Availability and implementation trends of daytime running lights in the U.S.

Abstract

This report documents market-weighted trends in the availability of daytime running lights (DRLs) on the best-selling vehicle models in the U.S. for model years 2000, 2004, and 2007. Also presented are analyses of how DRLs are implemented on current vehicles. The availability of DRLs as standard equipment in our samples has increased from 29% in 2000 to 46% in 2007. The current availability depends on vehicle type. For example, there are still few vans equipped with DRLs (13%), but they have become a common feature on passenger cars (61%). For vehicles with DRLs as standard equipment, low-beam headlamps are the most common type of implementation (39%); in terms of trends by vehicle type, passenger cars most frequently use reduced-intensity high-beam headlamps (55%).