New Blue Light Installations Put Driver, Rider Safety at the Forefront
New Lighting Reduces Glare for Drivers while Providing Sufficient Lighting for Riders
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Have you noticed a lighting change inside some Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses or wondered why the bus interior is now illuminated with blue lights? There is a pretty good reason, and it comes down to one word: safety[MOU1] .
Since the invention of electric lights, operators of public transit vehicles have been trying to solve the problem of balancing the ability for both riders and drivers to see, which sometimes oppose each other’s needs. No rider wants to sit in complete darkness, but drivers also need to be able to see the road ahead, which is sometimes tough to do with the glare from lights both inside and outside the cab. Have you ever tried to drive at night with the dome light on? Then you know how difficult that can be.
Long gone are the days of gas lamps and horse-drawn carriages. Instead, lighting has evolved from incandescent to florescent to tinted to LED and finally to the blue lights that are being installed into some PRT buses and light rail vehicles. Each step in the evolution has been a step in the right direction, cutting down glare from both inside and outside of the vehicles while giving the riders ample lighting to ride in comfort. Experiments with light location including the middle row of the ceilings, over passengers, one side lighted while another not – these have all been part of the evolution and have brought us to the current implementation of the blue lights.
The lights, manufactured by I/O Controls Corporation, are designed so when the vehicle is in motion the blue lights dramatically reduce glare for the driver. When the bus makes a stop to pick up or drop off passengers, the lights transition to white so that those exiting or entering can do so safely, and transition back to blue when the bus begins moving again.
You’ll mostly see the changes on buses running from dusk to dawn. The program began in 2018 with a trial run and the lights are being retrofitted into many of the light rail vehicles and added to buses throughout our system.
