IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecotra/v42y2025ics221201222500019x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Road illumination and nighttime pedestrian deaths: Evidence from moonlight

Author

Listed:
  • Tyndall, Justin

Abstract

Of the 7500 pedestrian road deaths recorded in the US in 2022, 79% took place during the night. Low lighting reduces visibility, potentially increasing the frequency and severity of vehicle-pedestrian collisions. I use complete US data on 193,000 nighttime pedestrian deaths, spanning 1975 to 2022. Nightly variation in moonlight provides a natural experiment that exogenously impacts road illumination. Across the US, nighttime pedestrian deaths are 5% lower when the moon is at its brightest, compared to a night with no moonlight. Under cloud-free conditions, peak moonlight causes a 17% drop in pedestrian deaths. In rural areas with low artificial lighting, the effect is 39%. I establish a clear causal relationship between road illumination and pedestrian safety. A small increase in ambient light causes a large improvement in pedestrian outcomes. The finding has policy implications for road safety and the artificial lighting of roadways.

Suggested Citation

  • Tyndall, Justin, 2025. "Road illumination and nighttime pedestrian deaths: Evidence from moonlight," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecotra:v:42:y:2025:i:c:s221201222500019x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecotra.2025.100411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221201222500019X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecotra.2025.100411?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecotra:v:42:y:2025:i:c:s221201222500019x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecotra .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.