Design of an Advanced Lighting Measurement System for Roadway Safety

Roadway illumination is a vital component of safety while driving during the night. There are regulations in place to ensure all publicly maintained roads are properly lit, but the validation process is too time consuming, costly, and dangerous for adequate data collection studies. The work in this thesis is aimed toward remedying this problem by creating an Advanced Lighting Measurement System (ALMS) capable of recording illumination readings while traveling at normal driving speeds. This solution is based on the Arduino Uno development board, a cost effective yet powerful embedded platform. This thesis involves collecting data along 100 centerline miles of Florida roadways and converting the resulting illumination readings into GIS format, allowing them to be included in the roadway database of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). By including this data FDOT will be able to repair poorly lit corridors and will be aware of possible safety concerns. The illumination values recorded by the ALMS have been validated and verified as an accurate replacement for conventional lighting measurement system