Linking nighttime outdoor lighting attributes to pedestrians' feeling of safety: An interactive survey approach

Gender differences in the effects of urban environment on nighttime exercise behaviours: a qualitative study

Objective

With the acceleration of urbanization, nighttime exercise behaviours have rapidly emerged. Existing research indicates a correlation between urban environments and physical activity; however, studies focusing specifically on nighttime are still insufficient, particularly regarding gender differences. This study aims to identify the key factors in urban environments that influence residents' nighttime exercise behaviours and to explore the gender differences within these influences.

Methods

Purposeful sampling was employed to conduct semi-structured interviews with 30 residents who regularly engage in nighttime exercise. All transcribed interviews were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological data analysis method.

Results

The findings revealed that physical environment and environmental perception are the two primary factors influencing nighttime exercise behaviour. These factors are further divided into 10 specific sub-themes: lighting, green spaces, site facilities and layout, traffic coherence, entertainment facilities, smart sports equipment, sense of safety, convenience, pleasure, and sense of belonging.

Conclusion

Females demonstrate a heightened sensitivity to the perception of the physical environment, placing greater emphasis on the feelings and experiences it provides. Males, on the other hand, focus more on the direct impact of the physical environment, such as its specific effects on exercise performance. Future urban planning and public policy should give greater consideration to gender differences in the use of urban exercise facilities, ensuring that nighttime exercise environments meet the needs of residents of different genders. This approach will contribute to enhancing overall community vitality and improving residents' health.

Effects of outdoor artificial light at night on human health and behavior: A literature review

The quality of life of human beings has improved tremendously through improved productivity, convenience, safety, and livability due to nighttime lights that illuminate outdoor work, leisure, and mobility. Recently, however, concerns have been growing over outdoor artificial light at night (ALAN) and its effects on human beings as well as ecosystems including animals and plants. This literature review aims to deliver a critical overview of the findings and the areas for future research on the effects of outdoor ALAN on human health and behaviors. Through a narrative literature review, we found that scientific research crucially lacks studies on the effects of outdoor ALAN on human behaviors and health, including social interaction, which may be more widespread compared to what is recognized so far. This review also highlights the importance of investigating the causal and complex relationships between outdoor ALAN, health, and behaviors with sleep as a key mediating factor. We elucidate that outdoor ALAN has both positive and negative effects on human life. Therefore, it is important for societies to be able to access facts and evidence about these effects to plan, agree to, and realize the optimal usage of nighttime lighting that balances its merits and demerits. Researchers in related areas of study must investigate and deliver the science of outdoor ALAN to various stakeholders, such as citizens, policymakers, urban and landscape planners, relevant practitioners, and industries. We believe that our review improves the understanding of outdoor ALAN in relation to human life and contributes to sustainable and thriving societies.

An Investigation of the Influence of the Night Lighting in a Urban Park on Individuals’ Emotions

Outdoor urban lighting design is a complex issue. It involves multiple aspects (energy consumption, lighting pollution, aesthetics, and safety) that must be balanced to make sustainable decisions. Although the energy and environmental issues assumed a driving role in the optimization of the urban lighting design, its impact on the psychophysical well-being of individuals has received less attention. Artificial lighting has been shown to add several meanings to an individual’s experience of space: affective (affect, emotion, mood), cognitive (attention, imagination, perception), associative (memory, judgment), and motivational (closeness, openness, communication). Traditionally, studies on the effects of lighting on individuals’ emotions have mainly focused on indoor spaces, while the present study aims to investigate the influence of lighting on individuals’ emotions in an outdoor environment. Participants experienced a simulated urban park through virtual reality. Specifically, the urban park was shown with different combinations of overall illuminance (high vs medium vs low) and correlated colour temperature (CCT) (warm vs intermediate vs cool). For each combination, participants were asked to judge how they felt. In general, results showed that high-intensity cool light made participants more nervous, while warm light made individuals feel more tired and less motivated to explore the park. In contrast, an intermediate CCT at low or medium illuminance impacted individuals positively. Finally, it was found that participants’ mood predicted the impact that park lighting would have on them. These results suggest that assessing the influence of lighting on individuals’ emotions allows the decision-makers to implement the type of artificial lighting that will simultaneously safeguard both the well-being of individuals and the environment.

