The so called 'before' surveys related to the voluntary ('spontaneous') daytime usage of headlamps - and to the period preceding the amendment of traffic rules entered on March 1, 1993 - has been completed, and its results are summarised in 'A 'before' survey of the obligation of daytime lighting outside residential areas' (March 1993). According to this amendment of traffic rules, the daytime usage of passing beams became obligatory on motorways and on trunk roads outside the residential areas. A so called 'after' survey was used to determine the frequency of switching on of passing beams. The short-term effect of the provision can be estimated by the comparison of results obtained from the 'before' and the 'after' surveys. But the real purpose of the 'after' survey was to enable a later evaluation of the correlation between the increasing number of vehicles using their passing beams also daytime and the expected decreasing number of daytime accidents with the involvement of several vehicles and of pedestrians or cyclists. In case of the motorways and of roads within residential areas - similarly to the surveys carried out in February - the emphasis was put on external circumstances influencing the drivers in respect of lamp usage. The data has been processed by road categories, in the form of diagrams and graphs, associated with them an explanatory description. The detailed data are comprised by a table attached to this study.
Samenvatting