All new vehicles from 2011 will have Daytime Running Lights to increase road safety

On September 24, 2008 to increase road safety, the European Commission issued a DIRECTIVE to introduce dedicated Daytime Running Light (DDRL) on all new types of motor vehicles from the year 2011 onwards.

 What is DDRL?

Dedicated Daytime Running Lights(DDRL) are special lamps which are automatically switched on when the engine is started. They substantially increase the visibility of motor vehicles to other road users, and have a low energy consumption compared to existing dipped-beam head lamps.

What is DRL?

Daytime Running Lights(DRL) are special devices intended to make the front of the vehicle more conspicuous during the day. DRL will automatically switch on the low beams of the vehicle at 50% when the engine has started. They substantially increase the visibility of motor vehicles to other road users, and have a low energy consumption compared to manually switched low beams at 100%. In countries which have already made DRL obligatory the experience in the field of road safety is very positive.

On vehicles equipped with Daytime Running Light, this light is automatically switched on when the engine is started. When it is dark the driver has to switch on the driving lights manually. In this case the DRL goes off automatically.

From an environmental point of view, daytime running light is an effective solution to improve visibility and conspicuity of vehicles.

A variety of lighting systems have been used as DRLs - the most popular has been the daytime used of low beam headlights such as FAR made by BROS.Co Ltd.

Why we need DRL?

Numerous investigations in USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and recently in European Union demonstrate without any doubt that driving with turn-on lights reduces significantly the chances for road accidents.

According to a study of The American Road Security Institute, the road accidents have been reduced by 20% after imposing DRL.  The same study emphasizes that 45% of all road accidents are caused by poor visibility or recognition errors.

It is clear from the European Commission report that as a result of imposing DRL, the road accidents have been declined by 15% for fatal cases, by 10% for heavy cases, and by 5 % for light cases.

 
According to available research, Daytime Running Light (DRL) is important for road safety. All road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, can detect, recognize and identify vehicles equipped with DRL, better and earlier. The mandatory introduction of dedicated DRL was discussed in the Commission's High Level Group CARS 21 (“Competitive Automotive Regulatory System for the 21st Century”) with high level executives from Member States, industry and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and got unanimous approval. The Directive, which has been adopted today, foresees that from 7 February 2011 onwards all new types of passenger cars and small delivery vans will have to be equipped with DRL. Trucks and buses will follow 18 months later, i.e. August 2012.

HISTORY

In 1972 Finland introduced mandatory (manual) use of headlights during the day. Other Scandinavian countries followed.
In 1989 Canada introduced mandatory automatic DRLs for new cars DRLs have been standard on all GM cars in the USA since 1995.
Effectiveness studies have suggested a latitude effect - with the studied DRLs leading to greater accident reductions in high latitude countries
In 1991 an international committee (CIE) recommended white dedicated DRLs with a
maximum luminous intensity of 1200 candela. However the ECE Regulation (and ADR 76) set a maximum of 800cd.

Potential Accident Reductions using DRL

According to the European Commission on road safety standards 50% of daytime road accidents involve one road user failing to see another road user
DRLs can improve the chances of being seen by other road users.
On the basis of a large number of effectiveness studies it has been estimated that full implementation of DRLs across Europe would save:
25% of multi-vehicle daytime fatal accidents
20% of multi-vehicle daytime injury accidents
(SWOV 1997)
 

 

64% of fatal crashes and 79% of non-fatal crashes occur during the daytime. About 3/4 of these are multi-vehicle crashes. Therefore 45% of all fatal crashes and 59% of all
crashes could be influenced by DRLs


Australian road design practices, as described by Dr Max Lay, give us an indication of the signal range needed for vehicle lights. For example, intersections with cross traffic travelling at 60km/h require sight distances of 120m. Overtaking sections require about double this distance. As I will show, these are quite demanding distances for typical vehicle lights on a bright day.

Road design practices also give us an indication of the required intensity of various lights to achieve a given signal range - that is, the light is significantly more noticeable than the background.
Research conducted for traffic signals revealed:
Yellow lights needs 3 times the luminous intensity (candela) of red lights for the same signal range.
Range is proportional to intensity
Range is inversely proportional to background illumination, which can vary by 4 orders of magnitude - a light that is clearly seen at dusk might not be noticeable during a bright day
Angle from line of sight affects signal range - the further the light is from the line of sight the brighter it needs to be.