Re: Ok, I must be crazy, but....
Been too imprecise, sorry, move to Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany.
Street lights are not only possibly lower compared to US communities there, they get, as previously mentioned, completely switched off at night. Typically from Sunday to Thursday between 01:00am and 05:00am, in communities up to a population of 25000 citizens.
You would not just possibly wish to have a light there, you would simply not see your hand in front of your eyes without one. For meeting a police officer you'll have to make an emergency call (and wait 15 minutes) or to make a trip to the next county town.
Cheers
RBR
+1.
In turn, I also need to be more precise. My Apologies!
When I typed my initial response, I was thinking of life in the Nürnberg-Erlangen Großraum area. When I lived in the Harz Mountains near Kassel, then my experiences matched RBRs commentary fairly closely. and any 'emergency' call to 110, well, some Polizei might show up in a half hour. For that matter, I would hazard the comment that a small town in the US has a noticeably better police response than a small Dorf in Germany.
However sort of back on topic: The denizens of most rural towns in the US usually have better access to a working flashlight and that is probably larger & brighter than the average German citizen of a small Dorf. Any resident of a large urban area, and especially in the US, tends to believe that street lights and constant Mains power is an assumption....until the power fails.
even closer to the topic: After exiting the military I did some seasonal farm work for an airline pilot who was running a hobby farm in southern MN. In 100% of the cases, any time I pulled out a bright light, both he and his farming neighbors were interested in the light and where I obtained it. Even now when hobby farms are far more popular, the majority of the owners are interested in at least one bright handheld light. They start out with a huge 6V or 12V lantern.
On the other hand, city dwellers are nearly totally disinterested in bright handheld lights and the little cheapie 9 LED lights are mostly sufficient for them. I have been told directly more than once that I am totally crazy for spending/investing over $1000 in bright handheld lights and non-standard batteries (non-standard to them). Only rarely do they remember my show & tell demos, usually after a storm with power out and trees down.
I will also observe that of the lights that I gave away, only the small pocketable lights either with rechargeable cells (TUBE) or small lights with commonly available cells (1xAAA) are used longer than a month or so. A lesson for me.
a moldyoldy