Possible penalties of motorcyclists' daytime headlight use : an experimental investigation.

Author(s)
Hole, G.J. & Tyrell, L.
Year
Abstract

It has been suggested that voluntary daytime headlight use by motorcyclists might increase their conspicuity at the expense of reducing the conspicuity of non-users. Due to repeated encounters with headlight users, other motorists might develop a perceptual "set" for detecting point sources of illumination (headlights) rather than moving objects (motorcycles). This experiment investigated this issue experimentally, by encouraging subjects to use either shape or illumination as a cue to the presence of a motorcyclist. The principal findings of this study are: a) that headlight use improved motorcyclist conspicuity, and that this enhancement was greatest for motorcycles that were furthest from the viewer; and b) that repeated exposure to motorcyclists with their headlights on resulted in delayed detection of a motorcyclist with his headlight off, despite the latter being readily detectable in other circumstances.

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Publication

Library number
C 10709 (In: C 10692 [electronic version only]) /83 /85 / IRRD 892086
Source

In: Vision in vehicles V : proceedings of the fifth international conference on vision in vehicles, Glasgow, Scotland, autumn 1993, p. 145-151, 5 ref.

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This publication is one of our other publications, and part of our extensive collection of road safety literature, that also includes the SWOV publications.