Many individuals believe that yellow headlights are preferable to white headlights when driving at night during a snowfall. Although evidence exists to support the claim that yellow light can be perceived as less “glaring” or “distracting” than white light of equal luminance, it is not clear whether backscattered light of different colors are differentially effective for driver comfort or for driver performance. This study investigates a potential mechanism that could support the supposed benefit of yellow headlamps for reducing the detrimental effects of backscattered light to drivers at night. The results suggest that under low light levels when the visual field is dominated by a dynamic field of visual “noise” (like that caused by backscattered light from falling snow), performance of a tracking task similar to driving is reduced in accordance with the scotopic (rod-stimulating) content of the visual noise. Contrary to conventional understanding, rods might affect performance up to luminances of 65 cd/m2.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Driving in Snow: Effect of Headlamp Color at Mesopic and Photopic Light Levels


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    SAE 2001 World Congress ; 2001



    Publication date :

    2001-03-05




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




    Driving in snow: effect of headlamp color at mesopic and photopic light level

    Bullough,J.D. / Rea,M.S. / Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.,US | Automotive engineering | 2001


    2001-01-0320 Driving in Snow: Effect of Headlamp Color at Mesopic and Photopic Light Levels

    Bullough, J. D. / Rea, M. S. / SAE | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001


    Luminance meter for photopic and scotopic measurements in the mesopic range

    Shpak, M. / Kärhä, P. / Porrovecchio, G. et al. | Tema Archive | 2014


    Visual Performance at Mesopic Light Levels

    Lin, Y. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001


    Snow plow headlamp

    HORN CHRISTOPHER AARON | European Patent Office | 2020

    Free access