Intelligent street lighting technologies for transport operation

Abstract

Abstract The paper discusses a modern concept of smart street lighting that for illuminating city streets implies the use of special street lamps controlled via intelligent platforms. These platforms can regulate the intensity of lighting according to environmental conditions. At daybreak or when there is no people around, lamps’ brightness automatically decreases (or the lights entirely go down), which helps save electrical energy. As the result, expenditures from public funds on street lighting are reduced and the impact of electric power stations on the environment decreases. Street lighting is an essential part of the city infrastructure, since it performs several functions at ones. Firstly, it provides a sufficient level of illumination for traffic networks and pedestrian areas at night time, which not only enables reducing the number of traffic collisions and injuries, but also makes life of car drivers more convenient. Moreover, properly designed street lighting including street lamps on avenues, boulevards and in yards reduces the level of urban crime. Street lightning in Russia annually consumes approximately 7 billion kW/h of electric power, which is equivalent to 16 billion rubles. While producing such an amount of electric energy, millions of tons of various exhausts pollute the atmosphere. Smart street lighting systems help reduce the demand in electrical energy for outdoor illumination. The most important indicator of a civilized city is a well-lit roadway for transport – motorways. For transport on roads, various street lighting fixtures are used, but the most popular are energy-saving gas-discharge lamps, which effectively achieve full compliance with the standards and requirements for road lighting.