Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. UMTRI-99-31 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Historical Development and Current Effectiveness of October 1999 Rear Lighting Systems 6. Performing Organization Code 302753 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Moore, D.W. and Rumar, K. UMTRI-99-31 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit no. (TRAIS) The University of Michigan 11. Contract or Grant No. Transportation Research Institute 2901 Baxter Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2150 U.S.A. 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered The University of Michigan 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Industry Affiliation Program for Human Factors in Transportation Safety 15. Supplementary Notes The Affiliation Program currently includes Adac Plastics, AGC America, Automotive Lighting, BMW, Britax International, Corning, DaimlerChrysler, Denso, Federal-Mogul Lighting Products, Ford, GE, GM NAO Safety Center, Guide Corporation, Hella, Hewlett-Packard, Ichikoh Industries, Koito Manufacturing, Libbey-Owens-Ford, North American Lighting, Osram Sylvania, Philips Lighting, PPG Industries, Reflexite, Reitter & Schefenacker, Stanley Electric, Stimsonite, TEXTRON Automotive, Valeo, Visteon, Yorka, 3M Personal Safety Products, and 3M Traffic Control Materials. Information about the Affiliation Program is available at: http://www.umich.edu/~industry/ 16. Abstract

This report presents a historical account of the development of rear lighting systems. The account is based partly on a comprehensive review of the available documented sources. Various details of both technical developments and lighting standards are covered. Then the rear end crash situation is discussed. It is noted that rear end crashes constitute a large and increasing problem in present road traffic. This is followed by an analysis of the various functions of rear signaling systems and the extent to which the present rear lamps accomplish those functions. In the final section, the tasks of the driver in car-following situations are discussed, followed by a listing of possible changes to rear signaling systems that could enhance the safety of road transportation. (The report contains 191 references.)

17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement rear lighting, rear signaling, tail lamps, brake lamps, Unlimited turn signal lamps, history, effectiveness 19. Security Classification (of this report) 20. Security Classification (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price None None 85