Guidelines for The Implementation of Reduced Lighting on Roadways

Chapter 5. Summary

These guidelines have been developed to provide a designer or a roadway agency with a complete review of all aspects of the implementation of adaptive lighting on roadways. Through the development of a relationship between crashes and lighting, criteria have been chosen that affect the selection of the lighting level on a roadway. A lighting level selection methodology has been developed with these parameters. These parameters can also be used to actively determine a lighting level, meaning that the lighting system could be changed to adapt to the current needs of the driver and the roadway. The implementation of these systems requires a lighting control system and dimmable luminaires.

It is expected that the application of these design methods will sustain the current safety levels on roadways while reducing the use of unwanted light, the waste of energy, and the overall impact of the lighting system on the environment.

Acknowledgements

The project team would like to thank the project technical representatives from FHWA, Carl Andersen (2011–2012) and Craig Thor (2012–2014). Many individuals also provided data for the traffic and lighting parameters.