ingineria iluminatului - Journal of Lighting Engineering - Prof. Florin ...

question to answer of course is which type
of road lighting does this most effectively.
To illustrate the importance of this type of
research: a test where the EEC of drivers
was analysed during a night time drive of
415 km motorway without lighting revealed
that the cumulative duration of these micro
sleeps adds up to more than 6 minutes [5].
Figure 1 Time (t) required to response to a change
in angle of a lead car as function od the average road
surface luminance Lav. Fisher and Hall [3].
Figure 2 Equipment to measure the brain activity of
car drivers while driving (photograph: A. Muzet,
Strassbourg).
As stated above the role of road
lighting will move more into the direction
of personal security. Of course this in
Road lighting in the light of the future
particular concerns lighting in areas where
pedestrians are on the streets. Unfortunately
this aspect becomes also more and more
important for people who move in their cars
from A to B. Not for nothing, nearly all
modern cars have an automatic option to
lock the car from the inside. Especially
many women choose for their journeys in
the dark those roads that have lighting, even
if this means a longer detour.
Quality and quantity of road lighting
At times when traffic density is relatively
low and speeds are high, the visibility of
objects and lineation is more and more taken
over by the own advanced car lights as
already discussed above. The traditional
concept of road surface luminance lighting
seems under these circumstances less
relevant. It is not yet known whether
neurological research, also discussed above,
can indicate what kind of road lighting
parameters can perhaps reduce micro sleeps.
In built-up areas but also on rural roads,
personal security becomes the more
determining factor in road lighting. Already
in the eighties Caminada and van Bommel
[6] have demonstrated that for one of the
most important aspects of personal security,
the recognition of faces, the threedimensional
component of lighting is
essential. We came to the conclusion that the
"semi-cylindrical” illuminance at face height
is a good indicator for this component.
Meanwhile, other measures such as the
vertical illuminance on face height, semispherical
illuminance at ground level are
proposed as well.
Ingineria Iluminatului 2009; 11, 1: 5-12 7