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• Enhanced Night Visibility, Volume I: Executive Summary

Enhanced Night Visibility, Volume I: Executive Summary

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CHAPTER 2—PHASE I PLANNING

The planning for this project, detailed in ENV Volume II, included the following five activities:

1. Development of UV–A headlamp specification.

2. Evaluation of fluorescent infrastructure materials.

3. Quantification of glare and photobiological risks.

4. Expanded cost-benefit analysis.

5. Demonstration and implementation.

Although the primary focus of this phase was on planning for the Phase II and Phase III activities, significant time was devoted to working with automotive and lighting manufacturers. It became apparent early in the project that the automotive manufacturers would need to fully understand the costs and benefits of UV–A technology before they would embrace it. Significant time was also spent working with infrastructure suppliers to determine their interest in being a project partner and the feasibility of obtaining fluorescent materials for evaluation that represented realistic alternatives for roadway infrastructure.

Because even prototype UV–A headlamps were not readily available, a great deal of effort was devoted to developing and researching pre-prototype headlamps that could be combined to produce varying levels of UV–A. It was decided that as many as five pre-prototype headlamps were needed to provide a high-output UV–A VES and that both high- and low-output UV–A VESs would be required for testing.

Finally, a literature review was conducted to further refine the planned Phase II research.