TY - JOUR
T1 - Drivers’ Experiences and Informed Opinions of Presence Sensitive Lighting Point towards the Feasibility of Introducing Adaptive Lighting in Roadway Contexts
AU - Pihlajaniemi, Henrika
AU - Luusua, Aale
AU - Juntunen, Eveliina
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by TEKES The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, grant number 1223/31/2015, and by participating cities (Helsinki, Lahti, Oulu, Raahe, Salo, and Tampere), companies (C2 Smartlight, Elisa, GreenLED, Misal, Nokia, and Valopaa), and research institutions (Univ. of Oulu and VTT).
PY - 2023/8
Y1 - 2023/8
N2 - Applications of adaptive and intelligent lighting technologies such as presence sensitive lighting, potentially offer solutions for reducing the energy consumption of road lighting while maintaining user comfort and safety. However, little is known about road users’ experiences of such lighting. To address this gap, we conducted a real-world case study of a presence sensitive roadway lighting on a collector road in a housing area in southern Finland. New, controllable LED lighting with PIR (passive infrared) presence sensors was implemented along the road, and test scenarios were designed, programmed, and tested. The lighting was adapted both to motor vehicles using the road and to the measured traffic density along it. Drivers’ experiences and attitudes toward the lighting were collected in a three-phase evaluation with questionnaires from the community of about 1000 households using the road as part of their daily mobility. The results indicate that as an experience, presence sensitive lighting in a road environment was at least as positive as traditional, uncontrolled lighting. User experiences of presence sensitive lighting did not differ from the experiences of uncontrolled lighting regarding pleasantness, uniformity, glare, and road visibility. Most of the drivers (86%) did not notice any dynamic change in the lighting. When informed about the tested lighting strategies, most of the participants (72%) would prefer either one of the intelligent lighting modes to be the permanent lighting solution. The results of this exploratory, real-world study point towards the potential feasibility of this technology from a user experience perspective, as the experienced stability of the lighting was unaltered in the tested scenarios; importantly, it also highlights the need to study adaptive roadway lighting further, especially through confirmatory studies in controlled settings.
AB - Applications of adaptive and intelligent lighting technologies such as presence sensitive lighting, potentially offer solutions for reducing the energy consumption of road lighting while maintaining user comfort and safety. However, little is known about road users’ experiences of such lighting. To address this gap, we conducted a real-world case study of a presence sensitive roadway lighting on a collector road in a housing area in southern Finland. New, controllable LED lighting with PIR (passive infrared) presence sensors was implemented along the road, and test scenarios were designed, programmed, and tested. The lighting was adapted both to motor vehicles using the road and to the measured traffic density along it. Drivers’ experiences and attitudes toward the lighting were collected in a three-phase evaluation with questionnaires from the community of about 1000 households using the road as part of their daily mobility. The results indicate that as an experience, presence sensitive lighting in a road environment was at least as positive as traditional, uncontrolled lighting. User experiences of presence sensitive lighting did not differ from the experiences of uncontrolled lighting regarding pleasantness, uniformity, glare, and road visibility. Most of the drivers (86%) did not notice any dynamic change in the lighting. When informed about the tested lighting strategies, most of the participants (72%) would prefer either one of the intelligent lighting modes to be the permanent lighting solution. The results of this exploratory, real-world study point towards the potential feasibility of this technology from a user experience perspective, as the experienced stability of the lighting was unaltered in the tested scenarios; importantly, it also highlights the need to study adaptive roadway lighting further, especially through confirmatory studies in controlled settings.
KW - adaptive lighting
KW - drivers’ experiences
KW - evaluation
KW - intelligent lighting
KW - participation
KW - presence sensitive lighting
KW - roadway lighting
KW - smart cities
KW - sustainability
KW - user experience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85169074526&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/smartcities6040087
DO - 10.3390/smartcities6040087
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85169074526
SN - 2624-6511
VL - 6
SP - 1879
EP - 1900
JO - Smart cities
JF - Smart cities
IS - 4
ER -
