Electric vehicles (EVs) have seen significant advancements and mainstream adoption, prompting in-depth analysis of their economic, technical, and environmental impacts. Economically, while EVs offer lower operational costs than internal combustion engine vehicles, challenges remain, particularly for urban users reliant on public charging stations and the potential implementation of new road taxes to offset declining fuel tax revenues. Technically, electric motors in EVs have fewer moving parts, but battery management and cybersecurity complexities pose new risks. Transitioning from Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) to Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) batteries reflects efforts to enhance thermal stability and mitigate fire hazards. Environmentally, lithium extraction for batteries has profound ecological impacts, including for water consumption and pollution. Battery production and the carbon footprint of the entire lifecycle remain pressing concerns, with battery recycling and second-life applications as crucial mitigation strategies. Smart integration of EVs with the energy infrastructure introduces challenges like grid stability and opportunities, such as smart, intelligent, innovative charging solutions and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. Future research should develop economic models to forecast long-term impacts, advance battery technology, enhance cybersecurity, and conduct comprehensive environmental assessments to optimise the benefits of electromobility, addressing the multidimensional challenges and opportunities presented by EVs.

The issue concerns the initial stage of work on a method for performing a rapid assessment of the energy efficiency and illuminance of a street lighting installation. The proposed method is based on simultaneous measurement of illuminance from three lux meters placed on the roof of the vehicle. The data are acquired in road traffic, while the vehicle is driving. The proposed solution will allow in the future to quickly and reproducibly obtain data about the lighting parameters of the studied road section. The illumination values are localised using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Based on the collected measurement data, with the use of terrain maps, geographic information system (GIS) data and installation design documentation, it will be possible to determine in detail the parameters of energy efficiency indicators for a selected section of the street for the entire street according to the EN13201-5 standard. Preliminary tests were conducted on a section of about one kilometer of street illuminated in class C3. Detailed measurements reveal high variation of obtained energy indicators D_P and D_E for each road section. The reason for this condition is the variation of power, installation geometry and the presence of obstacles to light.

In spite of the excellent temporal resolution of event-related EEG potentials (ERPs), the overlapping potentials evoked by masked and masking stimuli are hard to disentangle. However, when both masked and masking stimuli consist of pairs of relevant and irrelevant stimuli, one left and one right from fixation, with the side of the relevant element varying between pairs, effects of masked and masking stimuli can be distinguished by means of the contralateral preponderance of the potentials evoked by the relevant elements, because the relevant elements may independently change sides in masked and masking stimuli. Based on a reanalysis of data from which only selected contralateral-ipsilateral effects had been previously published, the present contribution will provide a more complete picture of the ERP effects in a masked-priming task. Indeed, effects evoked by masked primes and masking targets heavily overlapped in conventional ERPs and could be disentangled to a certain degree by contralateral-ipsilateral differences. Their major component, the N2pc, is interpreted as indicating preferential processing of stimuli matching the target template, which process can neither be identified with conscious perception nor with shifts of spatial attention. The measurements showed that the triggering of response preparation by the masked stimuli did not depend on their discriminability, and their priming effects on the processing of the following target stimuli were qualitatively different for stimulus identification and for response preparation. These results provide another piece of evidence for the independence of motor-related and perception-related effects of masked stimuli.

Advertising media installed in the vicinity of the road may pose a potential threat to road safety. The driver’s perception of advertising depends on a number of factors, including the time of day, the location and dimensions of the medium, the luminance value, and the way the light is emitted. However, the excessive or incorrect distribution of media luminance in the driver’s field of vision, especially at night, may have a significant effect on the disturbance of the visual process. The driver’s night vision is generally adapted to low ambient luminance values, illuminated by vehicle and road lighting. Limiting the emission parameters of advertising by means of luminance values is one of the most common legal requirements in many countries, in the context of consent to the location of advertising on roads. For many years now, billboards with unknown emission characteristics and luminance values have been functioning in Poland. Exploitation of advertising media in the vicinity of roads requires the consent of the road manager to install the advertising media, which so far has not required confirmation of the maximum luminance values obtained. This led to the installation of aggressive advertisements on the roads, which disturbed the drivers. In order to determine whether there is a problem of excessive luminance of media in Poland and how high is the percentage of media, pilot studies were carried out on road sections selected by the research team. In the paper have been presented the results of measurements of light parameters (luminance of the carrier, luminance of the background and calculated contrast) and geometric dimensions of the advertising surface, using the original author’s procedure for 227 advertisements located in selected locations in Poland. The obtained measurement results showed that the permissible luminance levels were exceeded many times in the group of advertisements using LED sources. The authors have proposed to introduce a unified, operational procedure for measuring the luminance parameters of advertising media. The undertaken research is aimed at developing guidelines for road infrastructure managers concerning the reduction of brightness of advertisements located in the vicinity of roads.

Issues related to braking and acceleration in vehicles represent both technical and environmental challenges, regardless of the type of drive, whether combustion or electric. In conventional vehicles, the emission of particulate matter is a problem associated with the friction between brake pads and discs, leading to air pollution and health hazards. Brake dust contributes to up to 55% of particulate matter in urban environments. In electric vehicles, the processes of braking and rapid acceleration affect battery wear; however, thanks to energy recovery technology, it is possible to recuperate up to 70% of the kinetic energy. This paper proposes a solution involving the placement of induction loops before intersections with traffic lights to enable the recovery and storage of energy, which could be used to power vehicles waiting at intersections, as well as placement behind intersections to supply power to vehicles accelerating when leaving the intersection. The study considers the application of various energy storage technologies, such as flow batteries, supercapacitors, and flywheels. Each of these technologies offers unique benefits and limitations, such as long operational life, a high number of charge/discharge cycles, and environmental friendliness. Simulations performed using AIMSUN.Next software made it possible to analyze energy consumption and pollutant emissions in various scenarios, indicating the potential benefits of traffic optimization, the use of electric vehicles, and energy recovery. The research results highlight the importance of traffic smoothness and the use of energy storage technologies to reduce pollutant emissions (possible reduction: CO2 by over 40%, NOx by 48%, PM by 73%, and VOC by 40%) and energy consumption (lack of smooth traffic flow leads to approximately 159% higher energy use). The proposed use of energy storage technologies at intersections may significantly decrease particulate and carbon dioxide emissions. The final choice of energy storage technology will depend on local conditions, such as space availability, investment costs, and market availability.