Daytime Running Lights to Appear on U.S. Autos
To a mid-afternoon visitor from the United States, the streets of Ontario’s Motor City might seem strangely aglow.
The sky is shadow-casting bright, but on car after car, headlights shine. It’s not funeral, convoy or custom; it’s Canadian law. And the phenomenon, if not the law, is coming to the United States.
Cars and trucks sold in Canada since the 1990 model year have been required to have “daytime running lights,” known as DRLs. Their headlights shine at low intensity whenever their engines are running. On some cars, DRLs are separate from the headlights.
Drivers of earlier models aren’t required to keep the lights on.
The theory is that the lights help prevent collisions by making the vehicles easier to see.
“The research on whether or not daytime running lights are effective is mixed,” said Ed Lechtzin, director of legal and safety issues for General Motors Corp. “But we think there’s enough evidence at this point to show that it . . . makes vehicles more visible to other drivers.”
That seems obvious to Cheryl Ann Leyland, a Windsor resident whose 1992 Dodge Spirit has daytime running lights.
“They’re a good idea, especially on a two-lane highway when you’re passing into oncoming traffic,” Leyland said.
GM announced in February that it will build daytime running lights into more than half a million 1995 cars and trucks. The public will first notice them on Chevrolet Corsicas and Berettas, S-series pickups and Geo Metros, Lechtzin said.
By the 1997 model year, all new GM cars and trucks will travel U.S. roads with lights shining in the daytime.
Some U.S. industry and safety officials say the theory needs more testing. And some suggest that GM’s motivation is sales, not safety, at a time when air bags, anti-lock brakes and built-in child seats are touted in new-car advertising.
Lechtzin acknowledged that GM hopes the feature will help sell cars. “Safety is a marketable commodity,” he said.
Transport Canada, the Canadian government’s transportation agency, expects to release results of a study of DRL effects next month.
Eric Welbourne, chief of vehicle systems for the agency, wouldn’t discuss specific details. But he said the research found that daytime running lights have reduced the number of two-vehicle daylight traffic accidents in which the vehicles are traveling in different directions.
Swedish auto maker Saab has been building its cars with DRLs since 1968 but disconnecting the lights for the U.S. market.
Swedish studies found that DRLs reduced the number of some types of crashes by as much as 20%, Welbourne said.
U.S. industry and government officials, though, have been reluctant to rely on such studies because they have been relatively small and because the Scandinavian countries’ northern location means that during much of the year, dusk comes early and dawn comes late.
Chrysler and Ford Motor Co., like GM, have been building DRL-equipped vehicles for sale in Canada since 1989. But neither is ready to immediately follow the lead of the No. 1 auto maker.
“We’re doing a marketing study to see how customers will react,” said Robert H. Munson, executive director of Ford’s safety and engineering standards office.
Randy Edwards, manager of regulatory safety at Chrysler, said that Chrysler market research shows no strong demand for DRLs and even some concern that consumers might dislike them.
Other potential negatives include:
* Glare. This, though, shouldn’t be a problem with current technology, auto maker and government officials say. Modern DRLs use a vehicle’s lighting-control computer to burn the filament of the headlights’ high beams but at a much-reduced intensity. That should eliminate burnout and glare potential.
* Cost. None of the auto makers will give exact estimates, but GM’s Lechtzin says the cost per vehicle would be under $10.
* Fuel economy. Adding options that use power means a car burns more gasoline. But Brian O’Neill, president of the research group Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, says that DRLs reduce fuel economy only “a fraction of a mile per gallon.”
