VALLs help drive vehicle safety
Lighting provider Jimmy Beam Downlights Ltd (JBDL) has reported positive results from a trial of its Vehicle Avoidance Lateral Lights (VALLs) on London buses.
The system – which can also be used on trucks, trailers, coaches and vans – combines a side marker light with a vertically adjustable angular downlight, and first came about in 2012, before being accepted for use on UK roads on 5 May 2015.
The idea of the downlight was twofold: to assist drivers in seeing more efficiently along the sides of the vehicle in poorer lighting conditions; and to project an ‘area of high risk’ visible to vulnerable road users, to encourage them to stay clear.
Also known as an Optional Side Marker (OSM) downlight, the lights can be fitted to new builds in the UK if the system complies with certain conditions. They can also be retrofitted to existing vehicles.
“It should be noted that OSM downlights are not a replacement for current mandatory side marker lights per se,” said JBDL.
“The OSM VALLs are designed as an adjacent lateral lighting facility, and they are along the complete sides of the vehicle from front to rear. They are spaced much closer together than mandatory side markers to project a continual ‘area of high risk’ (daylight intensities permitting) and set at a vertical angle to project an approximate 1.5-metre margin along the sides.”
According to JBDL, many transport companies have experienced a reduction in vehicle and property damage, on-road incidents and accidents and benefits to drivers since they are able to see much clearer along the sides of the vehicle when using the VALLs.
As a result, in 2020 Transport for London (TfL) commissioned an official independent trial of the ‘all-in-one’ VALLs for themselves on 24 London buses. The partners in this project were TfL, Metroline and Jimmy Beam Downlights Limited (JBDL). The trial was conducted by Loughborough University.
Interviews were held during the trial including with bus drivers, a garage manager, a police officer, a claims manager, a haulage truck owner/driver and a coach workshop manager. JBDL reports positive results, with interviewees found to be in favour of the VALLs.
The participants discussed various advantages of the lights; they suggested that the system made driving the bus easier, with 100 per cent of the drivers reportedly agreeing that the VALLs assisted during driving, and none reporting any incidents or near misses while the lights were operational.
Road users reacted positively and instinctively to the lights by staying away from the sides of the vehicle, JBDL adds.
Participants also expressed the opinion that the lights would be especially useful for Central London routes due to the large numbers of passengers and pedestrians.
