Delaware Transportation Lighting Inventory & Assessment

Date
2016-02
Authors
Wollaston, Martin
Horgan, Evan
Scoglietti, Alexa
Seymour, Nicole
Tierney, Gemma
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In December 2011, the Institute for Public Administration completed a project that examined pedestrian-lighting policies in unincorporated areas in Delaware. The purpose of the 2011 study was to better understand who shared in the responsibilities for providing pedestrian lighting in these areas. This current project builds on the 2011 pedestrian-lighting research by conducting a literature review to provide an update of new lighting technologies and trends, including fixture designs, lighting options, and operational costs. The most important part of this work, however, focuses on piloting a low-cost method to assess lighting in a few selected communities in Delaware. While working on another community planning project, IPA learned that many municipalities do not have a readily available inventory of the lighting in their towns. Municipalities that provide electric service also provide the lighting in their towns and maintain lighting inventories. Most towns in Delaware, however, do not provide electric service, and lighting in those towns is provided by a private utility. Towns that do not have data or maps showing the locations of lighting fixtures have little information on how well the sidewalks and pathways are visible after dark. For this research, IPA proposed using a relatively inexpensive mobile phone application to develop lighting inventories for towns. The development of an inventory of lighting fixtures to show the location of installed lights is the first step to addressing the lighting needs of a town. IPA will use this information to develop maps of selected areas to demonstrate potential products.
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