Certainly, an integral part of the engineering and transport infrastructure of any settlement in a country, whether it is a city or a village, is a system of external illumination of streets and roads. Properly designed, it can not only create objective preconditions for the favorable life activities of ordinary citizens, but also provide comfortable as well as safe conditions for all, without exception, road users in the dark period of the day. And these are not just empty words. According to statistical data, high-quality external lighting of highways reduces the number of car accidents by more than 30%, and roads in the city by 45%.
In addition, well-designed and executed exterior lighting of urban areas helps to reduce crime rate both in a single locality and throughout the country as a whole. As we all know, most of the criminals operate in the dark or in dimly lit locations. Therefore, it turns out that the issue of designing lighting for roads and pedestrian areas should be approached responsibly, taking into account all existing norms and standards of State Building Standards of Ukraine.
Designing street and road lighting: main directions
Designing of street lighting in each locality of Ukraine has many nuances and features. The thing is that such a process involves several directions. Namely:
- creation of the project of illumination of transport highways, ringways and other large roads. Its main task is to ensure the brightness and uniformity of lighting at a level that is enough for reliable, and, most importantly, for timely assessment of the situation on the road. Most often, the installation of outdoor lighting on roads is performed with the use shielded light sources. This helps to avoid blinding of the drivers and pedestrians.
- development of project design documentation for street lighting in residential areas. Since these areas are characterized by busy traffic and transport networks, and numerous pedestrian zones, then when developing lighting project here, it is important to take care not only about ensuring the safe movement of pedestrians and vehicles, but also the creation of visual comfort in it. Thereby increasing its aesthetic qualities;
- lighting design for pedestrian zones. According to statistics, these areas are characterized by heightened danger, especially in conditions of poor visibility. And only the installation of street lighting here allows you to radically change the situation. More accurately: raise the level of safety of all the road users.
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Street lighting standards and highway lighting requirements
During the designing of street lighting in various urban areas and roads, the following requirements must be complied:
- comfortable illumination at the minimum of energy comsumption;
- reliability and durability of the installations;
- easiness, convenience and safety of service maintenance and control the devices;
- compliance with basic standards and rules of street and road lighting.
And if the first three points of the list are more or less clear, then the fourth requires more in-depth study. Hence, with regard to the standards of illumination of roads and highways, this indicator depends on their category and may vary within the next limits:
- for highways of Kyiv, which are characterized with high intensity of traffic (1000-5000 units/hour) and which belong to the category A, the allowed rate of light 20 lux;
- for roads of regional subordination of category B with a lower concentration of vehicles, this indicator can vary from 15 lux (500-1000 units/hour) to 10 lux (less than 500 units/hour);
- for roads of local subordination (category C), an average horizontal illumination in the range of 4-6 lux will be sufficient;
- for urban automobile zones of public common use the light norm is 15-20 lux. Lighting should be equally bright both at the intersection of roads and in the area of intersections.
Lighting norms of the pedestrian crossings depend also on entirely other factors. Typically, among the main requirements for their illumination, the type and size of the locality, as well as the purpose of the street, are distinguished. So:
- if the pedestrian areas are adjacent to the central streets or are located in close proximity to the roads, in this case, the lighting lays at the rate of 10 lux. Acceptable rate of illumination of streets located away from the highways is 4 lux. And the streets of the private sector - 2 lux;
- public transport stops and playgrounds should be lightened more intensively (10 lux). The brightest light (50-100 lux) must be installed in pedestrian tunnels.
It is also worth considering a street illumination standards in rural localities, according to which they should be illuminated at not less that 80%. Speaking In other words, in those areas where a small number of people live or only few people use them, there may be no lighting at all. However, the central street in the village, minor side streets and village roads must certainly be lit. The standards of light here are 4 and 2 lux, respectively.
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