Current recommendations for road lighting in residential areas may be based on
inappropriate evidence. A first step in providing more appropriate evidence is
understanding what important visual tasks pedestrians have to perform when walking.
An
experiment
was carried out using eye
-
tracking equipment to identify significant aspects
of pedestrian gaze behaviour during daylight hours and after
-
dark. A dual
-
task
was used
in which participants had to respond to an auditory stimulus at irregular times
: s
low
respo
nses were
used as a guide for when
attention
was
diverted from the response task to
something in the visual environment.
G
aze behaviour at these times was categorised
according to
the significant object or area the pedest
rian was looking at
.
Participants
w
ere more likely to look at other pedestrians or the path at critical times compared with
other categories of objects, suggesting these are important visual tasks. Future research
should examine how lighting affects our perception of other people and pathwa
y
characteristics, such as obstacles
