Coping with darkness: Residents' experience of reduced outdoor lighting in neighbourhoods

P. Mattsson, B. Smidt-Hart

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingPaper in conference proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

Despite ongoing replacement of old lighting installations with new energy-efficient light emitting diodes, the energy crisis has led to the implementation of strategies for reducing energy use for public outdoor lighting in neighbourhood environments. This would save money and reduce light pollution; however, the situations should be evaluated from the residents' perspective. This paper presents a pilot study, which aimed to explore how residents experience and respond to reduced outdoor lighting in their neighbourhoods during dark hours, by applying the adapted Human-Environment Interaction model to understand the relation between outdoor lighting quality, neighbourhood quality and local independent mobility from the residents' perspective. The pilot study was based on a short questionnaire (N =76, 29 males, 47 females, Mage = 66.66 years) and telephone or online interviews (N = 13, 5 males, 8 females, Mage = 68.08 years) with the residents living in the neighbourhood areas, in Southern Sweden, where strategies were employed for reducing the use of public outdoor lighting. Data were collected between February and March 2023. Overall, the results affirmed the important role of outdoor lighting quality in residents' experience of neighbourhood environments and local independent mobility (i.e. the ability of residents to walk or move around on their own in their neighbourhood area), whereas the effect of reduced outdoor lighting was rather insignificant. The interviews further showed different experiences of the reduced outdoor lighting and how the residents coped with the lighting conditions by using solutions (i.e. headlamps, flashlights, bike lamps and reflectors), and that high-level perceived safety from crime in the neighbourhoods was found to play an important role in local independent mobility during dark hours. The adapted conceptual model allowed for the evaluation of outdoor lighting conditions considering both internal and external factors from the residents' perspective, and could provide a basis for discussion about potential changes in public outdoor lighting.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
Volume1320
Edition1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event9th Light Symposium 2023: Architecture Lighting Environments - Space With(Out) Light, LS 2023 - Stockholm, Sweden
Duration: 2023 Dec 42023 Dec 6

Publication series

NameIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
PublisherIOP Publishing
ISSN (Print)1755-1307

Conference

Conference9th Light Symposium 2023: Architecture Lighting Environments - Space With(Out) Light, LS 2023
Country/TerritorySweden
CityStockholm
Period2023/12/042023/12/06

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Architectural Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Coping with darkness: Residents' experience of reduced outdoor lighting in neighbourhoods'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this