ROAD SAFETY AND HIGHWAY LIGHTING

This paper analyses the influence of highway lighting on the safety of road users. It describes highway design and discusses road accidents in Belgium and in Quebec Province, Canada. A chart shows distributions of total accidents by hour of day in both countries. Tables are given for numbers of fatalities, serious injuries, slight injuries, and total casualties, for daytime and at night with and without lighting. Tables are also given of odds ratios, used to measure the severity risks related to presence or absence of lighting, and of odds ratio confidence intervals, as estimated by the chi-square test. They show that, in both countries, night driving generates more serious or fatal accidents by about one third. The results for Belgium should be viewed with some caution, because Belgium always has greater accident severity and also had higher speed limits, so that its higher accident rates seem to be correlated with higher speeds. Other factors which combine their effects with those of lighting are road design and maintenance, traffic volumes, and seat belt wearing. The effects of different qualities of lighting should also be considered.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/31984593
• Corporate Authors:

  World Road Association (PIARC)

  La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord, Niveau 5
  F-92055 La Defense Cedex,   France 
• Authors:
  • Bruneau, J-F
  • Pouliot, M
  • MORIN, D-R
  • Thomas, I
• Publication Date: 1998-1

Language

• Undetermined

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 25-36
• Serial:
  • Routes/Roads
  • Issue Number: 297
  • Publisher: World Road Association (PIARC)
  • ISSN: 0004-556X
  • Serial URL: http://www.piarc.org/en/publications/Routes-Roads-Magazine/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash rates; Daylight; Fatalities; Hazards; Highway design; Injuries; Night; Safety; Statistics; Street lighting; Travelers
• Geographic Terms: Belgium; Canada
• ITRD Terms: 1612: Accident rate; 8008: Belgium; 8018: Canada; 9008: Daylight; 1602: Fatality; 2855: Highway design; 2163: Injury; 545: Lighting (street); 9052: Night; 9150: Risk; 1755: Road user; 1665: Safety; 6555: Statistics
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00749822
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Jun 26 1998 12:00AM