Improving LED luminaries for street lighting to meet road user's needs: The case of Vienna

Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology promises a great energy saving potential and is therefore increasingly used for traffic areas or urban spaces, respectively. While many LED luminaires for street lighting meet the current standards, many light experts as well as the general public judge the lightings as glaring and visually uncomfortable. This leaves room for technological improvement which should be based on shortcomings of the currently available street lighting installations. To address them, we concentrate on road user perception and behavioral impact of conventional luminaire and LED lighting. To identify the influence of different lighting conditions in streets on road users, their perception and behavior had to be surveyed before and after refitting to LED technology in a selected test area. Surveys (n = 386) and participant observation (n = 873) were chosen as methods to provide a reliable basis for the construction of improved LED luminaires by an industrial partner.