The Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management plans to dynamically adjust the amount of road lighting on motorways depending on the prevailing conditions. In all circumstances a sufficient amount of road lighting will be provided, given traffic and weather conditions, whereas the road will not be unnecessarily highly lit. This report describes phase 2 of the `dynamic road lighting' research project. A field test is carried out to evaluate the effect of such dynamic road lighting on traffic behaviour and road safety. The report describes the approach and the results of the evaluation of the field test. The temporary light switching schedule, developed in phase 2 of this research project, was used in the field test. On the basis of inductive loop data (the focus of the study), rides with an instrumented vehicle, a road user survey, video recordings and an accident analysis, data were collected in three measurement periods: a before period (no road lighting on the test section), a nil period (normal road lighting: 100%) and an after period (dynamic road lighting: 20, 100 or 200%). In addition to the lighting conditions, precipitation (dry versus rain) and traffic intensity were the main research factors. It was concluded that in favourable conditions (dry weather, low traffic volumes) a lower lighting level (20%) can be applied than presently used, without having any negative road safety consequences. For abstracts of the phases 1, 2 and 4 see ITRD 890426, E203716 and E203718, respectively. See also ITRD D335635.
Abstract