Effects of road lighting: an analysis based on Dutch accident statistics 1987-2006

This study estimates the safety effect of road lighting on accidents in darkness on Dutch roads, using data from an interactive database containing 763,000 injury accidents and 3.3 million property damage accidents covering the period 1987-2006. Two estimators of effect are used, and the results are combined by applying techniques of meta-analysis. Injury accidents are reduced by 50%. This effect is larger than the effects found in most of the earlier studies. The effect on fatal accidents is slightly larger than the effect on injury accidents. The effect during twilight is about 2/3 of the effect in darkness. The effect of road lighting is significantly smaller during adverse weather and road surface conditions than during fine conditions. The effects on pedestrian, bicycle and moped accidents are significantly larger than the effects on automobile and motorcycle accidents. The risk of injury accidents was found to increase in darkness. The average increase in risk was estimated to 17% on lit rural roads and 145% on unlit rural roads. The average increase in risk during rainy conditions is about 50% on lit rural roads and about 190% on unlit rural roads. The average increase in risk with respect to pedestrian accidents is about 140% on lit rural roads and about 360% on unlit rural roads.