13-32 I E S LIGHTING HANDBOOK

Pressed-glass, lens-mirror plaques. Aggregations of small lenses are

pressed in the form of plates with a silvered back surface to form the focal
mirror for the aggregation. Production difficulties limit the precision of
these devices and therefore they are best used for short-range viewing
when the observer and source are rather widely separated.
Spherical glass beads. Very small transparent spheres, no larger than
coarse sand, and carefully graded for size, are embedded in a diffuse
reflecting material such as white or aluminum paint. The reflecting coat
may be carried on an adhesive cloth which is used to face signboards,
or the glass beads may be pressed directly into a freshly painted sign-
board. A variation of this is the coating of freshly painted center stripes
on highway pavements with glass beads.
STREET AND HIGHWAY ILLUMINATION
All aspects of traffic safety involve visibility. The fundamental fac-
tors which directly influence visibility are
:
1. The brightness of an object on or near the roadway.
2. The size of an object and its identifying detail.
3. The contrast between an object and its surround.
4. The time available for seeing an object.
5. Glare.
Good visibility on street or highway at night may be provided by the
quality of light which results in adequate pavement brightness with good
uniformity and appropriate illumination of adjacent areas, together with
reasonable freedom from glare.
The two principal methods of discernment in street and highway light-
ing are by silhouette and by surface detail.
Classifications of Urban Streets
The common factor in all street and highway safety considerations is
the volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. As traffic volume increases
the exposure to accident also increases. Good visibility is difficult to
achieve in the confusion of moving vehicles and pedestrians. Yet acci-
dent hazards must be discerned against this background. Therefore it is
of prime importance that a street or highway lighting system be built up
from a definite plan based on a comprehensive traffic survey of all road-
ways under consideration. (See Table 13-3.)
Table 13-3. Institute of Traffic Engineers Street Classifications
CLASSIFICATION OF TRAFFIC
Very light traffic
Light traffic
Medium traffic
Heavy traffic
Very heavy traffic
Heaviest traffic
NUMBER OF VEHICLES PER HOUR
(Maximum Night Hour, Both Directions)
Under 150
150- 500
500-1,200
1,200-2,400
2,400-4,000
Over 4,000