At 07:39 AM 1/17/04, you wrote:
><SNIP> And, what effect to DRLs have on night time (crashes)
Typically, nighttime means the period that begins one hour after sunset
and ends one hour before sunrise the next morning. The reason for DRLs
(forward facing lights) is that, in keeping the lights on, makes a vehicle
that much more conspicuous during daylight hours so that another vehicle
on the road can be detected earlier. Why would studies of nighttime
crashes be relevant to DRLs? In countries (mainly Scandinavian), DRLs
mean putting on the low beams once the motor is running at all times.
In Canada, it means a mechanism to light up the headlamps at 50%
intensity once the motor is started and the DRL is automatically turned
off when the headlamps are turned on in the normal fashion (switch),
the motor is turned off or the emergency brakes are put on (as I just
discovered thanks to Jay). In other words, DRls are not for nighttime driving.
Have I missed something in what you wrote?
>and SINGLE VEHICLE crashes?
A single vehicle crash is a crash involving a single vehicle. How would
studying this type of crash shed any information about the effect of DRL
when the purpose of DRL is to help a driver of one vehicle spot another
vehicle easier because of the use of DRL? That's why all the studies are
about multi-vehicle crashes involving 2 or more vehicles.
>If the gov't funds a study, they will do anything to make the study say what
>they want. Jon STL MO
I can believe that something like this has been done but that's a pretty broad
statement to make especially when there are a half a dozen or so countries
have made DRL studies and these studies have been done by dozens of
different (gov't and educational) agencies using crash cases coming from their
own countries.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Bob
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