Effective Roadway Lighting

The 2025 update to IES RP-8 emphasizes the Luminance design method as the primary approach, alongside new guidance on LED lighting, Adaptive Lighting, and Lighting for Pedestrians. This course equips professionals with practical knowledge on using lighting design software, selecting appropriate luminaires, and implementing energy-efficient designs tailored to roadway and walkway applications. By the end of the course, participants will have the expertise to create constructible, maintainable lighting solutions that align with the latest industry standards.

• Engineering consultants, municipal engineers, and state DOT professionals managing roadway lighting projects.
• Lighting designers, architects, and electric utility engineers seeking expertise in modern lighting systems.
• Manufacturers and suppliers involved in roadway lighting design, operation, and maintenance.

Why Do We Install Roadway Lighting?

• Safety
• Security
• Cost/benefit considerations
• When should we light? – Warrants

Designing “In Scale”

• Lighting is a geometry problem
• Rules of Thumb for Selecting Mounting Height of Lighting
• Design “in scale” with the street

Review of Lighting Fundamentals

• Roadway lighting units of measure
• Photometric reports
• Reflection and refraction
• Visibility 

Light Sources for Roadway Lighting 

• High Intensity Discharge lamps
• LED lighting
• Induction Lighting
• Color Rendering Index (CRI)
• Correlated Color Temperature (CCT)
• Scotopic/Photopic ratio (S/P)

Luminaire Selection

• Luminaire types
• Reflectors and refractors
• Roadway distribution types
• Cutoff classifications
• Backlight, Uplight, and Glare (BUG) ratings
• Ingress Protection (IP) ratings
• Maintenance considerations

Evaluating Street Lighting for Energy Efficiency

• Energy Analysis Approaches
• Comparing LED & HID Lighting Systems
• Retrofitting Existing Systems
• Examples and Exercises

Introduction to the New ANSI/IES Rp-08-14 Recommended Practice for Roadway Lighting

• Roadway classifications
• Luminaire
• Design criteria
• Design considerations
• Lighting for pedestrian activity
• Limiting light trespass & skyglow

Example Design Problems

• Illuminance design
• Luminance design
• Comparison of results

Lighting Design Exercises

• Designing with computer software
• Considering energy efficiency, connected load and life cycle cost in design
• Retrofit Design Exercise
• Complex geometries, intersections and other special cases

Translating Design to Practice: How the Real World Gets in the Way

• Applying theoretical spacing to plan
• Intersection adjustments
• Utility considerations
• Trees and landscape coordination
•  Specification and construction issues

Lighting Design Plan Sheet Exercise

Roadway Lighting  - Electrical Basics

• Basic lighting circuits
• Electrical plans, details, and panel schedules
• Voltage drop calculations

Adaptive Lighting and Lighting Controls

Poles. Foundations and Safety

• Pole materials
• Typical foundation design
• Alternative foundation types
• Direct burial poles
• Clear zone considerations
• Breakaway assemblies

"Great course–covered almost every aspect of roadway lighting."

"Good examples, real-world issues."

"I got the answers to several plaguing problems."

"A completely useful course. I am happy to report to my company that our training time and money were so effectively used."

"This course was great. I would highly recommend it to anyone regardless of their street lighting experience."

Benjamin Jordan

Benjamin J. Jordan, PE, is a program director with Interdisciplinary Professional Programs in the transportation sector. He has over 35 years of experience in civil engineering and public works. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and a Master of Public Affairs degree with a Certificate in Public Management from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois.

Graeme Lister

Suzanne Lansford

Suzanne Lansford, PE, is the president and principal of REDD Inc., DBA Town Lighting Engineers, a consulting engineering firm in Phoenix, Arizona. Lansford specializes in roadway and outdoor lighting projects, traffic signal design, and related technical and environmental permitting. She is a member of the IES Roadway Lighting Executive Committee and a Southwest Region Director of the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE). She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University.

Rick Kaufmann