Abstract
The national and international recommendations for public lighting are based on four premises: that traffic safety must be increased, that driving comfort must be improved, that traffic flow must be improved, and that driving with dipped headlights or headlights should not be necessary. Naturally the cost aspects are a limiting condition. How far the arguments for some solutions and levels of lighting meet these criteria and how far they are valid is reviewed. It is concluded that there are no arguments used in the literature which are so compelling that from from this alone can a decision be made in favour of one desired level of lighting. Therefore socio-economical arguments must also be used.