THE EFFECT OF ONCOMING CAR HEADLIGHTS ON PEDESTRIAN VISIBILITY

One of the important factors in striving towards sustainable urban living is the safety of pedestrians. This safety is influenced by many factors, one of which is the ability of drivers to see pedestrians. During the night, pedestrian visibility becomes more difficult, especially on two-way streets, where headlamps of cars from the opposite direction cause glare to drivers. Newer types of headlamps are using LEDs and Xenon which are glarier than older halogen types. This study examines the effect of on-coming car headlamps on pedestrian night time visibility. Detection distance was used as a measure of visibility. The detection distance was measured in the presence and in the absence of on-coming car headlamps in an unlit street. Pedestrians wore three different clothing colours; white, yellow and, black. It was found that, for pedestrians wearing white and yellow clothing, the detection distance was reduced by half in the presence of on-coming car headlamps compared to the detection distance when on-coming car headlamps were absent. The mean detection distance dropped by 60% for pedestrian wearing black clothing. The finding of this study may influence speed limit considerations as well as street lighting design standards.