Vehicle Lighting to Enhance Pedestrian Visibility

One of the widely known secrets in automotive lighting is the problem of detecting low reflectance roadway obstacles. At speeds beyond 40 mph, most drivers cannot see dark-colored obstacles (such as dark-clad pedestrians) in time to bring their vehicle to controlled stop in time to avoid a collision. For pedestrians crossing the roadway, the vehicle does not actually have to stop, only slow - slow enough to allow the pedestrian to walk beyond the vehicle path before the vehicle arrives. There are rational means of estimating the extent and the implications of the temporal bonus attributable to early detection of crossing pedestrians. This study suggests potential lighting standard modifications to address these needs.