Safety of Motorway Lighting

Abstract

The safety aspects of motorway lighting and its capacity to prevent nighttime accidents are examined. The analysis is based on a night/day accident rate ratio method to compare the safety benefits of two alternatives to dark motorways: continuous lighting and interchange lighting alone. Various sources of data are used to calculate night/day accident rate ratios, such as traffic volume records, accident databases, and field surveys. Three categories of accidents have been used: fatal and injury accidents, property damage only, and all accidents. The results are similar to those from recent literature. Continuous lighting reduces the overall accident rate by 33 percent (p < .001) in comparison with interchange lighting alone and by 49 percent (p < .05) compared with dark motorways. Furthermore, a breakdown by categories of average daily traffic for these comparisons reveals that accident reductions are still valid regardless of traffic flow.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Road Lighting as an Accident Countermeasure. Publication CIE 93. International Commission on Illumination, Vienna, Austria, 1992.

Elvik

Meta-Analysis of Evaluations of Public Lighting as Accident Countermeasure. In Transportation Research Record 1485, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 112–123.

Jones

, Gramza

, Hall

J. A.

, and Sampson

. Effectiveness of Freeway Lighting. Report FHWA-RD-79-77. FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1980.

Box

P. C.

Major Road Accident Reduction by Illumination. In Transportation Research Record 1247, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 32–38.

Walker

F. W.

, and Roberts

S. E.

. Influence of Lighting on Accident Frequency at Highway Intersections. In Transportation Research Record 562, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1976, pp. 73–78.

Schwab

R. N.

, Walton

N. E.

, Mounce

J. M.

, and Rosenbaum

M. J.

. Roadway Lighting: Synthesis of Safety Research Related to Traffic Control and Roadway Elements. Vol. 2, Report FHWA-TS-82-233. FHWA, U. S. Department of Transportation, 1982.

Griffith

M. S.

Comparison of Safety Lighting Options on Urban Freeways. Public Works, Vol. 126, No. 2, Feb. 1995, p. 44.

Cobb

Light on Motorway Accident Rates. Highways and Transportation, Vol. 34, No. 10, Oct. 1987, pp. 29–33.

Ministère des Transports du Québec. Normes des Ouvrages Routiers. Tome IV, Chap. 4, Éclairage des routes. Ministère des Transports du Québec, Canada, 1998.

10.

Bruneau

J. -F.

, Pouliot

, Morin

, and Thomas

. Road Safety and Highway Lighting. Routes/Roads, Vol. 297, No. 1, Jan. 1998, pp. 25–36.

11.

Sanderson

J. T.

An Analysis of Accidents on Freeways with and Without Lighting. Report TS85/2. Royal Automotive Club of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 1985.

12.

Smallwood

G. E.

Guide for the Design of Roadway Lighting. Roads and Transportation Association of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1983.