Reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining road safety and limiting the environmental impact of artificial light are increasingly important considerations in road lighting design. Adaptive road lighting (ARL) can help address these challenges by enabling lighting to better respond to actual road use and conditions.
For the first time, this Technical Report brings together information on road lighting control systems for ARL installed around the world, providing a comprehensive overview of available approaches and practices.
This Technical Report is highly relevant for standardization organizations, lighting designers, manufacturers, engineers and other professionals involved in specifying, designing and managing road lighting systems, helping them make informed decisions when planning new installations or upgrading existing systems.
Adaptive road lighting (ARL) extends conventional road lighting by using additional control devices to better match the lighting condition to the prevailing traffic condition. This Technical Report describes the benefits, system types and application of ARL.
For those periods when the light level is reduced, an ARL system reduces the energy consumption (and hence CO2 footprint) and light pollution compared with a conventional road lighting system. It therefore reduces the detrimental impact of lighting after dark on fauna, flora and astronomic observation.
Some ARL systems enable real-time monitoring of the lighting installation, which increases road safety compared to those systems that adapt the lighting according to a pre-determined schedule, and reduces maintenance costs.
This Technical Report describes the benefits of ARL, the components of ARL systems, the control strategies and the requirements of an ARL installation. Three case studies of installed ARL systems are described.
The document is written in English, with a short summary in French and German. It consists of 49 pages with 9 figures and 13 tables and is readily available from the CIE Webshop or from the National Committees of the CIE.
The price of this publication is EUR 135 (Members of a National Committee of the CIE receive a 66.7% discount on this price. Please approach your NC for information on accessing this discount).
Related CIE Publications
The following CIE publications related to CIE 258:2026 are readily available from the CIE Webshop:
- CIE 001-1980: Guidelines for Minimizing Urban Sky Glow Near Astronomical Observatories (Joint Publication IAU/CIE)
- CIE 126-1997: Guidelines for Minimizing Sky Glow
- CIE 144:2001: Road Surface and Road Marking Reflection Characteristics
- CIE 088:2004: Guide for the Lighting of Road Tunnels and Underpasses, 2nd Edition
- CIE 115:2010: Lighting of Roads for Motor and Pedestrian Traffic, 2nd Edition
- CIE 194:2011: On Site Measurement of the Photometric Properties of Road and Tunnel Lighting
- CIE 150:2017: Guide on the Limitation of the Effects of Obtrusive Light from Outdoor Lighting Installations, 2nd Edition
- CIE 140:2019: Road Lighting Calculations, 2nd Edition
- CIE 234:2019: A Guide to Urban Lighting Masterplanning
- CIE 236:2019: Lighting for Pedestrians: A Summary of Empirical Data