School of Architecture, Arts Tower, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom.
Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2020 May 15;15(5):e0233105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233105. eCollection 2020.
Cycling has a range of benefits as is recognised by national and international policies aiming to increase cycling rates. Darkness acts as a barrier to people cycling, with fewer people cycling after-dark when seasonal and time-of-day factors are accounted for. This paper explores whether road lighting can reduce the negative impact of darkness on cycling rates. Changes in cycling rates between daylight and after-dark were quantified for 48 locations in Birmingham, United Kingdom, by calculating an odds ratio. These odds ratios were compared against two measures of road lighting at each location: 1) Density of road lighting lanterns; 2) Relative brightness as estimated from night-time aerial images. Locations with no road lighting showed a significantly greater reduction in cycling after-dark compared with locations that had some lighting. A nonlinear relationship was found between relative brightness at a location at night and the reduction in cyclists after-dark. Small initial increases in brightness resulted in large reductions in the difference between cyclist numbers in daylight and after-dark, but this effect reached a plateau as brightness increased. These results suggest only a minimal amount of lighting can promote cycling after-dark, making it an attractive mode of transport year-round.
自行车运动有一系列的好处，这是得到了国家和国际政策的认可，这些政策旨在提高自行车使用率。天黑是人们骑自行车的障碍，考虑到季节性和一天中的时间因素，天黑后骑自行车的人就更少了。本文探讨了道路照明是否可以减少黑暗对自行车使用率的负面影响。通过计算比值比，对英国伯明翰 48 个地点的白天和天黑后自行车出行率的变化进行了量化。将每个地点的两个道路照明指标与这些比值比进行了比较：1）道路照明路灯的密度；2）根据夜间航拍图像估算的相对亮度。没有道路照明的地点与有一些照明的地点相比，天黑后自行车出行的减少幅度明显更大。发现夜间一个地点的相对亮度与天黑后自行车出行量的减少之间存在非线性关系。亮度的微小初始增加会导致白天和天黑后自行车数量之间的差异大幅减少，但随着亮度的增加，这种效果达到了一个平台期。这些结果表明，只需少量的照明就可以促进天黑后的自行车出行，使自行车成为全年都具有吸引力的交通方式。
