Influence of Pavement Reflectance on Lighting for Parking Lots. SN2458

The investigation on which this paper is based compared the lighting performance of concrete and asphalt surfaces. The total light reflected from pavement surfaces was documented by analyzing the results of a large number of samples taken from road pavements across North America. The reflection characteristics of the samples from both types of pavements were measured in a laboratory and the results indicate that concrete pavements reflect considerably more light than asphalt pavements. The essential quantity that appears as the brightness of an object is called luminance. Luminance is the intensity of brightness and is measured in candela per unit area of a surface. Higher luminance values are associated with brighter surfaces. The average luminance of concrete pavements was determined in the investigation to be 1.77 times that of asphalt pavements. Lighting installations for parking lots were evaluated during the investigation. Typical light fixture patterns were used to compare the average luminance level and visibility levels for concrete and asphalt pavements. The amount of energy used fo