Development of Updated Warrants for Roadway Lighting

Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other agencies use warrants to define the need for roadway lighting. In the United States, lighting warrants are found in the AASHTO Roadway Lighting Design Guide (RLDG), while the primary Canadian resource is the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Guide for the Design of Roadway Lighting. Although the AASHTO RLDG is currently in its seventh edition, the warranting system included within the RLDG has not changed significantly from its development in the early 1980s. Since then, there has been recent development of active safety systems in vehicles, solid-state lighting (SSL), and the implementation of the use of crash modification factors (CMFs) in roadway safety analysis. Currently, the RLDG does not address safety-based alternatives to roadway lighting (e.g., retroreflective pavement marking and roadside delineators) or address the cost/benefit of roadway lighting as a safety measure as compared to other safety alternatives, resulting in inconsistency as to where and when roadway lighting is applied. Further, there is a growing concern about balancing the safety benefits of roadway lighting while aiming to reduce potential environmental impacts, such as energy use and impacts to wildlife. To assist state DOTs with the identification and selection of appropriate roadway lighting applications, research is needed to develop updated warrants that provide consistency with respect to how roadway lighting is applied as a safety countermeasure. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to (1) develop updated lighting warrants that consider the latest lighting and traffic engineering practices with an emphasis on safety and (2) evaluate the justification for lighting considering alternative safety treatments, environmental factors, and safety impacts on new lighting technologies and vehicle technologies.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5312
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $350000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 05-26

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  McKenney, Christopher

• Start Date: 20240610
• Expected Completion Date: 20260609
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash modification factors; Environmental impacts; Highway safety; Street lighting; Warrants (Traffic control devices)
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01847444
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 05-26
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 27 2022 11:31AM