NEW INVESTIGATIONS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONGENITAL COLOUR VISION DEFECTS AND ROAD TRAFFIC SECURITY

New extensive experiments demonstrated that: (a) protan observers are more deficient than deutan ones with regard to perception distances of some traffic panels, of vehicle red stop lights, of vehicle red rear-position lights and of white, yellow and red reflectors; contrarily, deutan observers are more deficient than protan ones for the distinction of differently coloured traffic lights and vehicle rear lights; (b) protan and deutan drivers are not responsible for more traffic accidents than drivers with normal colour vision; (C) this apparent contradiction is due to psychological compensation mechanisms. The practical conclusions are: (a) that persons with defective colour vision need not to be excluded from private road traffic; (b) that it is nevertheless useful that they should be aware of their handicap; (C) that the red traffic signal needs to be larger than the other ones; and (D) that the stop and red position lights of vehicles must be sufficiently intense and that the filters transmitting only extreme red should be avoided in them. (TRRL)

• Corporate Authors:

  Nederlandsche Vereniging Van Artsen-Automobilisten

  P.O. Box 64
  Utrecht,   Netherlands 
• Authors:
  • Verriest, G
  • NEUBAUER, O
  • Marre, M
  • Uvijls, A
• Publication Date: 1980-3-15

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 498-504
• Serial:
  • Arts en Auto
  • Volume: 46
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Nederlandsche Vereniging Van Artsen-Automobilisten

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Color; Color blindness; Crash rates; Diseases and medical conditions; Length; Perception; Persons with disabilities; Red; Reflectorized materials; Safety; Side lighting; Size; Traffic; Traffic safety; Traffic signals; Vehicle lighting; Vehicle lighting devices; Vision; Whites; Yellow
• ITRD Terms: 6784: Colour; 2077: Colour blindness; 1726: Disabled person; 6488: Length; 2154: Medical aspects; 2229: Perception; 9068: Red; 1343: Reflector (veh); 1665: Safety; 1331: Side light; 755: Traffic; 565: Traffic signal; 2066: Vision; 9089: White; 9092: Yellow
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00324811
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Institute for Road Safety Research, SWOV
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 15 1981 12:00AM