Roadway Lighting and Safety

Ron Gibbons is the Director of the Center for Infrastructure Based Safety Systems (CIBSS) at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). He is the Institute’s lead lighting research scientist. He is currently the PI on projects investigating the impact of outdoor lighting on human health, the Spectral Effects of new light sources on roadways, the visibility of police vehicles and is the subject matter lead for the FHWA office Safety IDIQ contract. Dr. Gibbons is also an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech. Gibbons is the author of over 80 published papers on roadway lighting, photometry, and target visibility. He is a past Director of Division 4 of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) and a past president of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

Don McLean is an engineering technician with 40+ years of experience. He is the president of DMD and Associates Ltd., a 50+ person electrical engineering firm specializing in street lighting and traffic signals.

Through his career, Don has focused on outdoor street lighting in the transportation sector. Don has been involved with over 5,000 projects including larger P3 transportation projects in the $1B+ range and over 700,000 street lights converted to LED.

Don has authored and co-authored a number of national engineering standards and publications for the IES, IMSA, Transportation Association of Canada, FHWA and NCHRP.

Paul Lutkevich is a Technical Director and Professional Fellow for lighting design at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff. He has over 30 years experience in design and construction of infrastructure systems including roadways, tunnels, pedestrian facilities, and transit systems. He is actively involved in the development of national and international standards for outdoor lighting. Paul was also a member of the US delegation in the FHWA/AASHTO Bilateral Lighting Technology Exchange Program between outdoor lighting experts and international organizations in Europe. He has been involved in research with the FHWA investigating topics concerning lighting and safety, adaptive lighting implementation, visualization techniques, environmental and health impacts of lighting, and context-sensitive solutions. He has written and spoken extensively on the subjects of outdoor lighting including urban lighting, lighting for pedestrians, aesthetic considerations in outdoor lighting, and lighting for safety. He is a co-author for the Transportation Association of Canada’s outdoor lighting standards which used the latest research from North American and international sources to compile a comprehensive design guide for the outdoor environment. He is chair of the IES Roadway Standard Practice Sub-Committee. He also was the lead researcher for the revisions to the FHWA Roadway Lighting Handbook and is lead researcher for the NCHRP Solid State Lighting Guidelines.