Daytime Running Lights = stupidity?

vikingaero

marlot wrote: »

The biggest risk to bikers is people who 'look but don't see' - either because they didn't look properly, or becuase their mind is elsewhere (perhaps the phone call they're on).

On some roads the biggest cause of biker deaths is due to solo accidents where the rider overcooks it.

epninety

marlot wrote: »

And for some reason, the closer you are to them, the more likely they are not to see you (somehow the brain 'looks past' the oncoming motorbike).

Without DRLs all over the place, my headlight meant that I had a chance of registering on their brain as an unusual object coming their way. I felt that advantage was diminishing as more cars had lights on during the day,

What many bikers seem not to understand, at least on roads I drive, is that 'brighter' does not always mean 'more visible', in broad daylight. The military have experimented in the past with bright lights as camouflage, as the eye/brain can't work out the distance to the bright light, and consequently may not even notice it's there at all.
There's a long downhill straight on a local road popular with bikers. Quite often spot bikes coming down in summer with mainbeam on, and they are well nigh invisible until they get very close.

As I understand it, it's more of a problem for bikes, because the lights can mask the entire profile, whereas for cars it's a couple of lights but much less compared to the profile presented.

marlot

vikingaero wrote: »

On some roads the biggest cause of biker deaths is due to solo accidents where the rider overcooks it.

Of course, but that's not what's being discussed!

marlot

epninety wrote: »

As I understand it, it's more of a problem for bikes, because the lights can mask the entire profile, whereas for cars it's a couple of lights but much less compared to the profile presented.

So true. I've never felt that main meam added anything in terms of safety over dipped beam.

Bikers are taught various techniques for making themselves more visible during training - including road positioning, etc. But its still very easy for them not to register on the brains of drivers. I've even had people who appeared to look me in the eye before pulling out, but they still missed me.

Much worse since the rise of mobile phone usage, of course - the brain is even less effective when its multitasking.

dzug1

d.ross wrote: »

Actually it was green cars that were more likely to be involved in accidents. Res cars are less likely.

Whichever it is it's not necessarily a direct causal relationship with the colour of the car. It could be the people who choose that colour of car are in general poorer drivers than those who choose other colours

harveybobbles

pitkin2020 wrote: »

when did DRL become law anyway?? ANy links

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/02/new-cars-to-be-fitted-with-daytime-running-lights-244280/

pitkin2020

harveybobbles wrote: »

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/02/new-cars-to-be-fitted-with-daytime-running-lights-244280/

So its only on new cars basically coming through in time, not something that has to be added to older cars now. If I understand that correctly.

Flyboy152

marlot wrote: »

The biggest risk to bikers is people who 'look but don't see' - either because they didn't look properly, or becuase their mind is elsewhere (perhaps the phone call they're on).

There is an irony in that the faster you're going, the more likely you are to register on someone's brain, but the less space/time you have to react if they don't see you. And for some reason, the closer you are to them, the more likely they are not to see you (somehow the brain 'looks past' the oncoming motorbike).

Without DRLs all over the place, my headlight meant that I had a chance of registering on their brain as an unusual object coming their way. I felt that advantage was diminishing as more cars had lights on during the day,

But there are so few cars that have DRLs, I don't see how you could have felt more vulnerable?

http://www.righttoride.eu/virtuallibrary/ridersafety/MotorcycleConspicuity160611.pdf

There is no conclusive research to prove that DRLs will make motorcycles less conspicuous.

Jakg

pstuart wrote: »

The new cars with DRL's are LED's.

Depends on the car. The Golf's just use halogen bulbs. Some older Audi's also have halogen DRL strips.

Personally, I think DRL's are a good thing... all of you are moaning about how rubbish Audi's DRLs are, but heres the thing... you've all noticed them! Anything that encourages drivers to notice my car can only be a good thing...

Paradigm

marlot wrote: »

Without DRLs all over the place, my headlight meant that I had a chance of registering on their brain as an unusual object coming their way. I felt that advantage was diminishing as more cars had lights on during the day,

I reckon that DRL's will improve safety in the short term but as more & more cars run with them they will have less of an impact.

The only reason we notice any vehicle running with lights on during daytime is because it's unusual... it registers as such, so we "see it"!

As it becomes more common we will see it but the brain will disregard it as anything special because it's normal & we're back to square 1.

I've delivered to many building sites where "hi-viz" clothing is mandatory but after a while, the only people that stood out were the ones not wearing hi viz, it's not expected so it registers... so much so that one site I deliver to has changed it's hi-viz from yellow to orange as the accident rate was creeping up because everyone was used to the yellow & didn't "see" it!

At the end of the day if you can't see a 5 foot+ wide object coming towards you without lights, how will every 5 foot+ object displaying lights help? It still won't be "seen".