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Accident statistics show that motorcycling is still a pretty dangerous mode of locomotion. Since the last 15 years motorcyclists' fatalities experienced just a creeping decrease compared to car drivers'. In-Depth Motorcycle Studies displayed that in more than two thirds of motorcycle accidents the main contributing factor is a car. With these accidents basically taking place in urban areas (more than 50%) with a lot of distraction and at pretty low speeds - at intersections above all - one can conjecture the low visibility of powered two wheelers (PTW) to be an important cause. This is fortified by actual statistical research naming 10.5% of all motorcycle accidents to be conspicuity related 1 . With ECE-R87 compliant Daytime Running Lights (DRL) as a regulatory defined conspicuity aid, the impact of DRL usage on PTWs was to be investigated.

The Laboratory of Lighting Technology at the Technische Universität Darmstadt has conducted experiments to verify whether the prevalently reported different glare strains of the three light sources in automotive lighting, namely tungsten halogen lamps, high intensity discharge lamps and LEDs, can be verified in real traffic geometry. Furthermore, these light sources will be used for new adaptive driving beam functions. These systems will alter the conventional cut-off lines or simply switch off sectors where other road users have been detected. It is therefore probable that these other road users will experience more glare illuminance than they would, if the oncoming car would be equipped with a well aimed classical passing beam. The tests take place on a former air field now used as the university’s testing site. Apart from the glare sources no other visual disturbances are present. The geometry of the test setup is chosen to represent a real traffic situation.