BRIGHT LIGHTS GOTTA GO
Residents near the Rouge Hill GO station see the light — and they see it too much.
Most people appreciate a welllit parking lot when walking to their car at night, but you can have too much of a good thing.
Last Saturday, we reported on several large overhead lights that for months hadn’t worked at the north parking lot of the Rouge Hill GO station, on Lawrence Ave. E., leaving people who have to walk to their cars in the dark feeling vulnerable.
Metrolinx, which operates GO Transit, got them fixed, prompting effusive thanks from Richard Lake, who first told us about them and said “you accomplished in one day what I was unable to do in three months.”
And then a note arrived from Gwen Miron that popped our bubble. Her home is right next to the parking lot at the Georgetown GO station, and is perpetually illuminated from the overhead lighting towers in the lot.
We’ve had similar complaints from people whose homes are close to bright lights — a woman told us a flashing billboard on the Gardiner Expressway lights up her condo and drives her nuts — but few have made the case as well as Miron.
She said the light closest to her yard is on a timer that shuts off at 11 p.m., but only because she begged Metrolinx for mercy. Even so, she has to occasionally call and remind them, after it starts to stay on again all night.
The lights “illuminate my yard and house, and my neighbours’ yards as if it were daylight,” she said, adding, “they shine through the skylights and windows in my house as if all of the lights are on all of the time inside my house.
“People need to understand that these lights, while they are on, impede the enjoyment of our backyards, especially on nice summer nights. If we wanted our yards and houses to be lit up like the Mojave Desert at high noon, we would turn on our own lights.”
She goes on to ask how people who expect parking lots to be lit up like Christmas trees would feel if they had live next to them, and notes that she had gotten used to the constant noise and car alarms that go off in the lot. But the lights are too much. Status: Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins emailed to say, “It is sometimes a tough balance ensuring every- one’s needs are met and ensuring people are safe. While we work diligently to maintain good relationships with our neighbours, the safety of customers is always central to our work.
“Our parking lots are public spaces and we must keep them properly lit to ensure customers can safely go to and from our stations after dark. Well-lit parking lots are in the interest of everyone’s safety.”