Impact of urban street lighting on road users’ perception of public space and mobility behavior
Section snippets
Introduction and literature review
One underrated aspect of daily life that potentially influences comfort in an urban environment is street lighting in public spaces [1,2]. Lighting is an indispensable component of road equipment, sidewalks, and pathways in inhabited areas. Several studies show the positive effect of public lighting installations on road safety, crime prevention, and well-being because high visibility and face recognition are imperative for the interaction of road users [3,4].
The currently used street lighting
Street lighting test site
In this section, the selection and characteristics of the street lighting test site as well as the construction of the pilot installations are explained.
Method
In this section, the design and distribution of the in-house developed questionnaire, and the structure and course of the observation are specified. Furthermore, details on the selected timeframe and survey conditions, participants, and limitations of the study are presented.
Results
In this section, the evaluation process and method including the results of the different survey types and user groups are presented.
Conclusions
In the street lighting test site, Blumauergasse in the 2nd district of Vienna, three lighting scenarios were evaluated: first, the existing fluorescent tube luminaires (FTL), followed by lighting with state-of-the-art LED luminaires (LED1), and finally, street lighting with optimized LED luminaires (LED2). In this context, “optimized” (LED2) means that the negatively perceived characteristics of the state-of-the-art LED luminaire (LED1) that were identified in the second lighting scenario were
Author contributions
Conceptualization, K.M. and G.L.; Methodology, K.M., G.R. and G.L.; Software, G.R.; Validation, K.M., G.R. and G.L.; Formal Analysis, G.R.; Investigation, K.M. and G.L.; Data Curation, G.R.; Writing–Original Draft Preparation, K.M.; Writing–Review and Editing: K.M., G.R. and G.L.; Visualization, K.M. and G.R.; Supervision, K.M. and G.L.; Project Administration, G.L.; Funding Acquisition, G.L.
Acknowledgements
This work has been partially funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation, and Technology (BMVIT) in the “Mobilitaet der Zukunft” program under grant number 848993 (“Urban Light”). The authors would like to thank the project's leading partner, Bartenbach GmbH, and project supporter, MA33, for their valuable works, feedbacks, and inputs. The time and effort expended by the survey participants are also appreciated.
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