Evaluating Street Lighting Quality in Residential Areas by Combining Remote Sensing Tools and a Survey on Pedestrians’ Perceptions of Safety and Visual Comfort

The perceived quality of street lighting influences pedestrians’ perceptions of safety and visual comfort, as well as outdoors activities at night. This study explores the association between street lighting attributes, such as illuminance and wavelength, and pedestrians’ feeling of safety (FoS) and perceived lighting quality (PLQ) in eight residential districts in Dalian, China. To achieve this goal, we combine remote sensing technology with ground investigation. The ground research includes physical measurements of lighting attributes, such as intensity, color temperature, and glare, as well as survey evaluations of pedestrians’ perceptions of safety and visual comfort. We also analyze the influence of several environmental factors, such as traffic volumes and vegetation, while accounting for personal characteristics of the observers, such as gender and age. Findings from the remote sensing reveal that Dalian’s residential districts differ substantially by their nighttime light emissions, with high concentration of strong red band (i.e., long wavelength) emissions occurring in Zhongshan and Jinzhou, and strong blue band (i.e., short wavelength) emissions found in central Zhongshan. Results from the ground surveys further indicate that a satisfactory level of FoS reaches at the illumination levels of 5–17 lx, and that people feel safer if nighttime light is warm and uniform. From a multiple regression analysis, it is also found that illuminance and uniformity are the main factors affecting PLQ under conditions of low or high illuminance, while glare and color temperature play a more significant role under high illuminance. In addition, a satisfactory level of PLQ is found at illuminance levels of 25–35 lx and light color temperature of 4000 K–5500 K.

Research on Comfort Evaluation Model of Urban Residents’ Public Space Lighting Integrating Public Perception and Nighttime Light Remote Sensing Data

With the development of a sustainable lifestyle, people are paying more and more attention to the comfort of their own living environment, including public space lighting, which is immediately accessible to residents. The demand on its quality and comfort has thus gained attention recently. However, there is still a lack of related research on public space lighting comfort evaluation models that combine nighttime light remote sensing data and field measurement data, and link lighting attributes with the comfort of residents. This research uses nighttime light remote sensing data to select typical test areas, measures the lighting data of the survey points on the spot, develops an intelligent WeChat applet that collects public perception data, analyzes different lighting parameters, and builds a public space lighting comfort model based on the structural equation model analysis method. The results show that the factor that the areas with high light intensity are more comfortable than the areas with low light intensity. In areas with high light intensity, people pay more attention to the uniformity, security and comfort of the light, while in areas with low light intensity or high blue light, people’s perception of glare will be more obvious. This research can provide a basis for the intelligent optimization of public space lighting from the perspective of public preference.

Research on Night Light Comfort of Pedestrian Space in Urban Park

The outdoor light environment significantly affects aspects of public psychological and physiological health. This study conducted experiments to quantify the effects of the light environment on visitor light comfort in urban park pedestrian space. Nine sets of lighting conditions with different average horizontal illuminance (2 lx, 6 lx, 10 lx) and colour temperatures (5600 K, 4300 K, 3000 K) were established virtual reality scenarios. Subjective light comfort was evaluated, and electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured on 18 subjects to comprehensively study the effects of different light environments on human light comfort. The results of the comprehensive evaluation showed that colour temperature had a very significant impact on subjective light comfort, with warm light being generally more favourable than cool light in enhancing human subjective light comfort. The results of the EEG analysis show that the average horizontal illuminance is an important factor in the level of physiological fatigue, and that physiological fatigue can be maintained in a superior state at an appropriate level of illuminance. Based on the results of both subjective and objective factors, a comprehensive analysis was carried out to propose a range of average horizontal illuminance (4.08 lx, 6.99 lx) and a range of colour temperature (3126 K, 4498 K) for the comprehensive light comfort zone in urban park pedestrian space.

Interactive Scenario-Based Assessment Approach of Urban Street Lighting and Its Application to Estimating Energy Saving Benefits

If excessive and misdirected, street lighting (SL) causes energy waste and might pose significant risks to humans and natural ecosystems. Based on data collected by an interactive user-oriented method, we developed a novel empirical approach that enables the spatial identification of over-illuminated areas in residential neighborhoods and calculation of potential energy savings that can be achieved there, by reducing excessive illumination. We applied the estimated model to a densely populated residential neighborhood in the City of Tel Aviv-Yafo in Israel, to test the proposed approach’s performance. According to our estimates, illumination levels can be lowered by up to 50% in approximately 60% of the neighborhood’s area, which is currently over-illuminated, thus leading to significant energy savings, while preserving a reasonable level of visual comfort associated with SL.