Table Of ContentRoad Lighting
Wout van Bommel
Road Lighting
Fundamentals, Technology and Application
2123
Wout van Bommel
Lighting Consultant
Nuenen
The Netherlands
ISBN 978-3-319-11465-1 ISBN 978-3-319-11466-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-11466-8
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014956928
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Dedicated to: the many students and
attendees of conferences who, through
their critical questions and participation
in discussions, helped me over a period
of some 40 years in learning how to
explain lighting.
Preface
This is my second book on the subject of road lighting. The first, also titled “Road
Lighting”, appeared in 1980 in the series “Philips Technical Library” published by
Kluwer, with co-author Prof. J.B. de Boer. Since that time, the technology of road
lighting has progressed to keep up with the changes in lamp and lighting technology,
in traffic and automobile technology, and especially in the thinking about energy and
the environment. The introduction of solid-state light sources (LEDs) has provided
the possibility to design innovative, truly-sustainable lighting installations that are
adaptable to changing circumstances such as traffic density and weather conditions.
To avoid pitfalls when designing such installations, a detailed knowledge of the
typical characteristics of the many different light sources, and especially also of all the
aspects determining the final quality of road lighting, is essential. Completely-new
fundamental research on vision and new application research on visual performance
and comfort, conducted at many different research institutions at many different
places all over the world, is now available as a basis for the specification and the
design of effective, energy-friendly and sustainable road-lighting installations.
The purpose of this present book, which represents a completely-fresh approach
to the subject, is to outline the underlying principles on which modern road lighting is
based and to leave the reader with an understanding of the background to the subject
and a knowledge of how these principles should be applied in practice.
The book is divided into three parts. Part One discusses the lighting of open roads
for motorised traffic as well as for cyclists, pedestrians and residents. The first chap-
ters deal with the purpose of road lighting, visual performance, including the effects
of mesopic vision and of the aging eye, and visual comfort. Traffic safety, personal
security and pleasantness are the main issues here. Following chapters describe the
relevant lighting criteria for good and efficient road lighting and show and discuss
the international, European and North American standards and recommendations
for road lighting. Next, lamps and luminaires are reviewed in terms of their prac-
tical properties and features, the intention being to facilitate a proper selection of
this equipment for the various application fields. The road surface, as a means to
reflect light towards the road user, must in fact be seen as part of the equipment
of a road-lighting installation. Road-surface reflection properties are therefore dealt
with in one of the “Equipment” chapters. The chapter “Design Aspects” provides the
vii
viii Preface
link between theory and practice and supplies the reader with the knowledge needed
for effective lighting design. The sustainability aspects of road lighting that have to
be taken into consideration by the lighting manufacturer as well as by the lighting
designer are also discussed in this chapter. The last chapter of part one deals with
road-lighting calculations and measurements.
Part Two of the book is devoted entirely to the subject of light pollution. Lighting
that lights not only the area intended but that spreads out uncontrolled into the
surrounding areas and into the sky is an annoyance to society. The disturbing effects
to residents, to motorised and slow-moving traffic, to astronomers and to wildlife and
natural vegetation are described. The zoning and curfewing tactics that are employed
to restrict light pollution are explained, and lighting criteria that can be used by the
lighting specifier and the lighting designer to guarantee that installations will stay
within acceptable light pollution limits are defined. International, European and
North American standards and recommendations on the restriction of light pollution
are listed and discussed. The last Chapter of this Part 2 deals with that lighting
equipment that is specifically suitable to limit light pollution. It also provides practical
design guidelines on controlling light pollution.
The subject of the third and final part of the book is tunnel and underpass lighting.
The structure of this part is largely the same as that of part One. It has chapters
discussing the purpose, the visual-performance fundamentals, the lighting criteria
and the standards and recommendations for tunnel lighting. The concluding chapter
deals with tunnel-lighting equipment and tunnel-lighting design aspects.
