Landscape lighting shouldn't steal the spotlight from road lighting

　　News:

　　At the recently held 2011 China Industry Fair Urban Lighting Forum, Professor Li Tienan of the Institute of Physics at the China Academy of Building Research warned that urban lighting in major cities is increasingly prioritizing landscape over function, with bright landscape lighting "dazzling the eyes," often stealing the "spotlight" from road traffic lighting, and neglecting the "brightness" that sidewalks should have.

　　Professor Li Tienan pointed out that to improve the ground brightness of pedestrian crossings, we can learn from the road lighting details of developed countries such as Europe and the United States. For example, tall column-shaped street lights are erected at both ends of pedestrian crossings, with red-and-black alternating warning graphics on the column surface, eye-catching during the day and fluorescent at night, alerting passing vehicles from a distance that there is a crosswalk here; special street lights are suspended above the crosswalk, directly increasing the vertical illumination of the crosswalk, allowing vehicles approaching from afar to clearly see in advance a crosswalk "light band" ahead. No matter how late the night, whether there are people crossing on the crosswalk "light band" is also clear at a glance.

　　Comment:

　　Indeed, in recent years, popular urban lighting design in China has been following fashion trends: in order to attract passers-by to "focus" on the night scene, the brightness and richness of landscape lighting have been greatly increased. Through the contrast of "light and dark" with road lighting, the beauty of roadside landscape lighting is highlighted, while the monotonous road lighting appears too dim. Motor vehicle drivers on the road naturally have their view largely occupied by the dazzling architectural landscapes on both sides of the road, making it easy to "overlook" pedestrians and vehicles on the road surface, thereby increasing potential road traffic safety hazards. #p#分页标题#e#

　　In addition, while emphasizing landscape lighting, pedestrian crossings in many cities are almost pitch-black at night, relying only on the timed flashing of traffic lights at both ends of the crosswalk to alert drivers. With the deep night and faint shadows of people, drivers' vision is greatly affected by the brightness of the surrounding environment. If they cannot clearly see the movement trends and intentions of pedestrians, or capture more details of pedestrians, they are likely to make incorrect driving judgments.

　　Therefore, urban lighting needs to coordinate the use of various lighting methods, such as increasing the number of garden lights on sidewalks, so that the brighter and more beautiful urban nightscape leaves less of the terrifying "darkness under the lamp".