An approach to setting illuminances for subsidiary streets

Current recommendations for road lighting in residential areas may be based on inappropriate evidence. A first step in providing more appropriate evidence is understanding what important visual tasks pedestrians have to perform when walking. An experiment was carried out using eye - tracking equipment to identify significant aspects of pedestrian gaze behaviour during daylight hours and after - dark. A dual - task was used in which participants had to respond to an auditory stimulus at irregular times : s low respo nses were used as a guide for when attention was diverted from the response task to something in the visual environment. G aze behaviour at these times was categorised according to the significant object or area the pedest rian was looking at . Participants w ere more likely to look at other pedestrians or the path at critical times compared with other categories of objects, suggesting these are important visual tasks. Future research should examine how lighting affects our perception of other people and pathwa y characteristics, such as obstacles.