How to Avoid 3 Common Tunnel Lighting Mistakes

Posted on 2025-07-31, in Blog

Travelers inevitably encounter tunnels, and tunnel lighting is one of the most important factors in ensuring driver safety. Poor design can lead to accidents, energy waste, and high maintenance costs. This article discusses three common tunnel lighting mistakes and how they can be avoided through lens optical design.

1. Entrance and Exit Lighting Design Mistakes

The entrances and exits of a tunnel experience a significant difference from the natural light outside, causing drivers to experience intense light stimulation, potentially leading to danger. This violates tunnel lighting standards, creating the "white hole" and "black hole" effects.

The solution is to use gradual changes in light intensity within the entrance and exit lighting design to gradually reduce or intensify the light, giving the eye time to adjust. In addition to reducing luminous flux, optical lenses can also be designed with varying beam angles to control the lighting angle of LED lamps to achieve the desired gradient effect.

2. Glare Caused by Optical Components

Using substandard optical components in tunnel lighting can produce excessive glare (UGR > 25), causing dangerous visual disturbances for drivers. This violates the CIE 140-2000 glare control standard and may cause drivers to squint or blink more frequently.

High-quality optical components, such as TIR lenses, redirect light, reducing glare and keeping it away from the driver's line of sight.

3. Uneven light distribution in the main section

Inconsistent light levels in the main section of the tunnel lead to a dangerous "light and dark zone" effect, negatively impacting driver visibility, shortening reaction time, and increasing the likelihood of accidents.

Solution: We recommend using professionally designed optical lenses to "trim" the lighting, maintaining consistent brightness levels for a more even light distribution and eliminating "light and dark zones."

 

conclusion

Pairing excellent lenses with pre-designed and tested lighting fixtures is crucial for achieving a more seamless tunnel lighting system.

If you need help finding the right lens to support your tunnel lighting project, contact the Asahi team!

 

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