This book is not aimed solely at the road-lighting designer and road-lighting en-
gineer in municipalities and local governments or the student of lighting design and
engineering; there is much of interest here too for the town planner, town traffic en-
gineer and environmental specialist, as well as for the lamp and luminaire developers
and manufacturers.
I am much indebted to Derek Parker who did a great job editing this book, just as
he did for the previous Road Lighting book, back in 1980.
Contents
Part I Road Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 Purpose and Benefits of Road Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Basic Lighting Quantities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Road-Surface Luminance for Motorized Traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Illuminance for Pedestrians, Cyclists and Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1 Horizontal and Hemi-spherical Illuminance . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.2 Vertical and Semi-cylindrical Illuminance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 Visual Performance for Motorists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1 Object Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1.1 Contrast and Contrast Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1.1.1 Field Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.1.2 Contrast Polarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.1.3 Adaptation Luminance Under Non-uniform
Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1.1.4 Background Luminance Under Non-uniform
Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1.1.5 Object Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1.2 Silhouette Principle of Road Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.3 Contrast and Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1.3.1 Disability Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1.3.2 Spectrum and Disability Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.3.3 LEDs and Disability Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.4 Contrast and Vertical Illuminance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.4.1 Vertical Illuminance and Glare Restriction . . . 21
3.1.4.2 Vertical Illuminance and Reflection from the
Road Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ix
x Contents
3.2 Threshold Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.1 Revealing Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.2 Total Revealing Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Supra-Threshold Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.1 Visibility Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.2 Small-Target Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.3 Relative Visual Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4 Visibility on Road Surrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.5 Traffic Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.6 Adverse Weather Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.6.1 Wet Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.6.2 Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.6.3 Fog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7 Fixed Road Lighting and Car Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7.1 Visibility of Objects on the Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7.2 Glare from Oncoming Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.8 Pedestrian Road Crossings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.9 Optic Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.10 Lighting, Brain Activity and Alertness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 Visual Comfort for Motorists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.1 Lighting Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 Uniformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2.1 Longitudinal Uniformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2.2 Luminance Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3 Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3.1 Discomfort Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3.2 Spectrum and Discomfort Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.3.3 Discomfort from Glare Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.3.4 LEDs and Discomfort Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Visual Performance, Comfort and Pleasantness for Pedestrians,
Cyclists and Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1 Visual Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1.1 Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1.2 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.1.3 Visual Orientation and Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.2 Visual Comfort and Pleasantness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.2.1 Spatial Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2.2 Colour Quality of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2.3 Discomfort Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.2.4 Impact During Daytime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Contents xi
5.3 Lighting Level, Uniformity and Glare Restriction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6 Mesopic Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.1 Spectral Eye Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.2 On-Line and Off-Line Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.3 S/P Ratio of Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.4 Adaptation Luminance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.5 Correction Factors for Photometric Quantities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.5.1 Peripheral Task Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.5.1.1 CIE Correction Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.5.1.2 Consequences for Road Lighting Practice . . . . 79
6.5.2 Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.5.2.1 Models for Brightness Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.5.2.2 Consequences for Road Lighting Practice . . . . 80
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7 Age Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.1 Age and the Visual Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.2 Age and Visual Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8 Lighting Quality Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.1 Motorized Traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8.1.1 Lighting Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8.1.2 Uniformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.1.3 Lighting of the Surrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.1.4 Glare Restriction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8.1.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8.2 Pedestrians, Cyclists and Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.2.1 Lighting Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.2.2 Uniformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
8.2.3 Lighting of the Surrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.2.4 Glare Restriction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.2.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.3 Spectrum of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
9 Standards and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.1 CIE Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.1.1 Lighting of Motorized-Traffic Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.1.2 Lighting of Conflict Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
9.1.3 Lighting for Pedestrians and Low-Speed Traffic . . . . . . . . 99
9.1.4 Spectrum of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9.1.5 Adaptive Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
