Visual Performance, Comfort and Pleasantness for Pedestrians, Cyclists and Residents - Road Lighting: Fundamentals, Technology and Application - page 58

Chapter 5
Visual Performance, Comfort and Pleasantness
for Pedestrians, Cyclists and Residents

Abstract It is important that the lighting of residential roads promotes the safety,
security and visual guidance of pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders, in addition
to that afforded to motorised traffic.
The real problem as far as the safety of the former group is concerned lies with
possible hazardous irregularities in the pavement, such as holes, cracks, bumps,
and protruding kerb stones. A suitable horizontal illuminance is required to make
these clearly visible. Also, many pedestrians feel scared after dark. Sufficiently high
brightnesses in the street and its surroundings will enable them to see at a glance
the whole area, thus contributing to a feeling of security (both actual and perceived).
The brightness needed is dependent not only on the illuminance level but also on the
spectrum of the light source employed.
Apart from getting an overview of the whole area, it is also important that the
pedestrian should receive sufficient visual information regarding other persons in
that area. Facial recognition or identification possibilities improve with increase of
semi-cylindrical illuminance. Visual orientation in complete darkness is impossible,
as is therefore the ability to find our way. Good visual orientation implies the ability
to identify houses and other buildings and features of the environment. A suitable
measure for this to be possible is the illuminance on the surrounding facades.
From the point of view of comfort and pleasantness, the aspects of spatial bright-
ness and colour quality of the light sources again play an important role, as do the
restriction of discomfort glare and the visual impact of the installation during the
daytime.
As was explained in Chap. 2 “Basic lighting parameters”, the lighting parameter
for this category of users is in most cases illuminance.

5.1 Visual Performance

5.1.1 Safety

It is important for pedestrians and cyclists to be able to see approaching vehicles so
that they can judge their distance, speed and direction of travel. Thanks to the vehicle
lights, this is not a difficult visual task. Pedestrians and cyclists should also be able
to see obstacles and any irregularities lying in their path in time to avoid tripping