Pittsburg BART Station
Pittsburg BART Station
About the project
CUSTOMER & BACKGROUND
Being open to passengers since the 70s, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit ) has been a cornerstone of public transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area. BART serves 48 stations along six routes on 112 miles of rapid transit lines and connects San Francisco and Oakland with urban and suburban areas in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties. This transit system even has over 411,000 daily passengers on weekdays according to a report in 2019. Through this, it is shown how important BART is for the people living and working in the area. For this project, The customer was the city of Pittsburg who wanted to replace the lights on the pathways outside their local BART station.
THE CUSTOMER’S SITUATION
In recent years, there have been issues concerning the safety of passengers, especially at nighttime. Currently, in the city of Pittsburg, there are 434 annual incidents of violent crime and 1837 incidents of property crime. Because of this, according to the City of Pittsburgh crime statistics, the city has been working diligently to try and make Pittsburgh a safer place for its residents. The transit system, BART, has also made several changes to its infrastructure and security protocol over the years to help make passengers feel more secure while riding. Through this continued work, BART is constantly becoming safer for the residents of the bay area.
To help further along their mission of creating a safer BART, the City of Pittsburg, California contacted Soltech inquiring about solar lights. Off-grid lighting was needed because due to the location of the existing poles, there was no economical way to install on-grid lights. Because these solar lights are easy to install and have a motion security function, it was an easy decision for the city of Pittsburg to go with Soltech.
This customer wanted a budget-friendly outdoor lighting option to help ensure the safety of BART passengers. Motion sensors in the solar lights make them very effective as security lights. To secure the future of BART, is it imperative for the city to lower these crime statistics. Although security lights will not completely deter crime, some places have seen over a 39% decrease in crime after installing better outdoor lighting.
Due to the nature of the project and budgetary constraints, Soltech provided a lighting solution using the all-in-one Sunlike 20W for the project.
DESIGN & PLANNING
The City of Pittsburg was provided 9 SunLike 20W to illuminate the pedestrian pathway leading to the Pittsburg Center BART Station entrance on CA Highway 4 E/W overpass. They were mounted using Slip Fitters to poles against a fence and set at 35 degrees. (Learn more about solar panel angles and why they are important )
Soltech’s lighting design specialist drafted a lighting design using the software DIALux. Lights had to be retrofit-installed on existing fence posts. The light pattern slightly reflects this limitation; however, decent coverage was achieved overall as seen in the following photometric.
◆ Brightness: 4,000 Lm
◆ Efficiency: 200 Lm per Watt
◆ Color Temperature: 5000 K
◆ Total installation height: 10 Feet
◆ Average sunny days in Pittsburg CA: 265
◆ US average sunny days/year: 205
◆ Average fc: >2 (The Lux level reached up to 36+ Lux under each pole. This matches the initial photometric results and is in accordance with the Illumination Engineering Society of North America’s walking path brightness standards.)
By using the remote control that came with the lights, the City’s Electricians were able to program the Sunlike 20Ws to act as security lights. They selected the 40 % – 100% mode function on the remote. To learn more about our remotes and their different function, please watch this Remote Control Guide video.
RESULTS
After the installation, both Soltech and the City of Pittsburg think that the Pittsburg BART station has become a more secure place. The fixtures brighten whenever someone walks by using the state-of-the-art motion sensor, deterring crimes after sundown. Today, the lights are still working as they did when they were first installed. Soltech is committed to working with municipalities across the nation to help make cities safer for its residents.
DAY & NIGHT
