NWAS ambulance displays the operation of a wig-wag: only one headlight operates at a time, with the two flashing alternately at a preset rate.
A wig-wag is a device for flashing an automobile's headlamps, in its simplest form, so only one of the two headlights operates at a time, with the two flashing at a preset rate. In its traditional form a wig-wag emits the right and left headlamps alternately, with each lamp lit for around half a second at a time. In the United Kingdom the wig-wag is only seen on the road on emergency vehicles. The 'standard' wig-wag is often used within a cycle of other illumination patterns, such as swiftly alternating the left and right headlights, alternating the left and right headlights slowly, or flashing both headlights together, and using a mixture of high- and low-/dipped-beams.
Although the use of flashing headlights does increase the visibility of any vehicle,[citation needed] it can also create problems. When highbeam headlights are flashed, the wig-wag may create glare or temporarily blind the drivers of oncoming vehicles.
Generally, wig-wags are prohibited on all vehicles except emergency vehicles.[1] However, the road rules in New South Wales, Australia, and some areas in the United States allow school buses to have flashing headlights.[2] In New South Wales specifically additional wig-wag lights (separate from the headlights) are used on all public transport buses. In the United States, motorcycles are similarly allowed to be equipped with a headlamp modulator to increase conspicuity during the daytime. In the United States specifically, additional Wig-Wag lights (separate from the headlights) are used on all public transport buses, and can use white (clear) lights to increase conspicuity during the daytime.
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa – are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control the flow of traffic.
High-visibility clothing, sometimes shortened to hi vis or hi viz, is any clothing worn that is highly luminescent in its natural matt property or a color that is easily discernible from any background. It is most commonly worn on the torso and arm area of the body. Health and safety regulations often require the use of high visibility clothing as it is a form of personal protective equipment. Many colors of high visibility vests are available, with yellow and orange being the most common examples. Colors other than yellow or orange may not provide adequate luminescence for conformity to standards such as ISO 20471.
A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, headlamp is the term for the device itself and headlight is the term for the beam of light produced and distributed by the device.
Street-legal, road-legal, or road-going, refers to a vehicle such as a car, motorcycle, or light truck that is equipped and licensed for use on public roads, being therefore roadworthy. This will require specific configurations of lighting, signal lights, and safety equipment. Some specialty vehicles that will not be operated on roads, therefore, do not need all the features of a street-legal vehicle; examples are a vehicle used only off-road that is trailered to its off-road operating area, and a racing car that is used only on closed race tracks and therefore does not need all the features of a street-legal vehicle. As well as motor vehicles, the street-legal distinction applies in some jurisdictions to track bicycles that lack street-legal brakes and lights. Street-legality rules can even affect racing helmets, which possess visual fields too narrow for use on an open road without the risk of missing a fast-moving vehicle.
Bicycle lighting is illumination attached to bicycles whose purpose above all is, along with reflectors, to improve the visibility of the bicycle and its rider to other road users under circumstances of poor ambient illumination. A secondary purpose is to illuminate reflective materials such as cat's eyes and traffic signs. A third purpose may be to illuminate the roadway so that the rider can see the way ahead. Serving the latter purposes require much more luminous flux and thus more power.
A daytime running lamp is an automotive lighting and bicycle lighting device on the front of a roadgoing motor vehicle or bicycle, automatically switched on when the vehicle's handbrake has been pulled down, when the vehicle is in gear, or when the engine is started, emitting white, yellow, or amber light. Their intended use is not to help the driver see the road or their surroundings, but to help other road users identify an active vehicle.
A motor vehicle has lighting and signaling devices mounted to or integrated into its front, rear, sides, and, in some cases, top. The devices illuminate the road ahead for the driver and increase the vehicle's visibility, allowing other drivers and pedestrians to see its presence, position, size, direction of travel, and its driver's intentions.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 regulates all automotive lighting, signalling and reflective devices in the United States. Like all other Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, FMVSS 108 is administered by the United States Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Road signs in the United Kingdom and in its associated Crown dependencies and overseas territories conform broadly to European design norms, though a number of signs are unique: direction signs omit European route numbers and road signs generally use the Imperial System of units, unlike the rest of Europe. Signs in Wales and parts of Scotland are bilingual.
Motorcycle safety is the study of the risks and dangers of motorcycling, and the approaches to mitigate that risk, focusing on motorcycle design, road design and traffic rules, rider training, and the cultural attitudes of motorcyclists and other road users.
Emergency vehicle lighting, also known as simply emergency lighting or emergency lights, is a type of vehicle lighting used to visually announce a vehicle's presence to other road users. A sub-type of emergency vehicle equipment, emergency vehicle lighting is generally used by emergency vehicles and other authorized vehicles in a variety of colors.
Emergency vehicle equipment is any equipment fitted to, or carried by, an emergency vehicle, other than the equipment that a standard non-emergency vehicle is fitted with.
A motorcycle headlamp modulator is an accessory device that oscillates the intensity of a motorcycle headlamp at 240 ±40 cycles per minute (~4 Hz) between approximately 20% and 100% of full intensity. The headlight operates at full intensity 50-70% of the time. United States and Canadian regulations require headlight modulators to include a light sensor that disables modulation when the ambient light level drops below a certain point. When this happens, the headlamps burn steadily.
In traffic engineering, there are regional and national variations in traffic light operation. This may be in the standard traffic light sequence or by the use of special signals.
Battenburg markings or Battenberg markings are a pattern of high-visibility markings developed in the United Kingdom in the 1990s and currently seen on many types of emergency service vehicles in the UK, Crown dependencies, British Overseas Territories and several other European countries such as the Czech Republic, Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Romania, Spain, Ireland, and Belgium as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, and more recently, Canada. The name comes from its similarity in appearance to the cross-section of a Battenberg cake.
Headlight flashing is the act of either briefly switching on the headlights of a car, or of momentarily switching between a headlight's high beams and low beams, in an effort to communicate with another driver or drivers. The signal is sometimes referred to in car manufacturers' manuals as an optical horn, since it draws the attention of other drivers.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a signatory of Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals. Therefore, road signs do not differ much from the rest of Europe, such as Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and North Macedonia. Ministry of Transportation of Bosnia and Herzegovina regulates them. Bosnia and Herzegovina drives on the right as with the rest of Europe, except for Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom. Bosnian and Herzegovinan road signs have two scripts, Latin and Cyrillic script.
Trains include a variety of types of lights, for safety, illumination, and communicating train status. The most universal type of light is the headlight, which is included on the front of locomotives, and frequently on the rear as well. Other types of lights include classification lights, which indicate train direction and status, and ditch lights, which are a pair of lights positioned towards the bottom of a train to illuminate the tracks.
Road signs in South Africa are based on the SADC-Road Traffic Sign Manual, a document designed to harmonise traffic signs in member states of the Southern Africa Development Community. Most of these signs were in the preceding South African RTSM.
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