Linking Roadway Lighting and Crash Safety

This paper investigates the relationship between the lighting level and vehicle crash rate on roadways. The data were collected through crash databases from selected states and through in-situ lighting measurements on selected roadways. The results indicate that there is a strong relationship between lighting level and crash rates. The data were also investigated to determine if energy could be saved by reducing roadway lighting while maintaining safety. The results regarding the correlation between lighting level and crash rates were divided by roadway class as defined by the states. They were then compared to the Illumination Engineering Society’s (IES) recommended roadway-lighting values for the equivalent IES roadway class. The results show there is the potential to reduce the lighting requirements on highways and freeways by as much as 50% while maintaining traffic safety. Limitations include a lack of data for some roadway types, which can be remedied with better data collection from states and by taking more in-situ lighting measurements.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND40 Visibility.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gibbons, Ronald
  • Guo, Feng
  • Du, Jianhe
  • 0000-0002-7538-8818
  • Medina, Alejandra
  • Lutkevich, Paul
  • Terry, Travis
  • Li, Qing
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash rates; Highway factors in crashes; Highway safety; Lighting systems; Street lighting; Traffic crashes
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01557368
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-4599
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 20 2015 3:20PM