Results Hold Promise for Predicting Safety Benefits of New
Lighting Configurations
Newspapers are filled with stories describing reductions and
removal of street lighting in order to reduce municipal costs. Tackling the
tricky questions of when and where to install roadway illumination is a
challenge for transportation agencies. Estimating nighttime crash reductions
from roadway lighting is difficult in part because lighting tends to be
installed along with other improvements like traffic signals or channelization,
which makes it hard to isolate the benefits of lighting. Still, many believe
that roadway lighting can improve visibility at night and that these
improvements can provide drivers with increased time to respond to potential
hazards. Previous efforts to relate visibility from roadway lighting to nighttime
driving safety have been hampered by limited available data and by lack of
consideration of vehicle headlights.