Seeing and being seen is one of the most important requirements for safe driving. The traffic safety week from 15 to 21 October is under the motto “Visibility is safety”.
Especially in the dark season, it is essential for all road users alike to ensure good visibility in order to avoid accidents. In the past five years, a total of 346 pedestrians and 525 cyclists on the streets of Vorarlberg have been killed in the dark and poor visibility in traffic, including 87 children under the age of 15.
This was taken as an opportunity to put visibility at the center of this year. The focus is on targeted information on the affected road users.
Awareness raising
In addition to the distribution of folders and reflectors to pedestrians, the KFV will conduct reconnaissance and radar checks in all districts with police and INTEGRA. If necessary, small repairs to the wheel lighting are made on site. Motorists are informed about the consequences of poorly adjusted headlights. “Such awareness-raising priority actions are an ideal complement to existing measures,” provincial governor Karlheinz is convinced.
For example, the state has been promoting awareness of the topic of visibility in the Vorarlberg schools for many years with the support of traffic education partners. “In addition, Vorarlberg is the only federal state in Austria where all school beginners and kindergartens aged 3 to 5 have received a reflective safety vest at the start of school,” adds Raiser.
Visibility is safety
Well-visible, light-colored clothing, and reflective materials are useful in the foggy, dark time on the road. “Dark-clad people are visible at night only from 25 to 30 meters away for a motor vehicle handlebars. With reflective clothing, however, a pedestrian can be seen from a distance of 130 to 160 meters. This makes it easier for drivers to react in good time. “explains Martin of the Road Safety Board. In everyday life, however, only a few people wear reflective accessories and clothing, they are considered especially by younger road users as unfashionable and impractical.
Courage for visibility
The Provincial School Board for Vorarlberg and the KFV has therefore called on the Vorarlberg high school students in a joint action to design reflective clothing and accessories according to their own taste. The winning projects, which were chosen by a jury, are then turned into reality by the designer Daniela.
“We have received numerous creative and innovative submissions and hope that the implementation of the winning designs will lead to a sustainable increase in the wearing rate of reflective clothing with the reflective fabric and accessories and thus more road safety,” says compulsory school inspector Ivo Walser, MA pleased.
That’s how security comes to light
Even car drivers must be aware that poorly adjusted or defective headlights pose a significant security risk. Headlights that are set too low to illuminate too little of the road, which remains a big “black hole”.
If the headlights are set too high, oncoming traffic and pedestrians are dazzled and in the case of fog, this leads to dangerous self-glare. The driving speed may only be selected so that it can be stopped at any time in the existing visual range. The adjustment of the vehicle lighting must be done regularly: Is the light correct – the view is correct.
Illumination of protection routes
On the part of the Province of Vorarlberg as the street owner of the approximately 800km provincial roads, intensive investment is also being made in street lighting – around 15,000 light along the provincial roads alone – and in particular by protective paths (crosswalks).
In the course of the modernization of the street lighting, great emphasis is placed on known hazardous areas such. Protective paths and cyclists crossing different light colors use. Due to the different light color, these luminous areas set themselves apart from the general street lighting and thus increase the attention of the road users in these areas.