What are the risks associated with new vehicle lighting technologies and can these be mitigated? What are the risks and benefits of allowing the use of red flashing lamps by road recovery operators?

Background

The reducing environmental impacts strategic priority is in recognition that there is an environmental aspect to all transport, and therefore almost all the work of DfT. Transport is the largest emitting sector of greenhouse gases in the UK, contributing 27% of domestic emissions in 2019. Our transport system must change to deliver the government’s Net Zero ambition and DfT will drive forwards that change through our longer-term green transport agenda. On decarbonisation specifically, we published our Transport decarbonisation plan (TDP) in July 2021, which sets out the steps we will take to deliver the necessary carbon reductions across every form of transport. Sustainability will be at the heart of levelling-up. People everywhere will feel the benefits – villages, towns, cities, and countryside will be cleaner, greener, healthier and more prosperous and pleasant environments in which to live and work

Next steps

Get in touch with bridgetoresearch@dft.gov.uk

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

DFT-Areas of research interest 2023 GOV UK

Topics

Related UKRI funded projects

  • MERLIN: Mesopically Enhanced Road Lighting: Improving Night-vision

    This project will investigate how the lighting of roads in residential areas might be changed so as to preserve the benefits of good vision while minimising energy consumption. In residential roads the road lighting is d...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project investigates how the lighting of roads in residential areas can be changed to minimize energy consumption while preserving the benefits of good vision, which is relevant to understanding the risks associated with new vehicle lighting technologies and their mitigation.

  • Investigation into the effectiveness of road surface level lighting as a road risk warning tool

    "The UK primarily relies on its road network for population mobility: 64% of all trips made in the UK in 2016 were by car. While road injuries have been decreasing, road fatalities have stagnated around the 2010 lev...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it investigates road risk warning tools but does not specifically address new vehicle lighting technologies or red flashing lamps.

  • Street Lighting: A Metric for Specifying White Light

    This project will investigate lighting in subsidiary (residential) streets. In recent decades this has been provided mainly using low pressure sodium (LPS) and high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. These lamps have high lumi...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project investigates lighting in subsidiary streets and the impact of different light sources, but does not directly address the risks associated with new vehicle lighting technologies and their mitigation.

  • Nature and extent of ecological impacts of vehicle headlights

    Artificial nighttime lighting is a profound anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment. This growing area of international research has focused almost exclusively on emissions from static light sources, such as th...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

  • Manufacture of prototype batch of a new innovative RGB LED Lightbar for emergency vehicles - for global consumption by Redtronic Limited

    The aim of the project is to create a prototype batch of LED lightbars (emergency services visual warning) that can be assembled by unskilled labour anywhere in the world. The objective is to provide our 118 distributors...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially addresses risks associated with new vehicle lighting technologies, but focuses on emergency vehicles.