Method for controlling street lighting over a plurality of interconnected road segments, in which a road class is dynamically assigned to each road segment on the basis of, at least, stored road type data associated to each road segment and traffic parameters determined for each road segment for a current time period. At least a corresponding maximum lighting level is associated to each road class. In this method, signals comprising speed and direction of travel data of road users, and an identification of the road user are propagated through series of adjacent road segments starting from each road user's road segment, and a new lighting level equal to said maximum lighting level is set at each road segment whose distance to the road user's road segment is not greater than a first distance. A control device for implementing the above method is also disclosed.