Auto Gossip

Press, 17 December 1976, Page 10

Auto Gossip

(h

Russell Jones)

When living and driving in London a few years ago I was constantly alarmed by the British habit of using only sidelights when driving at night in the city or suburbs. The standard of street lighting is quite good but no better than the best we have, and with a heavy flow of traffic it was often difficult to be sure if a car was coming.

It is not surprising to learn that three-quarters of night accidents and 90 per cent of pedestrian casualties occur in lighted streets. Officially, the use of headlights is left to the judgment of the driver and most seem very reluctant to switch on their headlights —they seem to be afraid of dazzle, which we know is not much of a problem when driving in a city at night unless someone has badly adjusted beams. As with seat belts, which are still not compulsory in Britain, it seems unlikely that the Government will move soon to make the use of dipped headlights in lighted streets mandatory. But as one answer to what is becoming recognised as a problem Joseph Lucas and the Transport and Road Research Laboratory have come up with an interesting device. Autodim, an electronic device which automatically varies the intensity of headlights in relation to the street lighting around them, has been fitted to 800 Post Office vans in London

and will be tried for six months to see whether it is reliable and acceptable to drivers. Basically, the system comprises a small light sensor which fits to the base of the car windscreen. This senses the surrounding light rays and transmits a signal through the car’s electrical system adjusting the headlight intensity. The sensor responds only to AC light as emitted by street lights and not to the DC light from the headlamps of other vehicles. Any device which makes night driving safer should be welcomed in this country, but I think that our night traffic volumes are so comparatively low and our drivers so used to driving with dipped lights that Autodim might not be worth the expense of fitting here.