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1 Airports present a unique combination of issues for parking garage lighting. Security, wayfinding, retail issues, and usability are all considerations in airport garage lighting design. Currently, there is increased pressure to reduce costs and environmental impacts; these issues now have a greater weight than they used to. To allow an airport manager or a designer to balance these issues, ACRP Project 09-03 developed a guidebook for airport parking garage lighting, augmenting other stan- dards such as RP-20 from the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES); the primary focus here is to identify the benefits of different lighting technologies, compare these factors in an airport parking garage application, and develop benefit-cost guidance for different lighting installations. Parking garages and parking lots are unique areas of the transportation infrastructure. Because the purpose of a parking lot is to allow drivers to transition into pedestrians and pedestrians back into drivers, no element in the transportation infrastructure has a greater potential for pedestrian- vehicle conflicts. As a result, special lighting requirements must be considered for safety. For pedestrian comfort and usability, a design must consider, calculate, and incorporate not only the horizontal illuminanceâthe amount of light falling on a horizontal surfaceâbut also the vertical illuminance. Horizontal illuminance provides the visibility of the roadway, and vertical illuminance provides the lighting for pedestrian recognition, vehicle detection, and general visual comfort. Parking garages in particular pose a special challenge for lighting because, unlike parking lots, they are interior spaces where lighting is required 24 hours a day. Because parking garages must accommodate both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, the lighting must be adequate for all users to safely traverse the space at all times. Aboveground parking garages, however, allow daylight through the sides of the garage between levels, so there is an opportunity to take advantage of natural lighting and save energy. Leveraging natural lighting requires the garage-lighting system to be well designed and constructed, and to incorporate an appropriate control system. Airport garages require additional design considerations beyond those of other garage types. Airport garage users conduct activities atypical in other garage types, such as renting vehicles. The users might be unfamiliar with the garage layout, because as locals they do not travel often, or because they are visitors to the area. They might be unfamiliar with the vehicle they are driving. They also might be anxious about beginning or ending a trip. Airport garage lighting can help unfa- miliar and possibly anxious airport patrons better navigate the airport by improving illumination in rental areas, walkways, overhead signs, pay stations, elevators, and other important areas. Using lighting to aid wayfinding increases patron comfort. Additionally, a well-designed lighting system will increase the chances that pedestrians and vehicles will travel in predictable ways, increasing overall safety. Finally, airport garages face challenges because they are located near airportsâhigh-security facil- ities. Lighting in general, and vertical illuminance in particular, aid in facial recognition and activity detection, so higher levels of vertical illuminance are required in spaces where security is a concern. C H A P T E R 1 Introduction
