A small town in the Netherlands, Zuidhoek-Nieuwkoop, has become the first town in the world to install red street lights. The primary motivation was to protect local, rare bat populations. The red light isn’t perceived by the bats but allows humans to see at night. The red street lights are manufactured by the Dutch lighting giant Signify.

Additional benefits that are claimed from the red street lights include:

• Minimizes impact on many other plants, animals, and insects,
• Controls allow the town to turn up the brightness for emergency services,
• The lights can dim down late at night, when there aren’t people on the streets, to improve resident sleep and save more energy,
• Claimed circadian health and sleep benefits for nearby residents from the red spectrum.