The role of street lighting in reducing vehicle and pedestrian collisions

Street lighting has always been the main element that assists the roads users to navigate with ease during dusk. Throughout the centuries, the implementation of some type of lighting in the cities played a vital role in the safety of the road users. With all the technological innovations during the last decade and especially with the revolution of the LED technology, nowadays we expect from outdoor lighting much more than the possibility to see at night. Road lighting has become a necessary tool for reducing the number of night-time road traffic accidents, improving the visual comfort of drivers, the potential to increase the night-time traffic capacity of a given road and the reduction of the criminality [1]. However, given the massive increase in the energy consumption, there have been major efforts in engineering illumination solutions that would ensure energy saving. The main argument is how these measures affect pedestrian and driver behaviour, and whether lighting conditions play a role in circumstances which lead to collisions. The aim of this project is to inform lighting engineering solutions, by ascertaining how street lighting affects the conspicuity of pedestrians to drivers after dark in urban environments and defining how critical pedestrian decision making is affected by the lighting of the street scene. This fundamental research is essential to inform the planning of street furniture infrastructure which will form the spine of smart cities of the future. This proposal is organized as follows. Section 2 analyses the existing research studies that have been undertaken on this subject including background information on traffic accidents analysis in relation to the implemented lighting systems. In section 3 the main research aims and questions are highlighted. Section 4 follows with the detailed methodology that will be carried out including some of the expected outcomes of the research. Finally, in section 5 a detailed timeframe is provided, highlighting the tasks that will be undertaken during this PhD research.