November/December Issue 64 - Flipbook - Page 16
NEWS
WHY IT WAS THE RIGHT DECISION TO
By Stephen Smith
Hear me out. AVRO have been
involved with the conversation
for red lights for over 25 years.
As a result of our lobbying a
scientific report, that AVRO
contributed
towards,
was
commissioned and published in
1999 by The Department of the
Environment on Transport and the
Regions.
It was titled Motor Vehicle and
Pedal Cycle Conspicuity Part 3:
Vehicle mounted warning beacons
We learnt that conspicuity was
split into two sub sections:
1. Attention conspicuity refers to
the capacity of a stimulus to
be noticed when the observer
is not actually looking for it.
2. Search conspicuity refers to
the capacity of a stimulus to
be noticed when the observer
is specifically searching for it
In fact, the observation of an object
not actively being searched for
is determined by its conspicuity,
whilst visibility is the ease with
which an object can be detected
when the observer is looking
for it, which may depend on the
experience of the viewer.
The 1999 report painstakingly
carried many tests in both day and
night conditions and in general,
most results concluded that
blue and red performed the best
overall. They caused the least
discomfort glare and annoyance
and were ranked better than
amber for conspicuity.
Green performed the best in terms
of conspicuity, but performed
worse than all other colours in
16
terms of discomfort glare and
annoyance.
Overall, amber performed the
worst over all tests. It performed
the worst in terms of conspicuity
and only green was worse
than amber in terms of causing
discomfort glare and annoyance.
Interestingly, In the 1999 report,
The Road Haulage Association
(RHA) took the view that amber
flashing beacons are used too
frequently.
However, they believed that
amber lights should be retained
for use by recovery operators.
Following a similar line to the RHA
in 1999, The police concluded
that “they do not believe that the
use of red flashing lights should
be extended to them (recovery
operators) nor should they be
granted a further colour since
this, they believe, will confuse the
public.
The police solution for recovery
operators is for them to continue
to use amber but have their own
unique characteristic such as
intensity and/or flash rate.”
Fast forward 20 years and it’s
comforting to see a change of
mind “the police did not object to
our industry adopting red lights”
The Telegraph reported that while
the more recent consultation
found “general support for
extending the use of red flashing
lights...” Highways England (HE)
expressed concern that use of
red flashing lights on roadside
recovery vehicles could lead to
a dilution of their effectiveness
and hence increased risk to HE
