Although Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) may have a significant impact on increasing vehicle conspicuity during different times of the day, their effect on overall safety is still up for debate. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that DRLs offer no statistically significant reduction in the frequency or severity of crashes analyzed. There are functional issues with using automatic DRLs only: drivers with automatic DRLs often do not turn on their low-beam headlights in adverse weather conditions and at dusk or dawn. This is especially dangerous because the taillights do not come on until the low-beam headlights are turned on manually. This becomes more important at hazardous roadway sections that require both headlights and taillights. This project investigated the impact of the compliance rate, and the density of the DRL technology on the safety benefits of regulatory headlight signs on mountainous and non-mountainous rural two-lane highways. The safety effectiveness of headlight signs was examined based on DRLs-equipped and non-DRL- equipped vehicles. Simple odds and ratio of odds ratios were utilized to adjust for a variety of exogenous factors. Four different scenarios were considered in analyzing crash data. A case-control method was used to compare crashes for a set of passenger vehicles equipped with DRLs and vehicles without DRLs on roadway sections with and without headlight signs. The low compliance rate to the mandatory headlight sign may result in misleading conclusions about the safety benefits of the regulatory headlight signs. A careful analysis should be carried out to quantify the actual benefits. Development of social media campaigns might be necessary to raise public awareness about the importance of complying with the mandatory headlight use signs.


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