Investigation of lighting levels for pedestrians: some questions about lighting levels of current lighting standards

In order to find out appropriate lighting levels to create safe nighttime street environments, the nature of the relationships between pedestrian behaviour and lighting (illuminance) levels was explored using the PAMELA facility at University College London. The behaviour examined was the avoidance of collision with another pedestrian or an obstacle, and the facial recognition distance and the interpersonal distance required to feel comfortably secure. A pilot experiment was set up, in which the behaviour of ten participants was tested under illuminance of 0.67, 2.8, 5.5, 12.3 and 627 lux. Results showed that only facial recognition distance has a proportionate relationship to the illuminance levels. It was also found that in order to provide facial recognition when a pedestrian starts a collision avoidance manoeuvre, more illuminance than today’s lighting standard is necessary. It is suggested to reconsider what tasks are necessary for pedestrians at nighttime, and that the illuminance level of each street should be based on assumed tasks undertaken by pedestrians, rather than car traffic,
on each street.