Researchers Still in the Dark on Benefit of Daytime Lights

Dear Street Smart:

Are there any studies which indicate that drivers who turn on their headlights on clear days have a better safety record than those who don’t? I see that General Motors is using it as an advertising gimmick. Has the CHP taken a position on the issue? Personally, I think it is a distraction and a lot of nonsense.

Art Coons

Newport Beach

There are scads of studies indicating certain safety benefits to drivers who usedaytime lights, but none are definitive.

“The results are mixed,” said Jim Hurd, a spokesman for the National Highway Safety Administration in Washington.

One study sponsored in the United States by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that cars with daytime running lights were involved in 7% fewer accidents. Declines in accident rates also have been recorded in Finland, Sweden and Canada, all of which have begun requiring daytime lights. And studies conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have shown that cars equipped with daytime lights are more noticeable in the peripheral vision of nearby drivers.

Other studies, however, have indicated that the lights can cause discomfort to other drivers using rear-view mirrors under overcast or twilight conditions. And in 1991, the National Highway Safety Administration declined to sponsor legislation requiring daytime lights nationwide, citing a lack of evidence they constituted a “national safety need.” Instead, the agency issued regulations clearing the way for companies such as GM to offer the lights, which are separate from regular headlights and go on automatically each time the car is driven.

In general, according to officials of the national safety administration, the increased visibility afforded by the lights is more helpful in northern areas with less sunlight, such as Maine or Alaska, than in states like California.

The CHP has taken no position on them, although spokesman Steve Kohler says that they may be a good idea.

“The fact that [your correspondent] finds it irritating,” he said, “indicates that he is seeing the vehicles, which is the whole point.”

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Dear Street Smart:

Recently my wife and I decided to try out the new local tollway (Route 73). Extensive advertising for the tollway stated that tolls would vary from 25 cents to $2, depending on the length of your trip. We entered the tollway northbound at Aliso Creek Road, a trip of one whole mile before the end of the tollway at Laguna Canyon Road. A large sign as you enter the tollway says, “No attendant on duty. Exact change required.”

Well, there IS an attendant on duty at the Laguna Canyon offramp. And the toll is a flat $1, no matter how far you have traveled. As the attendant stated, “We have no way of knowing when you got on.”

Is this the way this tollway is supposed to work? Do they really expect people to pay $1 to drive a mile? And why did they put up all those signs saying exact change is required when it’s not?

Chris Mundale

Aliso Viejo

The answers to your first two questions are yes and yes.

Tolls on the new road, according to Michele Sperl-Miller, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies that operates it, are not based on the distance traveled but on the place of entrance or exit, each of which has a fixed, predetermined toll.

The assumption is that most commuters will travel the full length of the corridor, which now stretches some seven miles from Greenfield Drive in Laguna Niguel to Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach. After next month, if all goes as planned, the road will continue another eight miles north to Jamboree Road.

On the segment currently open, Sperl-Miller said, those driving south pay when they get on, and according to which onramp they use. The farther north they get on, the more they pay.

Those driving north pay as they exit, again according to which offramp they use. Again, the farther north the offramp, the higher the toll. Thus, northbound commuters getting off at Laguna Canyon Road all pay a $1 toll regardless of where they got on.

To eliminate confusion such as yours, Sperl-Miller said, the agency has ordered signs to be placed at the Aliso Creek Road onramp indicating the $1 fare.

Regarding the live attendant, she said, Laguna Canyon Road is currently the only exit featuring one. “In most circumstances,” she said, “exact change is required. We’re trying to educate drivers so they know that if they are not at a staffed booth, exact change is required.”

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Dear Street Smart:

I drive on Bolsa/1st Street from Huntington Beach to Santa Ana at about 6:15 in the morning on my way to work. More and more, I am noticing people driving with their parking lights on before the sun comes up--in other words, it’s dark. The majority of us on the road have our headlights on. I had always thought parking lights were for parking, not driving. Can you explain this?

Pamela S. Chavez

Huntington Beach

You are absolutely right, according to Kohler of the CHP: Parking lights are for parking, not for driving.

“That’s what they’re called and that’s what they should be used for,” Kohler said. “You wouldn’t drive with your parking brake on, would you?”

Anyone driving before dawn without their headlights can be cited for violating the law, he said.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.Haldane@latimes.com. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.