Why Are There No Street Lights on Highways?

While road lighting is crucial for nighttime driving, city roads are illuminated whereas highways generally are not, except for key bridge decks and tunnels.

Cost Considerations

Installing a street light every 50 meters on urban roads incurs astronomical costs from installation to maintenance of the street light wholesale. Unlike city roads, highways often experience sparse traffic and are far from bustling urban areas. Continuous lighting on highways would lead to significant resource wastage. Additionally, highways cross multiple states and provinces, making segmented power supply and management a complex issue.

Safety Implications

Installing streetlights on highways could create alternating light and dark zones, causing visual fatigue for drivers. Continuous road lighting might also lead to a subconscious loss of vigilance, which is detrimental to sustained concentration while driving.

Vehicles permitted on highways are equipped with their own lighting systems, sufficient for drivers to see their surroundings. The inconsistent lighting from street light can cause visual errors and fatigue, posing hidden safety risks if installed on highways.

Reflective Systems for Safety

Highways are equipped with comprehensive reflective marking systems, including hot-melt reflective lane lines, film reflective contour markings (for isolation belts and guardrails), and luminous nails. These systems reflect lane indicators, traffic signs, roadside contours, lane dividers, and central separation belts. At night, when drivers turn on their headlights, these reflective systems provide real-time guidance.