A Report on

Roadway Lighting
(An Assignment on Traffic Engineering)

Mahesh Gyawali
017-2012

Nepal Engineering College

Changunarayan, Bhaktapur, Nepal

May, 2017
1. Introduction

Road lighting is the application of illumination systems along roadways, primarily for the purpose of
improving safety by increasing visibility of roadside hazards and by reducing the effects of glare from
other light sources in the visual environment, such as vehicle headlamps.
It is an important part of the highway safety infrastructure across the world. Indeed, road lighting is
generally associated with reduced nighttime crash rates and the presence of illumination that results in
increased luminance’s of potential road hazards can reduce the impact veiling luminance produced by
bright sources of light in the driver’s field of view.
Roadway lighting serves as an important safety feature for busy streets and highways where visibility is
essential. Roadway lights can also signal the difference between a pedestrian and a car zone. The lighting
can help drivers be aware of their surroundings and provide well-illuminated safety for pedestrians.
Roadway lights can also enhance the overall design of a road and the surrounding buildings.

2. Purpose of Roadway Lighting

The following are the purpose of roadway lighting:

 Allow drivers to see the roadway further ahead than their own vehicle’s headlamps allow
 Reduce glare from other vehicles’ headlamps
 Promotion of safety at night by providing quick, accurate, and comfortable visibility for drivers
and pedestrians.
 Improvement of traffic flow at night by providing light, beyond that provided by vehicle lights,
which aids drivers in orienting themselves, delineating roadway geometries and obstructions,
and judging opportunities for overtaking.
 Illumination in long underpasses and tunnels during the day to permit drivers entering such
structures from the daylight to have adequate visibility for safe vehicle operation.

3. Visibility

Seeing and being seen are fundamental pre-requisites for the safety of all road users. Visibility is a measure
of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. Inadequate visibility is an important
factor that influences the risk of a road crash among all types of road users. Good visibility on roadways
at night results from lighting (both fixed and vehicular), which provides adequate pavement illumination
with good uniformity and appropriate illumination of adjacent areas, together with reasonable freedom
from glare.

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Visibility factors are extremely important in the design of highway lighting. Illuminance criteria have been
proven to be inadequate predictors of the effectiveness of lighting systems. Although the visibility of
targets is typically directly proportional to illuminance (all other variables held constant), there are too
many intervening variables that determine the visual stimulus and the efficiency with which that stimulus
is processed by the visual system. Even if visibility criteria are used in the design of lighting systems, this
is not always predictive of lighting system effectiveness, when accident rates are used as the measure of
effectiveness (MOE). For example, there have been some reports of accident rates increasing after
installation of fixed lighting systems (Gordon and Schwab, 1979). Although the reasons for this are not
well-understood, it is hypothesized that some lighting systems can actually reduce the average contrast of
targets even though they meet lighting specifications based on pavement illuminance, set prior to 1982
(Keck, 1989).

Five ways to improve visibility while driving are:

i. Correct the blind spot

ii. Invest in a backup camera
iii. Use parking sensors
iv. Check visibility during a test drive
v. Uncover the windows

4. Factors influencing visibility

Factors that affect visibility under street lighting include intensity and color spectrum of the light source,
reflectivity and color of the pedestrian clothing, reflectivity of the road user and whether the pedestrian is
seen with peripheral or foveal vision.

Some factors that directly influence visibility are:

1. Brightness of an object on or near the roadway
2. General brightness of roadway background – ambient light
3. Size of object and identifying detail
4. Contrast between an object and its surroundings
5. Contrast between pavement and its surroundings as seen by the observer
6. Time available for seeing the object
7. Glare
Discomfort glare: Ocular discomfort that doesn't affect visual performance.
Disability glare: Reducing ability to see or spot an object.

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 Blinding glare: Glare so intense that for an appreciable length of time no object can be seen.
8. Driver vision
9. Condition of windshield

5. Types of Lighting System Configuration

Various lighting system configurations are as follows:

a. Continuous Freeway Lighting:
Continuous freeway lighting places continuous lighting that encompasses the roadway and area
immediately adjacent to the roadway over a substantial distance along the freeway.

b. Partial Interchange Lighting:

Partial freeway lighting is the illumination of only the parts of the interchange that are most critical to the
night driver, which are the merge‐diverge areas of the ramp connections, intersections, and other critical
roadway features.

c. Complete Interchange Lighting:

Complete interchange lighting is applying lighting to the interchange to achieve illumination of all
roadways in the interchange.

d. Underpass Lighting:
Where underpass lighting is desirable, the lights are typically high pressure sodium underpass fixtures for
each direction of travel on the roadway, mounted on the abutment of the bridge or on a pier. If such
mounting would place a luminaire more than about 10 feet from the edge of the traveled roadway, the
luminaire is typically mounted on the bottom of the diaphragm.

e. Other Streets and Highways Lighting:

The design for these roadways is often matched to existing lighting in a city rather than to freeway design
standards.

f. Bridge Lighting:
The roadway on a bridge is normally treated the same as other parts of the roadway. If there is no lighting
on the adjacent roadway, there is normally no need for lighting on the bridge. An exception is a very long
bridge, which may be lit even though the roadway is not lit at other locations. Where lights are to be
installed on a bridge, the desirable locations for the lighting units are at abutments and at pier locations, or
at a distance from an abutment or pier not to exceed 25 percent of the length of the span. This placement
of the lighting units reduces the effects of vibration. The light poles should utilize davit type mast arms

