Standard for Road Lighting Design

Street lights are not only essential for drivers, pedestrians and traffic but also it creates the pleasing to eyes city vibe that is what we can relate to its aesthetic as well. street lights and LED bulbs are everywhere that certainly implies its usability, productive performance and the standard for road lighting design that none other light source delivers as best as this.

Lights around the road are apparent and it also plays a vital role in keeping off unexpected accidents or road crashes. In this article we shall take a look at the standards of these lights that enhance its design and tell you more about it. Keep scrolling!

Street Light Design and Its Outline

Before you get to the standards for road lighting design lets first analyze the design of a Street light design. The first and foremost parameter of a street light design is undoubtedly its usability and bright illumination that it was designed for.

For traffic and fog, street lights are designed in such a way that caters to every condition without any excuse. Although it cannot be the substitute of the day light, still you can anticipate the drastic minimization in accidents, lesser vandalism to damage to nearby buildings, less crime rate and also it provides the citizen with a sense of protection and aesthetic.

Here’s How the Road Lighting Design Should Be

Brightness Extent and its Range

The luminance intensity y and its level is an important parameter that comes under the Standard for Road lighting design . The luminance to the light works in accordance with the background and influences the contrast sensitivity. For instance the brighter the street the darker the surroundings would go. According to CIE road lights 5m away from the road both ways will be lit by the luminosity level of about 50%.

The Uniformity Is Must to Attain

Another important standard of road lighting design is the continuity and uniform approach for visual appearance to the human sight. The luminous uniformity is the ratio in minimal luminance level average to the average luminance level.

Visual Guidance

For road lighting standards, it is equally important to ensure visual guidance. For the viewer, the proper visual guidance tells you how far another object is from the current location of the driver or pedestrian.

Proper Light Source Selection

The light selection is yet another standard that comes in light source selection.  For high pressure sodium lamps are recommended for installation. However LED lamps and ceramic metal halide lamps can also be used at the roadside. The important point is High-pressure mercury lamps and incandescent lamps are not allowed to be used.

City Street Lightning Indicators

Since the sole purpose of the road lightning lights is to provide safety minimal chances of road crashes and better visuals approach the installation and design comes in a professionally designed manner. Motor vehicle lane lightning must incorporate the average road surface luminance to adapt light.

Also the uniformity, glare limit, environmental ratio, and inducement as evaluation indicators etc. should be in mind. The standard of lighting for roadside walk and non-motor vehicle lanes must use the average road surface luminance minimum road luminance, vertical luminance, semi-cylindrical luminance, and glare limit.

Standard for Intersection Area

Road lightning and lamps around the intersection areas where different roads are intersecting each other is highly important. This is a high traffic zone and hence if the standards are overlooked there could be serious collateral damage. The total height of the angle is analyzed bearing the on-site installation and use posture in mind. If the intersecting roads have a rather low-grade luminance, the other corresponding intersecting road area should go with the low-grade luminance value.

What are the standards for light sources?

There are many standards for road lighting design however with the amount of physical work, there is proper light source selection that one must not ignore. For instance:

  • The color rendering index aka Ra should never be below 60 Ra.
  • For a proper light source, the chromaticity tolerance of the similar type of light source must not be above7SDCM. 
  • The match up color temperature of the light source should not be more than 5000K. Also it is important to use the low color temperature light source on roads.
  • For commercial areas and roads, pedestrian roads in residential areas, sidewalks or streets the light-emitting diode, low-power metal halide lights or thin-tube fluorescent lights can be used. The compact fluorescent lights also make best performance and productive value.

Street Lighting Design Strategy

Busy roads, motorways and areas where the traffic is pretty much on rush must feature seamless performance of road lightning. The sole and minor agenda of these lights is to deliver ideal safety, better visual clearance and visuals to the drivers, and of course the smooth traffic movements.

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