Procedure for Measuring the Luminance of Roadway Billboards and Preliminary Results

Figures & data

Table 1. Limit values for driver’s eye illumination (IESNA 2000)

Zone	Characterization	Lighting limit on the eye Eeye (lx)
E1	Indicates completely dark areas such as national parks or protected areas	1.0
E2	Designates zones with low luminosity, such as industrial sites or rural residential areas	3.0
E3	Designates zones of medium brightness, such as industrial sites or suburban residential areas	8.0
E4	Designates high brightness zones such as city centers and commercial zones	15.0

Table 2. Lighting requirements for intrusive outdoor lighting installations (IESNA 2000)

	Light on immovable property		The luminous intensity of the luminaire		Light emitted upwards	Luminance
	Ev [lx]		I [cd]		ULR [%]	Lb [cd/m^2]	Ls [cd/m^2]
Environmental zone	before the dimming time*	after the dimming time	before the dimming time	after the dimming time	-	façade of the building	signs
E0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
E1	2	0	2500	0	0	0	50
E2	5	1	7500	500	0.05	5	400
E3	10	2	10000	1000	0.15	10	800
E4	25	5	25000	2500	0.25	25	1000

* in the absence of a time limit, the higher values shall not be exceeded and the lower values shall be commissioned as the preferred limits. E1–E4 – zones as in Table 2.

Table 3. Luminance levels for RPA (SANRAL 2000)

Illuminated area	Maximal luminance LT [cd/m^2]
More than 10 m^2	400
2 to 10 m^2	600
0.5 to 2 m^2	800
Less than 0.5 m^2	1000

Fig. 1. Locations of luminance measurements of advertising media (from left: a) Gdańsk – Tczew – Gdańsk, b) Warsaw – Marki, c) Łomianki – Warszawa). Source: Own description

Fig. 2. Advertisements types (group A top left, group B top right, group C bottom left, group D bottom right). Source: Own description

Fig. 3. Measurement geometry for billboard luminance (Chrzanowicz and Tomczuk 2017; Chrzanowicz et al. 2017)

Fig. 4. Example of the measurement of the maximal luminance of a billboard with a 0.1° measuring field angle. Source: Own description

Fig. 5. Measurement fields of L_T advertising luminance and L_B background luminance as well as the location of the meter. Source: Own description

Fig. 6. Potential directions of medium observation and measurement (arrow length represents light value), a) the highest emission in the axis perpendicular to the medium, b) uniform and symmetrical emission, c) asymmetrical emission. Source: Own description

Table 4. Results of the measurements of lighting parameters of advertising media

Parameter	classification by emissions-related sharing
	A	B	C	D
Number of advertisements	34	108	63	22
Maximal advertising luminance LTmax [cd/m^2]	6544.8	121.1	177.7	33.1
Mean maximal advertising luminance LT max [cd/m^2]	3552.3	43.4	69.7	4.8
Standard deviation	1411.9	22.3	34.5	7.8
Maximal contrast C [-]	47255.0	964.0	992.0	164.5
Average contrast C [-]	9870.4	202.5	271.2	27.9
Mean background luminance LBave [cd/m^2]	0.74	0.47	0.72	0.52
Average geometric surface [m^2]	5.4	20.0	11.5	21.5

Source: Own description.

Fig. 7. Frequency of maximum luminance of various types of advertising. Source: Own description

Fig. 8. Frequency of background luminance of various types of advertising. Source: Own description

Fig. 9. Frequency of contrast of various types of advertising. Source: Own description

Fig. 10. Frequency of area of various types of advertising. Source: Own description

Fig. 11. The values adopted in South Africa (SANRAL 2000) limiting the maximum allowed luminance on the advertising surface with marked limitations according to Table 3. The broken line indicates the luminance limitations for day and night time in Poland. Source: Own description

Fig. 12. Contrast of luminance for particular types of advertising, including the acceptable value C ≤ 40 (line). Source: Own description

Table 5. Lighting zones (CIE 2017; ILP 2015)

Zone	Surrounding	Lighting Environment	Examples
E0	Protected	Dark	UNESCO Starlight Reserves, IDA Dark Sky Parks
E1	Natural	Intrinsically dark	National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty etc
E2	Rural	Low district brightness	Village or relatively dark outer suburban locations
E3	Suburban	Medium district brightness	Small town centers or suburban locations
E4	Urban	High district brightness	Town/city centers with high levels of nighttime activity

Table 6. The level of luminance depends on the surface of advertising medium (CIE 2017; ILP 2015)

Billboard Area	Zone E0	Zone E1	Zone E2	Zone E3	Zone E4
m^2	Maximum luminance (cd/m^2)
≤ 10 m^2	prohibited	100	400	600	600
> 10 m^2	prohibited	prohibited	200	300	300

Fig. 13. Examples of mounting a luminaire to illuminate an advertising medium

[IESNA] Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. 2000. Light trespass: research, results and recommendations. IESNA Publication no. TM-11-00. New York (NY): IES.

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[SANRAL] The South African National Roads Agency Limitedand National. 2000. Regulations on advertising on or visible from national roads R.1402/2000. Government Gazette No 21924.

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[CIE] International Commission on Illumination. 2017. Guide on the limitation of the effects of obtrusive light from outdoor lighting installations. 2nd ed. doi:https://doi.org/10.25039/TR.150.2017.

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[ILP] The Institution of Lighting Professionals. 2015. The brightness of illuminated advertisements. Institution of Lighting Professionals [accessed 2020 May 10]. https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/idoxWAM/doc/Other-2288163.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=2288163&location=Volume2&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1.

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