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and shorter mast arm lengths so that there are no joints to be weakened by vibration. The installation of
navigation and air obstruction lights are an integral part of the bridge design. The Office of Bridges and
Structures may ask the lighting designer to coordinate electrical service points for the roadway lighting
and navigational/air obstruction lighting.

g. Lighting of Roadways with Median Barriers:

In high volume urban areas it is very difficult to maintain barrier lighting, and if possible, lights should be
placed on the outside of the edge of the roadway. Median barrier mounted lights should not be used in high
volume areas without a 10-foot inside shoulder. If used, median barrier mounted luminaires typically use
double 6-foot davit-type mast arms.

h. Intersection Lighting:
Lighting at intersections is usually justified and will alert the driver to an approaching intersection. Notes
regarding intersection lighting are as follows:
 Luminaires should be placed on or near prominent conflict points.
 Lighting should be provided at all signalized and flashing beacon intersections.
 A signal pole shaft extension with a luminaire mast arm should be utilized whenever possible to
avoid adding more poles at the intersection.
 Street lights on traffic signal poles should be fed from the traffic signal service point.
 The level of illumination of a signalized intersection is dictated by the area classification (commercial,
residential) of the roadway.
 Additional light poles may be necessary when the intersection has channelization or complex turning
lanes.
 The level of illumination at an intersection should be 1.0 greater than that between intersections
where there is continuous lighting.
 Where the level of illumination is low between intersections, such as 0.6 footcandles, the light
intensity at the intersection should be doubled as a rule.

i. Roundabout Lighting:
The need for illumination varies somewhat based on the location in which the roundabout is located
(urban, suburban, or rural conditions). Generally, roundabouts should always be lit.
The following features are recommended:
 Good illumination should be provided on the approach nose of the splitter islands, at all conflict areas
where traffic is entering the circulation stream, and at all places where the traffic streams separate to exit
the roundabout.

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 It is preferable to light the roundabout from the outside in towards the center. This improves the
visibility of the central island and the visibility of circulating vehicles to vehicles approaching the
roundabout.

6. Design steps of Highway Lighting System

The optimal design of highway lighting systems incorporates photometric properties of light sources,
lighting geometry, targets, road conditions, road surfaces, and surroundings. These are the physical
properties of a lighting system that are important for defining the visual stimulus. Once the stimulus is
defined, the visibility of targets can be calculated using models that are based on psychophysical data on
the visual processing of spatial (angular size of target), temporal (exposure duration) and spectral
(brightness and color) information. Visibility models must also incorporate age-related changes in visual
processing efficiency that have pronounced effects on target visibility.

Urban roadway lighting applies to conditions where a provincial highway passes through a city, town,
village or hamlet. The roadway is typically characterized by having an ‘urban’ design cross-section. With
the exception of freeways and expressways, this generally includes a vertical curb, sidewalk, sub-surface
storm drainage, and typically a lower design and operating speed.

Urban roadway lighting design typically involves reduced pole setbacks, shorter lighting poles, closer
spacing, and a greater consideration of pedestrians and adjacent land uses.

Suburban roadway lighting refers to conditions similar to urban conditions from the aspect of roadway
design section and adjacent development. The difference under suburban conditions is that the distance to
adjacent development is generally greater and the density of development is lower than in urban conditions.
Suburban conditions also include developed areas that may be somewhat remote from other adjacent urban
or suburban areas while continuing to be part of a larger urban or metropolitan planning area. Pedestrians
are a consideration but not to the same extent as in urban conditions. Roadway lighting design requirements
for suburban areas generally fall in between those defined for urban and rural settings

Rural roadway lighting refers to conditions with wider available rights-of-way, and flat pavement edges
with ditches to provide for surface drainage. Traffic volumes may vary considerably depending on the
roadway’s functional class and location. Pedestrians are generally not an issue in rural settings. The
availability of a nearby convenient power source may be an issue in a rural environment.

The final design of street and roadway lighting systems involves a whole host of variables and calculations.
Local topography, system depreciation and maintenance requirements, merging, diverging and converging

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traffic lanes, underpasses, complex interchanges, under and overpasses, tunnels, curbs, medians and
sidewalk characteristics are just a few of the conditions that will affect the final design.

The design process of roadway lighting follows these major steps:

1. Determining the roadway classification such as freeway, collector road, feeder road, local road etc.
2. Determining the areas such as commercial, urban or residential
3. Determining the Pavement Luminance
This requires collecting data regarding the reflectance characteristics of the materials used on the road
or pathway surface. Reflectance will affect the quality and uniformity of the lighting.
4. Determining Light Distribution Classifications.
This involves an understanding of the wide variety of available light sources and luminaires, their
classification and suitability for lighting different types of roads, streets and ways.
5. Determining Lighting System Geometries.
Mounting heights of 40 feet and above are common along roadways allowing for more uniformity of
illuminance with high wattage lamps. High Mast Interchange luminaires exceed 60 feet in height.
They consist of clustered multiple high-wattage luminaires (3-6) and utilize mechanical lowering
devices for maintenance.
Mounting heights of luminaires are lowered in urban and residential areas. These luminaire designs
provide improved aesthetics and visual comfort and complement the improved efficiency and visual
quality of advanced, “white light” sources such as LEDs and CMH. An example is the return to the se
of pole top luminaires.
6. Determining Pole Spacing
Factors to consider are access to luminaire for maintenance, potential for collision with poles, system
glare aspects, visibility of signs and signals, aesthetics, interference with trees and use of poles for
other functions (e.g. traffic lights).

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