Light it up
Photos courtesy of MDOT Photo.
Provincial and state departments work to increase plow visibility By Bailey Hildebrand-Russell Across Canada, most winter maintenance vehicles are equipped with orange and yellow flashing lights in effort to warn drivers to stay a safe distance away. But several American states find a different-coloured light works better to notify drivers of equipment and, as a result, prevent crashes. Ohio has been using strobing green lights on snow plows since 2012. More recently in spring 2016, a bill passed in the state of Michigan amending the Michigan Vehicle Code allowing state, county and municipal agencies responsible for snow removal and other winter maintenance activities to use green lights in addition to amber lights on snow plows. That following winter, 70 per cent of Michigan’s 83 county road commissions used green flashing, rotating or
oscillating lights on winter maintenance vehicles, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT); but not without the lights being tested two years prior in Kent County with great success. “We haven’t had any rear-end accidents with the green lights on the trucks that we’ve had for the past two years and that’s what we’re really trying to eliminate,” Jerry Byrne, Kent County Road Commission deputy managing director, said in a news release . “Folks slow down and don’t rearend the backs of the trucks. We’ve had injury incidents in the past, so our goal is to spend a little money to save the number of accidents.”
Why green? According to MDOT, studies suggest people can differentiate more shades of green than any other colour. “Our visual system would be more attracted to a bright green light versus a bright white flashing light in a heavy snowstorm,” Dr. Bernie Tekiele of the Michigan Eye Institute said in an informational video released by MDOT. “That reason would be because of the contrast that exists between the green and white snow, number one, and number two, our visual system is piqued to be sensitive to the green/ yellow spectrum. That is where most of the overlap occurs in the cone designation of the cells that we have in our retina.” That means greater visibility of winter maintenance vehicles using green lights and less crashes with truck operators and motorists, particularly rear-end incidents.
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ISSUE 1 - 2018 | SNOW MANAGER
