EFFECT OF DAYTIME USE OF MOTORCYCLE HEADLIGHTS AND TAILLIGHTS ON MOTORCYCLE NOTICEABILITY

THIS PAPER DESCRIBES A SERIES OF MOTORCYCLE NOTICEABILITY EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED BY THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE RESEARCH LABORATORIES AS PART OF A STUDY FOR THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY SAFETY BUREAU TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING MOTORCYCLE HEADLIGHTS AND TAILLIGHTS IN THE DAYTIME FOR IMPROVING MOTORCYCLE NOTICEABILITY. FOUR FRONT AND THREE REAR-LIGHT EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED. THE FRONT-LIGHT EXPERIMENTS EVALUATED MOTORCYCLE HEAD-LIGHTS, BOTH HIGH AND LOW BEAM, AND AMBER RUNNING LIGHTS UNDER DIFFERENT AND REPRESENTATIVE TRAFFIC CONDITIONS. OTHER FACTORS INCLUDED WEATHER, COLOR OF HELMET, AND NUMBERS OF LANES SEPARATING OPPOSING TRAFFIC. THE REAR-LIGHT EXPERIMENTS EVALUATED STANDARD MOTORCYCLE TAILLIGHT AND BRAKE LIGHT, RAISED HIGH-INTENSITY TAILLIGHT WITH CONTRASTING BACKGROUND, AND DUAL RAISED RED AND AMBER TAILLIGHTS FOR TWO DIFFERENT TRAFFIC SITUATIONS. THE RESULTS OF THESE EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT DAYTIME USE OF MOTORCYCLE HEAD-LIGHTS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASES NOTICEABILITY OF THE MOTORCYCLE BY OTHER MOTORISTS. HOWEVER, THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HEADLIGHT IS SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER IN CLOUDY WEATHER THAN IN CLEAR WEATHER. USE OF FRONT AMBER RUNNING LIGHTS INCREASES NOTICEABILITY ABOUT HALF AS MUCH AS THE HEADLIGHT. THE REAR-LIGHT EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT RED MOTORCYCLE TAIL-LIGHTS, EVEN WHEN MODIFIED BY INTENSITY, NUMBER OF LIGHTS, MOUNTING HEIGHT, AND CONTRASTING BACKGROUND, DO NOT SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE MOTORCYCLE NOTICEABILITY DURING THE DAYTIME. HOWEVER, DUAL AMBER TAILLIGHTS WERE FOUND TO IMPROVE NOTICEABILITY SIMILAR TO THE FRONT RUNNING LIGHTS. /AUTHOR/

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    • Sponsored by Committee on Visibility and presented at the 50th Annual Meeting. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
  • Authors:
    • Cassell, Arno
    • Janoff, Michael S
  • Publication Date: 1971

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: pp 40-52
  • Monograph Title: Visibility
  • Serial:

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00221657
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 0309019923
  • Report/Paper Numbers: HS-011 999
  • Files: TRIS, TRB
  • Created Date: May 22 1972 12:00AM