Assessing public perceptions about road lighting in five neighborhoods of Tirana, Albania

Abstract

The light use was assessed in ten indoor and outdoor environments of Tirana, Albania, in November 2017. The five indoor environments presented one lecture hall, one library and three labs in a school environment. The five major streets of the capital city of Tirana presented outdoor environments. Questionnaires were respectively used to assess two criteria of “Vista” and “Visual comfort” of daylight in indoor environments and security, obstacle detection and visibility in outdoor environments. Lighting quality aspects of “Vista” were evaluated at a higher rank compared to “Visual comfort”. The approximately 87 and 60 percent of respondents respectively were not able to detect a pavement obstacle after the sunset (dark) or to distinguish a familiar face at a distance of 5 and 10 m in outdoor environments. Lighting was respectively inadequately comfort to 86 percent of users in five indoor environments. Road lighting after dark was not satisfactory to 60 percent of respondents in outdoor environments. These initial findings identify that lighting could generally be inadequate in indoor and outdoor environments in Tirana. Further research is required on the light use in built environments in Tirana, Albania.