Nighttime Safety Enhancement Plan

The Nighttime Safety Enhancement Plan (Plan) is proposed to analyze and propose improvements to the City of Hayward streetlight system to increase nighttime traffic safety and reduce crashes for all road users to help achieve the City’s Vision Zero goal by 2050. The Plan will include assessments of the existing lighting conditions, recommendations for the minimum illumination levels in various development areas with a focus on high pedestrian and bicycle corridors, establishment of maintenance programs, processes for handling new street light requests, short- and long-term capital improvement alternatives, and greenhouse gas emission reduction estimations related to LED conversion and increased active transportation mode share.

Project Background:

The City of Hayward is committed to its Vision Zero goal to eliminate roadway fatalities and severe injuries by 2050. In an effort to achieve this goal, the Nighttime Safety Enhancement Plan is proposed to strategically address transportation safety on the City's roadways with an approach that includes social safety.

The City’s Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) (2023) identified a correlation between fatal and severe injury crashes with both time of day and lighting conditions. Fatal and severe injury crashes occur more frequently at night or during twilight (dusk/dawn) hours. Further, pedestrians were more frequently injured or killed in dark or dusk/dawn conditions, particularly during evening peak travel periods. A higher share of fatal and severely injured bicycle-involved crashes also occurs in dark or dusk/dawn conditions.

The City intends to develop the Nighttime Safety Enhancement Plan by taking a systematic approach to improve the citywide lighting system in alignment with the LRSP. The goals of this plan are to increase nighttime traffic safety; reduce barriers on multi-modal corridors; promote walking, biking, and transit use at nighttime; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to achieving the Vision Zero goal by 2050.

This project is funded by Caltrans FY 2025-2026 Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant.

Existing City Streetlight System & Available Data:

The City maintains a GIS database of existing streetlights, which has records of over 8,000 streetlights and includes data such as location, light-emitting diode (LED) installation date, wattage, and voltage. About 80% of the City’s streetlights have been converted to LED fixtures and about 1,700 fixtures remain to be converted.

The City’s 2017 Standard Details includes specifications for the type of electrolier, luminaire, and luminaire requirements for standard street lighting and downtown street lighting (SD 120, SD 120A, and SD 120B). The Standard Details also include design criteria for roadway lighting on arterials, collectors, and local roadways.