STREET LIGHTING.
A source of light that is mounted on a lamp column or pole either on the side of the road or
within the median to provide illumination is known as street lighting.
Street lighting is required along the road to have safer, comfortable, convenient and efficient
movement of vehicles at night.
Objective of Street Lighting
The primary objectives of street lighting are −
Street lighting is required to increase or enhance the community value of the street.
Street lighting is provided along the road sides to make traffic and obstructions on the
road clearly visible in order promote safety and convenience.
Street lights also make the street more attractive.
Street lighting improves the traffic speed and the traffic flow conditions.
Principle of Street Lighting
For designing the street lighting scheme, the following two general principles are usually
employed −
Diffusion Principle
Specular Reflection Principle
Diffusion Principle
In the diffusion principle of design of street lighting, the lamps fitted with suitable reflectors are
used. The design of the reflectors is such that they direct the light downwards and spread it as
uniformly as possible over the surface of the road. To avoid the glare, the reflectors are made to
have a cut-off between 30° to 45° so that the lamp filament is not visible except below the lamp.
As the surface of the road has diffusing nature causes the reflection of a certain portion of the
incident light in the direction of the observer and hence the road surface appears bright to the
observer.
Specular Reflection Principle
In case of specular reflection principle, the reflectors are curved upward so that the light is
thrown on the road at a very large angle of incidence. In this case, the observer requires to see
the objects about 30 meters away. This method of street lighting is only suitable for This method
of street lighting is more economical than diffusion method, but it suffers from the disadvantage
that it produces glare for the observers.
Advantages of Street Lighting
The advantages of the street lighting are given as follows −
Street lighting creates a pleasant atmosphere during night time.
Street lighting prevents the illegal works and anti-social activities on the roads.
Street lighting reduces the accident rate during night.
Street lighting also helps in reducing the crimes at night, etc.
Disadvantages of Street Lighting
The main disadvantages of the street lighting are as follows −
It consumes large amount of electricity.
Sometimes it is an expensive process.
During installation and maintenance, it may cause traffic jam, etc.
Lamps used in Street Lighting
Various types of lamps are used in street lighting luminaires. They are
1. High pressure sodium lamp
2. Metal Halide Lamps
3. Low pressure sodium lamps
4. Incandescent Lamp (not recommended)
5. LED
6. CFL (used in Lanes or streets only not widely)
Basic Features of Street Light Luminaires
The basic features of a street lighting luminaires are:
Roadway luminaires are mounted horizontally and thus have fixed vertical aiming.
Roadway lighting luminaires have particular intensity distributions which are desired to
light long narrow horizontal stripes on one side of the luminaire, while minimizing the
intensities on the other side of the luminaire.
The intensity distributions up and down the narrow strip are generally the same.
Any fixed aimed luminaire which does not have this type of intensity distribution is
called an area luminaire.
Main Factors in the Street Lighting Design Scheme
1. LuminanceLevel Should be Proper
Luminance always influences the contrast sensitivity of the obstructions with respect to
the back ground. If the street is brighter, then darker surroundings makes the car driver
adapted, unless the driver will be unable to perceive the objects in the surroundings. As
per CIE, 5m away from the road on both sides will be lit by Illuminance level at least
50% of that on the road.
2. Luminance Uniformity must be Achieved
To provide visual comfort to the viewer’s eyes, enough luminous uniformity is needed.
Luminous uniformity means the ratio between minimum luminance level to average
luminance level, i.e.
It is termed as longitudinal uniformity ratio as it is measured along the line passing
through the viewers position in the middle of the traffic facing the traffic flow.
3.Degree of Glare Limitation is always taken into Design Scheme
Glare means visual discomfort due to high luminance. There are two types of glare
created by the street light luminaires, first type is disability glare and second type is
discomfort glare. Disability glare is not a strong factor, rather discomfort glare is a
common factor due to unplanned street lighting scheme.
4.Lamp Spectra for Visual Sharpness depends on the Proper Luminaries
It is very much essential to make an object as per its size and dimension.
5.Effectiveness of Visual Guidance is also an important factor
It helps a viewer to guess how far another object is from his position
