellas should be permanently open over the lights, so that more light is reflected down to the ground and light pollution in cities is lessened.
hippo, Jun 10 2010
  

       brilliant idea, although with regard to the light pollution aspect there is currently a massive drive in many UK cities to replace old fashioned street lighting with more modern devices which are not only more energy efficient but also cast the majority of their light downwards in an effort to let us once again look to the stars
ComatoseSheep, Jun 10 2010
  

       I think it's a good idea except that street lights are usually up very high and if it's raining sideways they wouldn't offer much protection unless they were very large umbrellas.
xandram, Jun 10 2010
  

       [xandram], a true problem. I suspect that after the restrictions of size due to neighboring street lights and obstructions to the road during open/close events, but accounting for potential telescoping rods, the umbrellas should be able to open with a diameter somewhere around 20-25 ft. Rain will still get in during those sideways downpours.   

       I am particularly interested in letting such a massive machine be operable by the public. That is, I think people would love it and maybe even use it during hot sunny days or just for the heck of it. I guess that's alright with me.
daseva, Jun 10 2010
  

       If only a few cities specifically did this, the pictures of the umbrellas would be good postcards.
daseva, Jun 11 2010
  

       Why not have a transparent umbrella at much lower height than the light? I am with whoever that wants the umbrella always fixed open.
kamathln, Jun 11 2010
  

       Many of them are wooden. Traffic lights are almost always metal, but not so for street lights.
daseva, Jun 11 2010
  

       Jesus, fine. Only to be used during showers. Wimp.
daseva, Jun 11 2010
  

       You would be safer beneath a metallic streetlight/umbrella in a lightning storm simply because it would function like a lightning rod and take the energy to ground No?
vfrackis, Jun 14 2010
  

       Major improvement in electrical efficiency plus a way to stay more dry equals major bun.   

       One flaw: heavy rain falling off the rim into the street would create rather dangerous low-visibility walls of water for drivers.
RayfordSteele, Jun 14 2010
  

       // One flaw: heavy rain falling off the rim into the street would create rather dangerous low-visibility walls of water for drivers //   

       So instead of an umbrella with water falling off the outer edge, make it a funnel with water diverted down a drain at the middle - just the same coverage but without losing the rainwater.   

       Bonus: fit miniature turbine generators inside the drain tube so that fallng rain generates power to run the light.
Tulaine, Jun 14 2010
  

       // If only a few cities specifically did this, the pictures of the umbrellas would be good postcards. //   

       Or if each city had a distinctive umbrella style.   

       // You would be safer beneath a metallic streetlight/umbrella in a lightning storm simply because it would function like a lightning rod and take the energy to ground No? //   

       Just put signs under the umbrellae advising people on how to stand there safely during an electrical storm: All points of contact with the ground equidistant from the pole, and all on the same type of ground (sidewalk, road, grass). Don't touch another person unless both of you *combined* follow those rules. Move by jumping.
notexactly, Apr 08 2019
  
      
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