The effect of non-uniform urban illumination upon pedestrians’ alertness and sense of safety

Abstract

The influence of urban lighting on the visual tasks of pedestrians are well known and, likewise, studies have explored the relationship between urban lighting and pedestrians’ feelings of safety. But there are other, less investigated, possible effects of light in mesopic situations. Research on street lighting for pedestrians has traditionally focused on minimal required illuminance for various visual performance tasks (e.g., obstacle detection and face recognition). However, it is not only pedestrians’ visual performance that is important for safety, but also their general attentiveness to the environment. Despite this, the psychological concepts related to the individuals’ attention, such as alertness, arousal and anxiety, have not been considered in street lighting research to date even though they too can play an important role in pedestrian’s attention and safety. Since proper metrics for these concepts are needed, we conducted a pilot study to test their sensitivity. We decided for a conceptual replication of a field experiment from 1916 and managed to partly replicate the findings. More importantly, we learned meaningful lessons from this endeavour. Implications for future research are discussed.