Visual performance in night‐time driving conditions

Eloholma, Marjukka; Ketomäki, Jaakko; Orreveteläinen, Pasi; Halonen, Liisa

doi:10.1111/j.1475-1313.2006.00313.x

Cited by 31 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Together these visual changes mean that it is more difficult to detect fine detail and low contrast under the mesopic conditions of nighttime roads and visual processing is also slower. The fact that there are also fluctuations in light levels while driving along nighttime roads is important given that the visual system takes around 5–10 min to adapt to mesopic conditions . However, the impact of these fluctuations on visual function during nighttime driving has not been investigated and needs to be explored in future studies.…”

Section: Visual Performance Under Low Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nighttime driving: visual, lighting and visibility challenges

Wood

2019

Ophthalmic Physiologic Optic

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Purpose Nighttime driving is dangerous and is one of the most challenging driving situations for most drivers. Fatality rates are higher at night than in the day when adjusted for distances travelled, particularly for crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists. Although there are multiple contributory factors, the low light levels at night are believed to be the major cause of collisions with pedestrians and cyclists at night, most likely due to their reduced visibility. Understanding the visibility problems involved in nighttime driving is thus critical, given the increased risk to road safety. Recent Findings This review discusses research that highlights key differences in the nighttime road environment compared to the day and how this affects visual function and driving performance, together with an overview of studies investigating how driver age and visual status affect nighttime driving performance. Research that has focused on the visibility of vulnerable road users at nighttime (pedestrians and cyclists) is also included. Summary Collectively, the research evidence suggests that visual function is reduced under the mesopic lighting conditions of night driving and that these effects are exacerbated by increasing age and visual impairment. Light and glare from road lighting and headlights have significant impacts on vision and night driving and these effects are likely to change with evolving technologies, such as LED streetlighting and headlights. Research also highlights the importance of the visibility of vulnerable road users at night and the role of retroreflective clothing in the ‘biomotion’ configuration for improving their conspicuity and hence safety.

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Section: Visual Performance Under Low Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nighttime driving: visual, lighting and visibility challenges

Wood

2019

Ophthalmic Physiologic Optic

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“…The area between photopic and scotopic vision is called mesopic vision (0.01-1.0 cd/m 2 ; Schiefer et al 2005). As a result of modern street lighting and car headlights, driving at night takes place in a mesopic rather than in a photopic or scotopic range (Aulhorn and Harms 1970;Eloholma et al 2006;Lachenmayr 2003).…”

Section: Vision and Night Drivingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Driving at night usually requires mesopic vision rather than scotopic vision, because most of the time there is enough light available to fall in the mesopic luminance region (e.g., headlights of the car, headlights of other cars, or street lighting; Aulhorn and Harms 1970;Eloholma et al 2006;Lachenmayr 2003).…”

Section: Scotopic Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vision and Night Driving Abilities of Elderly Drivers

Gruber

Mosimann

Müri

et al. 2013

Traffic Injury Prevention

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Objective:In this article, we review the impact of vision on older people's night driving abilities. Driving is the preferred and primary mode of transport for older people. It is a complex activity where intact vision is seminal for road safety. Night driving requires mesopic rather than scotopic vision, because there is always some light available when driving at night. Scotopic refers to night vision, photopic refers to vision under well-lit conditions, and mesopic vision is a combination of photopic and scotopic vision in low but not quite dark lighting situations. With increasing age, mesopic vision decreases and glare sensitivity increases, even in the absence of ocular diseases. Because of the increasing number of elderly drivers, more drivers are affected by night vision difficulties. Vision tests, which accurately predict night driving ability, are therefore of great interest.Methods: We reviewed existing literature on age-related influences on vision and vision tests that correlate or predict night driving ability.Results: We identified several studies that investigated the relationship between vision tests and night driving. These studies found correlations between impaired mesopic vision or increased glare sensitivity and impaired night driving, but no correlation was found among other tests; for example, useful field of view or visual field. The correlation between photopic visual acuity, the most commonly used test when assessing elderly drivers, and night driving ability has not yet been fully clarified.Conclusions: Photopic visual acuity alone is not a good predictor of night driving ability. Mesopic visual acuity and glare sensitivity seem relevant for night driving. Due to the small number of studies evaluating predictors for night driving ability, further research is needed.

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“…And, indeed, the adoption of mesopic photometry could result in a different classification of light sources in terms of their luminous output. Light sources with high output in the short wavelength region have frequently been acknowledged to be visually more effective at the mesopic light levels (Eloholma et al 2005; Ketomäki 2006; Akashi et al 2007), whereas the usage of photopic photometry at the low light levels of road and street lighting favors HPS lamps because of their high output around the peak wavelength of the photopic V (λ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the mesopic field there have been two distinct approaches in the establishment of mesopic sensitivity functions: brightness matching and visual performance based approaches (Eloholma et al 2005). It has been argued that the steady visual assessment of brightness is not among the relevant visual tasks in, eg, night-time driving conditions which are one of the major mesopic applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling spectral sensitivity at low light levels based on mesopic visual performance

Viikari

Ekrias²,

Eloholma³

et al. 2008

OPTH

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The spectral sensitivity of the eye at low light levels, ie, mesopic conditions, is determined by the rod and cone photoreceptors of the retina operating together in varying degree as adaptation luminance shifts between the scotopic and photopic. Thus mesopic spectral sensitivity is different from photopic, where only cones contribute to vision. There are definite needs for a practical system of mesopic photometry to be used in assessing light at low light levels, especially in road and other outdoor lighting applications. However, neither of the recently proposed systems of mesopic photometry, the MOVE-model or the X-model, is found satisfactory by common consent of the lighting community. The most active debate has considered the upper luminance limit of the mesopic region, which is regarded to be too high for the MOVE-model and too low for the X-model. The present paper proposes a new modified MOVE-model whose upper luminance limit is adjusted to meet the actual road and street lighting luminance values measured in different weather conditions. The paper compares the MOVE-model, X-model, and the proposed modified MOVE-model with three independent visual performance data sets provided by different European universities. Based on the comparison, recommendations are given for future actions towards internationally accepted practice for mesopic photometry.

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Visual performance in night‐time driving conditions

Cited by 31 publications

References 15 publications

Nighttime driving: visual, lighting and visibility challenges

Nighttime driving: visual, lighting and visibility challenges

Vision and Night Driving Abilities of Elderly Drivers

Modeling spectral sensitivity at low light levels based on mesopic visual performance

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