AN EVALUATION OF AUTOMOTIVE REAR SIGNAL SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS IN NIGHT DRIVING

RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED TO EVALUATE REAR-END SIGNAL SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS IN NIGHT DRIVING. THE RESEARCH GOALS WERE TO: (1) EXPAND PREVIOUS RESEARCH WORK TO INCLUDE A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION OF COLORS, OTHER THAN AMBER FOR RUNNING LIGHT SYSTEMS, (2) ASCERTAIN THE EFFECTS OF TAIL LIGHT LOCATION ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE, (3) DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF TAIL LIGHT SIZE ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE, (4) DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE PREVIOUS VARIABLES, (5) TEST FOR SUBJECT EFFECTS, AND (6) ASCERTAIN THE MAGNITUDE OF THE CURRENT AUTOMOBILE POPULATION, WITH SUB-STANDARD TAIL LIGHT SYSTEMS. ROAD TESTS WERE MADE WITH 40 SUBJECTS. THE TESTING OF THE 40 SUBJECTS REQUIRED 60 NIGHTS OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTATION AND INVOLVED OVER 1,080 RESEARCH MAN HOURS (ON THE ROAD) AND OVER 16,000 RESEARCH VEHICLE MILES. TWO AUTOMOBILES WERE USED IN THE EXPERIMENT, ONE OF WHICH WAS USED AS A LEAD CAR AND WAS EQUIPPED WITH THE EXPERIMENTAL SIGNAL SYSTEM. THE SIGNAL SYSTEM CONSISTS OF ESSENTIALLY A FOUR-TIERED RACK UPON WHICH THE SIGNAL LAMPS COULD BE PLACED AT ANY POSITION. LAMP LENSES COULD BE READILY CHANGED AND LAMP SIZES VARIED BY THE PLACEMENT OF OPAQUE FILTERS OVER THE COLORED LENSES OF THE LAMPS. LAMP INTENSITIES WERE CONTROLLED BY THE USE OF THE NEUTRAL DENSITY LIGHT FILTERS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE COLORED LENSES. BRAKE PEDAL RESPONSE TIME IS DEFINED WHEN THE SUBJECT DRIVER OF THE FOLLOWING CAR INTERPRETS THE LEAD CAR TAIL LIGHT SIGNALS AS BRAKE SIGNALS AND IS EQUAL TO THE LENGTH OF TIME BETWEEN THE RELEASE OF THE GAS PEDAL AND THE DEPRESSION OF THE BRAKE PEDAL. NO NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCES WERE APPARENT WITH THE MEASURE BETWEEN TYPES OF SIGNAL SYSTEMS IN THE RESEARCH CONDUCTED. COMPARISONS OF COLOR CHANGE SYSTEMS WITH OTHER COLOR CHANGE SYSTEMS AND COMPAR- ISONS OF CONVENTIONAL SYSTEMS WITH OTHER CONVENTIONAL SYS- TEMS FAILED TO SHOW ANY STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFER- ENCES WITH RESPECT TO ANY OF THE PERFORMANCE MEASURES. A FRIEDMAN TWO-WAY ANALYSIS SURVEILLANCE WAS RUN ON THE TEST DATA TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF CHROME STEREOPSIS. CHROME STEREOPSIS APPEARED TO HAVE A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON SUB- JECT'S ABILITY TO ESTIMATE DISTANCES. BLUE AND BLUE-GREEN TENDED TO BE THE COLORS THAT APPEARED CLOSEST WHILE RED APPEARED FARTHEST AWAY WHEN AT THE SAME DISTANCE. APPROXIMATELY 15 PERCENT OF THE VEHICLES OBSERVED HAD INADEQUATE TAILLIGHT SYSTEM. COLOR AND PLACEMENT BOTH HAVE A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON DISTANCE ESTIMATION. THE RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT CHANGES IN THE INFORMATIONAL CONTENT AND CHANGES IN THE METHODS OF PRESENTATION OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE CURRENT TAILLIGHT SYSTEM DO RESULT IN IMPROVEMENTS.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Rpt No Ees-272B, 154 PP, 23 FIG, 6 TAB, 3 APP
• Corporate Authors:

  Ohio State University, Columbus

  Engineering Experiment Station, 2070 Neil Avenue
  Columbus, OH  United States  43210
• Authors:
  • Rockwell, T H
  • Safford, R R
• Publication Date: 1968-6-30

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Braking; Color; Distance; Driver performance; Drivers; Emergency response time; Estimates; Location; Night visibility; Personnel performance; Prevention; Reaction time; Rear end crashes; Research; Road tests; Safety; Size; Taillamps
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00223138
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 27 1970 12:00AM