Highway Lighting

Highway Lighting, also known as lampposts, street lamps, light standards, or lamp standard, is a raised source of light on the edge of a road, which is turned on or lit at a certain time every night. The vast majority of modern lamps now have light-sensitive photocells to turn them on at dusk, off at dawn, or activate automatically in dark weather. In many older highway lighting systems this function would have been performed with the aid of a mechanical time clock. In many rural areas across the UK it is not uncommon for street lights to be on telephone poles or utility poles.

Highway Lighting Options

In many areas today, highway lighting commonly uses high-intensity discharge lamps, often HPS high pressure sodium lamps. Such lamps provide the greatest amount of photopic illumination for the least consumption of electricity. However when scotopic/photopic light calculations are used, it can been seen how inappropriate HPS lamps are for night time street/road lighting. White light sources have been shown to double driver peripheral vision and increase driver brake reaction time at least 25%. White light sources also provide enhanced facial recognition (important for footway).

If you are interested in discussing highway lighting as a subject with our expect designers please contact us at info@mma-consultancy.co.uk