Illuminating for Physical and Sensory Safety on Streets at Nocturnal Time

Abstract

Security is not something that is a new word in the vocabulary, but the increasing crime rates make it important to take the safety measures more seriously, whereas the lack of sense of designing the spaces considering safety makes it a topic of discussion. The buildings are the islands we make to cut off from the crimes around and feel safe but what about the streets that have no walls and all strangers standing around you. The use of high numbers of cameras, entry check points without the skilled security force is just the way to increase the cost and also create the feeling of anxiety among the users. When asked to the public about what makes them most safe on the streets, the simple outcome of illuminating the streets came to be most common. Many physical factors creating unsafe environment can be solved with proper urban lighting, but still holds a back seat in India. Identifying the most unsafe streets in the city of Dehradun with the help of the local police will give us our broad areas that are physically unsafe and the further survey in those particular areas will give us the areas that do not feel psychologically safe. The outcome of the survey being the need of lights to create prospects, refuge spaces and avoid the entrapment setting using dynamic distribution of lights. It not only reduces the crime rates but also the feeling of crime scene taking place. To promote the pedestrian movement on streets it becomes the topic of keen interest that our streets are safe not only physically but also psychologically.